Owners living the dream with their £1,000 long shot
Decor Irlandais would be a fairy-tale winner for Irish pub landlord today, writes Tom Morgan
Who says that racehorse owning is a rich man’s business? Decor Irlandais, bought last year for just £1,000, lines up today against rivals worth up to £350,000 in one of Cheltenham’s great rags-to-riches tales.
Decor Irlandais is a 50-1 shot in the opening Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, a grade one race, and his owner, an Irish pub landlord, cannot believe his luck. A prize of £70,000 is on offer if the plucky seven-year-old can pull off an unlikely upset.
“Cheltenham means everything to us,” says his trainer Noel Kelly, describing how his miracle discovery has already made dreams come true.
“For the likes of us, a small yard and small owners, we can’t wait for Cheltenham. The owner, John Devine, and my wife own a share of him too. I bought her for £1,000. You don’t get as many horses as lucky as him coming into the yard that head to Cheltenham for that type of money.
“A lot of time and effort was spent on him at the start, but when we got going he was very, very good. A very simple horse, a very good jumper. He’s very classy.”
It is the first time since 1991 that the family, from Draperstown, Co. Londonderry, have had a horse at the Festival – and back then Winnie The Witch won.
“That was a massive day,” Devine says. “I don’t think he came home for four or five days. He and my mother, they had a party. From that day, it’s just in the blood.”
Decor Irlandais is already proving a local celebrity. “At the point-to-points, you hear people say, ‘That’s the boy, that horse for Cheltenham’ … ‘We’re gonna give it a good rattle’ … ‘Come with a late rattle at them, and hopefully run into a good place’.”
Devine says the gelding was initially discovered 18 months ago by Kelly. “Noel said to me we have a horse here, it’s running in Kilbeggan shortly and if it does fairly well, he says you can pay me then for it,” he says. “So that’s how we came to have Decor Irlandais. He’s run very well. He’s won four point-to-points and three hurdle races. I’m just very happy that he’s an excellent horse and doing everything very well and we’re over the moon with him.
“During the race, I will probably stay away over the road. I never watch the race. It’s the nerves. We run a pub in a town called Donemana. They’re excited in the bar, there, people watching it whenever the racing is on. I don’t want to put Noel under pressure here, but I think he might win!”
No chance of Devine’s wife Caroline staying away, however. “It was a big day at Warwick for his last run,” she adds. “We thought he was going to win. I was shaking like a leaf but he didn’t get there. However, it was good for Noel to go that distance and to end up getting a second. Let’s just hope now we get somewhere at Cheltenham.
“It’s just unbelievable to say that – you have a horse running at Cheltenham. I can’t wait now to just get there and see what the whole atmosphere is like.”