A nondescript handicap, curtain raiser to a mundane midweek card with a €6,000 cut to the winner is unlikely to remain in the minds of many for long. Yet it provided a moment of history.
The turning of a page. Beginning the next chapter in the most glorious anthology in the history of Irish sport. The name ‘Tom Dreaper’ back in a winners enclosure.
FOLLY MASTER
Owned by: Declan O’Farrell
Trained by: TOM DREAPER
Ridden by: Keith Donoghue
So began the third generation – at least – of Dreaper winners emerging from Greenogue. But if that reality wasn’t pressure enough for somebody starting out on their own business journey, consider how it is when your grandfather is recognised as the greatest practitioner of the craft there has ever been. Oh, and you share his name.
Yet Tom Dreaper II could scarcely have hoped for a better beginning to his stewardship of the most hallowed establishment in Irish racing. A winner inside his first half dozen runners. With a horse owned by long standing patrons of the yard, Declan and Elaine O’Farrell.
It could be said of course that the real work starts now. However, talk of emulating his father or – even more so – grandfather is, if you’ll excuse the pun, folly. To compare greatness is to devalue it. Far better is it to let every glorious achievement bask in its own right.
Not if you had the business acumen of somebody like Elon Musk or the financial clout of John P. McManus could you hope to reach the heights, the all consuming dominance of the Dreaper family in times of yore. Mere mention of the name stirs evocative thoughts. The next word to pass most people’s lips upon hearing it being Arkle. The Greatest. ‘Himself’. Only made so by the majesty of his genius trainer Tom Dreaper. Along with Flyingbolt and Fortria and Fort Leney and as many others as would fill several volumes of an encyclopaedia.
In time, Jim Dreaper assumed the reins and weaved his own success-laden tapestry into the fabric of horse racing. Not just Irish racing, but the sport on a much broader scale. Enabling a scenario in which between father and son, if my maths are any way correct, they trained the winner of the Irish Grand National 13 times. Including a streak which between 1960 and 1966 inclusive. Mind you, it was only in research for this piece some of the glories J.T.R. Dreaper achieved in his own right.
With horses such as Ten Up and Colebridge and Merry Gale and Notre Pere. Yet even before becoming properly attuned to all things racing there were a couple of Greenogue inmates with which a special affinity was felt here.
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On the day after my first Holy Communion, the only place I had any interest in going was Naas Racecourse. Reason being that the loveable but luckless Carvill’s Hill was running. It will give you an indication of how injury prone the old steed was and how well known that fact was that two Dunboyne footballers who were more familiar with the treatment room than the dressing room ended up inheriting the horse’s name as monikers for themselves!
Anyway, the really unfortunate thing was Carvills was a damn good horse when was fit. At the time, my sister would’ve been good friends with Pauline O’Connor, whose late father Nicky as well being one of the Dreaper Lads for decades, was groom to Carvills.
So, any time Ken Morgan’s mount went into battle, £1 ew was lodged either out of my pocket money or on my behalf. And on a surprising number of occasions two plain sausages and a bag of chips materialised as the dividend on the investment!
Then, just around the time racing was becoming a more central tenet of my life came Harcon. The most beautiful equine specimen I ever cast an eye on. But unfortunately his greedy, pigheaded owners either didn’t realise the star they had on their hands or didn’t care.
Bottom line was the poor horse ended up paying the ultimate price. That said, they had better look with the very talented Notre Pere, with whom Jim won a Welsh National and a Punchestown Gold Cup.
That said, it was when circumstances brought Jim’s daughter Lynsey and I together through work, naturally, an even more especial connection was established with the Greenogue operation. To that end, there’s no doubt the horse with which a special affinity was felt was Goonyela.
Purists might scoff that he was ‘only’ a Hunter Chaser but such a biography would do him a great disservice. Yes, he needed ground that some tractors would struggle to negotiate, but that caveat cannot diminish his ability or the fact that he did win a Midlands National, finished third in the Scottish equivalent and fifth at Aintree.
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In a way, the loveable ‘Goony’ was Jim’s last flagship horse. Every trainer needs one. Either to sustain, re-ignite or, indeed, launch their training career. Just as Jim’s former employee Dermot McLoughlin hit the bigtime thanks to the exploits of Freewheelin Dylan and Lord Lariat. However, in a poignant case of never knowing what way the road of life is going to turn, years after Harcon, I ended up becoming particularly close with Nicky (O’Connor) and Joe Finglas, and then, this life’s journey took another unexpected turn when my beginning to attend the local RehabCare centre led to paths crossing with Bernie Dowd, wife of the late, great Ger, former Meath footballer and Irish Grand National winning rider (1978) aboard the record breaking Brown Lad.
Now the focus will shift to Tom Dreaper II, and it’ll be very interesting to see what horse will be the launchpad for his training career and what heights it might scale. Though as was opined earlier in this piece, comparing the successes of different eras is as pointless as it is unhelpful. Each deserves to be taken on its own indivdual merits.
Thus, what’s clearly a horse on the improve, Folly Master, could turn out to be just the horse the Ashbourne handler needs to re-ignite the yard’s fortunes under his direction.
Even in the formative stages of his stewardship, it appears Master will have plenty of company with which to share the ‘burden’. Something aided considerably by having the famous maroon and white striped silks of the Jones family from Dunsany in the tack room.
They have been carried by some classy sorts in their time like Klairon Davis and Tiger Cry and Space Cadet and early signs are they’ve sent a couple of classy looking types to Greenogue in the shape of El Capitaine and, in particular, Doctor Glide.
A new chapter starts with a blank canvas and the artist has a free hand. Wishing him well.
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