It was a wonderful feeling to be crowned champion trainer in Britain at Sandown on Saturday.
It isn’t something you plan for. It is amazing the way it has just happened. It has been a huge team effort.
We have great people who contribute so much, my wife Jackie, Patrick, David Casey and Ruby Walsh who is down three mornings a week. Grainne Whelan in the office, Dick Dowling out in the yard and Ben Delmar, our travelling head man. They do their jobs so well, which makes my own so much easier.
The years of experience they bring here at Closutton, it’s very hard to go out and hire those kinds of people, they just don’t exist. We have our own academy almost, they’ve come through our yard from the time they were younger, they know how everything works for us and they just do it, so it’s very easy for me.
I owe them and all my staff a huge thank you, my owners too who have been so supportive and of course the horses themselves.
I’ve been amazed at the support we’ve enjoyed at home and travelling to the different tracks in Britain this season and during the last week in particular. Thanks to everyone for that.
And to be following in the footsteps of Vincent O’Brien? Well, that’s a real honour. He achieved the same thing 70 years ago in very different times. He’s one of the absolute legends of our game so to be emulating what he did, well as I said, that’s a real honour.
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