He also had a bad sinus problem and our vets, including Donncha Houlihan from Dundalk Equine Clinic, have done a great job with him. Dalvey was extremely sick last year and the blood readings from his liver were off the charts at one stage. We’ve a couple of smart horses who are rated in the low 90s now and hopefully they might continue to progress. If it doesn’t work out at least you’ll get dropped a few pounds anyway. There might be something that we’ve sourced in England which is rated too high to be competitive in handicaps but we can be aggressive in the weight we give it in a claimer to give it every chance of winning. We’ve obviously lost a few as well but there are no complaints on that score and these races give you a chance to make a profit on horses. Trainers are more willing to trade horses in claimers now and we’ve acquired plenty that way. Ger isn’t afraid to put a decent horse in a claimer at a winnable weight and move it on at the right price. Obviously we’ve done well in claimers and the likes of Ger Lyons has helped to change the way other trainers perceive that type of race. It didn’t come cheap and it was a substantial investment but the results seem to show that it was money well spent. We’ve good facilities and when Dundalk was relaying its track we managed to acquire the previous surface material and use that on our gallops now.
Stephen used to work as a taxi driver before the pandemic but is a great help to me in the yard now along with Rachel and Gerry Duff, who rides out with me. My brother Stephen does a lot of work on the catalogues and we’d have a shortlist of horses that we’re interested in before we head to the sales. James McAuley (right) pictured with James Gough after a 1-2 at Dundalk in November Having said that, we tend to buy a lot of horses with issues but we do our homework before going to the sales and are prepared to take a chance on a horse if the price is right. We find that it’s easier to keep Flat horses right than the jumpers and that’s the focus of the yard nowadays. Having had such a successful year in 2021 I’m certainly encouraged to keep at it now and we’ll be looking to kick on and hit the ground running in the new year. My uncle has other business interests including a hotel in the city and sometimes I’ve had to devote my time to them and the training took a back seat for a while. Dublin and I live there at the yard nowadays.Īfter Stephen Mahon moved on I did the trainer’s course at the Curragh at the same time as the likes of John McConnell and Willie McCreery and took out the licence myself. Hilltop Stables is in the Naul in north Co. I grew up in Finglas and Jim has a place in Gormanston Co.
My uncle Jim always had horses and I would have learned how to ride on some of his ponies. Stephen Mahon was the first trainer to be based there and we had plenty of winners over jumps both under Rules and in point-to-points. Just one of the twenty winners was over hurdles but when Hilltop Stables was built by my uncle Jim Gough and got going as a racing operation it was predominantly a jumping yard. We made a point of trying to source horses that we felt would act on the surface and could do a job for us at that track and we’d often have our horses home from their races at Dundalk and bedded while some trainers’ horseboxes would only be pulling out onto the M50. That made it twenty winners for the calendar year and fourteen of them have come on the all-weather at Dundalk which is only forty minutes in the lorry from Hilltop Stables. It was great to finish the year on a good note when Dalvey won last Friday.