WILLIE McCREERY
It’s going to be so competitive for the first few weeks, it’ll be unbelievable
THE last runner from the Willie McCreery yard pulled up. The ‘Do It For Dan’ charity race took place on April 23 on the Curragh plains and involved just four runners, one of whom, McCreery, tugged both hamstrings inside the 100 yards, while Gordon Elliott sprinted clear to win.
‘I pulled my hamstrings twice when I was playing football. It’s like a lad hitting you with a six-inch needle. It’s brutal,’ recalled McCreery of his mishap, which led to some good-natured banter among the Irish racing fraternity.
As racing resumes in Naas tomorrow, McCreery will stay on the right side of the rails with the sport seeking to make up lost ground for the remainder of the 2020 Flat season.
The campaign was barely under starter’s orders when it was clamped down in Covid-19 cold storage, cutting out three months of racing.
Every trainer is champing at the bit to turn their horses out for competition, try and make a few bob for their yards, and flag up their breeders. McCreery is no different.
‘I’m ready to land, if that’s running, great. It’s going to be so, so competitive over the first few weeks, it’ll be unbelievable.
‘The industry needs it. So many people rely on racing. Stud farms,
‘IT’S GOING TO BE SO, SO COMPETITIVE IN THE FIRST FEW WEEKS’
breeders, owners of foals, yearlings that need the horses to run to see whether their big brother is any good. If the older brother can do it, then the younger brother could be worth a few quid.
‘We need racing to get started very badly from that point of view.
‘As a trainer, you’re flat out doing all the regular stuff. The only thing that’s different is that there’s no reward at the end of it, no racing.’
The lockdown ends at Naas where the seven races drew a total of 236 entries.
‘Everyone will panic in the first few days if they’re not getting in (to race) but it’ll all even out in time.
‘There’s only two non-racing days from the 8th until the end of June, and then there’s a lot of racing in July, so everyone will get their chance,’ says McCreery, who has two entries at Naas, Flaming Princess (Committed Stakes) and Insinuendo (Fillies Maiden for three-year-olds).
The fair sex make up a lot of McCreery’s 50-strong string and rewarded him with his finest moment so far in training, in 2014 when Fiesolana claimed the Group 1 Matron Stakes on Irish Champions Weekend.
Has he anything of her quality to unleash from his Rathbride yard on the edge of the Curragh?
‘You never know. It’s like football. You have a young player who could develop into a proper player or he could go over the top and start drinking.
‘It’s the same with horses. Some take to it and really excel. I never gruel them at home because I want them to thrive on the racetrack.
‘That’s what I’m hoping for all the time. I’ve some lovely fillies, potentially well-bred, and it’s how they’re going to react when they come into a fight.
‘Do they really want to win, or what do they do? The best sire in the world is Galileo and all his (progeny) fight; they’re the most stubborn shower of horses you’d ever come across.’
McCreery is no champion of the whip as a tool of admonishment for his horses.
‘They have to learn. They’ve never got it (the whip) at home, so they don’t know why they’re getting hit for when they’re probably trying their hardest.
‘A stick should be for encouragement not for punishment. That’s my way of looking at it.’
McCreery passes on his rules of engagement to Billy Lee, his number one jockey, and Nathan Crosse, his number one apprentice. ‘Both are an integral part of the team. Billy is a very brave jockey and a good horseman. He gives a lot of comfort to horses, he’s not hard on them, and has a lovely style of riding which I like.’
As a Kildare footballer, McCreery was a broad-shouldered competitor who took the hits and came back for more. His long stint of duty in white yielded two Leinster titles, if not the elusive All-Ireland – he still regards the 1998 final loss to Galway as ‘the biggest regret I have in life’.
‘Galway knew more about us on the day than we knew about them,’ he says ruefully.
Information is vital in all professional sports and McCreery marvels at the mastery of those in his profession, such as Aidan O’Brien, Dermot Weld and Jim Bolger.
‘If you put Aidan O’Brien in any country, he’d be the top trainer there. We’re all lagging behind. He’s dragging us to a higher level. We want to beat him. He has the best horses but he prepares them excellently. They all race all over the world.’
McCreery compares O’Brien to the likes of GAA managerial legends such as Kevin Heffernan, Mick O’Dwyer and Jim Gavin.
‘If Aidan was in any sport, he’d be successful. He’s a very clever fella. He knows when the big days are. He may not have a horse gunned to win the first day but if he wins, he’ll be hard to beat the second day.
‘All his horses progress, and hold their form, and improve. That’s something that few trainers can do.’
As for McCreery, he is not doing half bad after 12 years on the challenging coalface, which began with the splendidly-named Toasted Special in 2008. After breaking into double figures in 2011, he has finished in the top ten every year since 2013, with a high of sixth place in 2016. Along the way, he has saddled between 21 and 29 winners.
In the Premier League equivalent, he’s a Wolves or an Everton, a club pushing for Europa League qualification if not the top four and the Champions League.
Can he close the gap on the likes of O’Brien, father and son, Ger Lyons, Weld, Jessica Harrington and Bolger?
‘They’re big names, and they’re big yards, too. I don’t have the firepower to take them on. Numberswise, I’m the one with the least amount.
‘Not that I’m happy where I am, I always want to be better. You have to be better, to get more horses too. One feeds the other.’
So what would be a good 2020? ‘A