McNALLY DEFYING ODDS WITH A STABLE THE ENVY OF MANY
Armagh trainer McNally proves to be ‘Dreal Deal’ in fairytale rise up ranks
HE WAS surrounded by jump racing royalty in the shape of Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Joseph O’Brien, but that didn’t stop Ronan McNally proving that he is ‘Dreal Deal’ once again at Punchestown on Sunday.
It should hardly have been any surprise that Dreal Deal (22/1) was the outsider of seven runners in the Grade Two Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle as his trainer has always been the odd one out in the sport of kings.
What other trainer mixes his time between a successful joinery business (Krafty Kitchens and Bedrooms) and the day-to-day running of a small yard on the edge of Armagh town which has lit up the jumps season with a string of successes.
“I start at about half six in the morning with the horses. I’d usually finish up at about half 11 or 12 and go on to the kitchens then, I’ve full-time staff who work away and once the horses are exercised and rode out, I head on,” McNally tells the Irish Independent of his unique double-jobbing.
“Then, I come back and do the six o’clock feed after the kitchens. Then, usually I go back to the kitchens in the evening and come back and feed again at nine o’clock and then that’s me finished at around half nine.”
It’s a fairytale story with McNally living his dream and the 40-year-old has Cheltenham Festival glory in his sights with Dreal Deal a live contender for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle having made an extraordinary rise through the ranks.
Fungal
His ascension mirrors that of his trainer. McNally always held Dreal Deal in high regard, but aspergillus (a dangerous fungal infection) hung over his yard during the early stages of his career before the Arvico gelding began to flourish and show what he was truly capable of.
No one could have predicted his climb when he won a handicap hurdle doing handstands off a lowly mark of 84 in Navan last September, though, before parachuting up the ranks with his sensational six-timer completed in jaw-dropping fashion at the Kildare track over the weekend.
McNally was not bred into racing, but the exploits of the six-year-old as well as runaway Troytown Chase winner The Jam Man – also a prolific scorer over hurdles/Flat – and The Trigger now see him possess a pedigree that is the envy of many.
It’s all the more noteworthy as the trainer/owner is “still working under a permit” – although he has applied for his full licence – with just a handful of stock in his grasp as he concentrates “on quality rather than quantity”.
“I’d no background in racing at all. I just started riding ponies when I was in secondary school and I took a real interest in it when I was 14, I went and rode out for John Woods, who was local to me, and it just sort of went from there,” he says. “I’d no background in horses really, none of my family have an interest in horses actually so it was bizarre how we got into it. It’s been a wee bit surreal for a stable with only four or five riding out that we could have so much success. We’re blessed with what’s been happening lately.”
Another guarantee with McNally (below) is that if you don’t see him on track after a success, you will certainly hear him as he lives and dies by his Twitter bio (“I enjoy the craic n try not to take life 2 serious. life’s 2 short”).
“Every winner we celebrate it, we cheer and we roar. We get on like we’re two-year-olds and I think racing needs a wee bit more of that. Every day we have a winner, I’d get as big a kick if it was in Downpatrick as I would for the Troytown,” he says.
“Every horse is like family to us so any winner we have anywhere we get a great thrill out of it and that’s what it’s all about, us getting winners. People think you have to be nice and reserved, we roar and shout and really get the enjoyment out of them.
“We have the bit of craic. All my friends and family come down to give me a hand and everyone enjoys the ride. We buy our horses to have winners and whether we have to go to Perth or Sedgefield or wherever, we’ll go anywhere just to get a winner.” Racing behind closed doors has robbed us all of the chance to watch McNally’s quick-witted son Kian, better known as ‘Tubs’, in all his glory, but the 10-year-old is still doing his bit behind the scenes.
‘Tubs’ partners the evergreen See Double You, which is eight years his senior and the oldest horse to win at an Irish track since the 1980s when scoring at 16 two years back, on the gallops every morning and hopes to make a career in the saddle one day as “racing is all he knows”. McNally is already eyeing another big pot with The Jam Man “absolutely jumping out of his skin” ahead of the valuable William Fry Handicap Hurdle at next month’s Dublin Racing Festival, while a tilt at the Irish Grand National is also on his agenda.
Neither will hardly be a coup should he pull off another landmark victory, but McNally is known for pulling off a string of gambles despite Dreal Deal drifting like a barge and being friendless in the betting before obliging.
The narrative of his being a punting yard is something which he feels is “totally overblown”, though, after what he calls a number of “phantom gambles”, and he doesn’t hide the fact that he’ll put his money where his mouth is when he feels it is justified.
Gambles
“If I have a horse that I fancy I’ll have a few quid on it, I’m no different than anyone else and have never told anyone any different. I do punt my horses if I fancy them, but all these big crazy gambles on the Dreal Deal and them all are total nonsense in my eyes,” he says.
“The bookies don’t expose themselves to massive gambles anymore anyway and as soon as one bookie moves and one takes a bet, they all shorten the price and next thing the public think there’s a big gamble on and they start sticking their 10s and 20s on.
“Surely, we like a wee bet on our horses if they’re fancied to run well, but we’re not a big punting yard. We do this for a bit of craic and we try to have winners. If we were a punting yard, we wouldn’t have had 13 winners from four or five horses.”