Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports , Irish racing trainer Connor King has revealed why he's happy with his two horse team and his plans for €8,000 "bargain" Oscar's Brother and whether we could see the horse in the English or Irish Grand National as well as his memories riding in the races.
The former jockey also reflected on his journey from Champion Apprentice jockey to retiring and becoming Grade 1 trainer as well as his pride getting to train for JP McManus , his biggest challenge as a trainer and argues that increased competition only makes everyone better.
Oscar’s Brother
Two Horse Team
I'd always thought that I'd love to train at some stage, but it was only in the last couple of years that I focused on it. I just started off with the one horse to train Oscar's brother, and I said to myself, ‘Let's see how it goes.’
That’s the stage I’m at now. I’ve now got two horses. It probably took like a month or six weeks to do all the training modules stages up in Kildare.
Oscar's Brother An €8000 bargain
The first sale he [my dad] ever went to, he bought Oscar's Brother. We’d had ponies and horses for hunting, and he was good at looking after them. He just decided he wanted to get a young horse with whom he could maybe go for a point-to-point with or something like that.
Dad went to the sales, and he picked him out, and he came home with him, having paid €8,000 for him five years ago during COVID. My Dad and my aunt owned him. I took out the training licence, thinking that he was a nice horse to start off with and that he was capable of winning a few races. It's great that it's gone so well. It’s hard to say, really, how good he can be. He's obviously a very talented horse. He’s just a lovely, straightforward horse. He’s just easy to deal with, and he just enjoys what he does, so it's great.
Decision: English vs Irish Grand National
We're not sure yet. It's still 50-50 to be honest. I'd say we'd be making a definite plan there in the next few days. I don't really mind where he goes. Both races will really suit him. It's mad to even be thinking about having a runner in either National!
He’s Been Great For Us!
Before the Festival, he’d won his three races. Before that, he'd won two hurdle races as well, a maiden hurdle and then a Listed novice hurdle. He's won five races altogether, and he has come out of Cheltenham in great form.
It was just mentioned that he would stay with me when they first enquired. So that was brilliant. When Frank Berry [McManus’s racing manager] mentioned it, it was great. JP does that a lot - he’s brilliant for racing.
Grand Nationals
Irish Grand National Memories
My first memory was watching Butler's Cabin win in 2007, ridden by AP for Jonjo O’Neill and JP McManus. My family used to call my uncle ‘The Butler,’ and that’s how I remember.
Fairyhouse is unreal on Easter Monday. There’s a great atmosphere. It's a special event in the calendar, and fair play to BOYLE Sports for backing it like they do. It’s one of the main races people talk about. People that I know who aren't into racing still know about the National. It’s the kind of race that gets everybody involved.
English Grand National Memories
I remember Hedgehunter falling at the last at Aintree in 2004. Then he won it the next year. That was the first time I can remember it properly. I actually rode a winner at Aintree in a hurdles race, but not at the National meeting. Aintree is a historic place, and where you want to be competing.
Training
Starting As A Trainer
It’s not been too bad, actually. I’m also working for a good Flat trainer, Paddy Twomey. I ride out for him in the morning and generally help him, and then I do my own horses. My job is basically working with horses, whether it's Paddy’s or whether it's mine, I just keep it going!
My yard is right beside his yard, just over the road. I just have the two horses, Oscar's Brother and Grey Jude, both bought by my Dad.
Learning The Ropes
Billy Lee would have been a family friend of ours through the pony racing, and he was second jockey to David Wachman at the time. Every holiday, every Saturday, and day I had off from school, I went up there. It was an amazing place to work, especially for a 15-year-old. I was going into a yard that was full of Danehill Dancers, Galileos, the best owner, best Flat owners in the world. Coolmore had loads of horses there. I was in awe going in there.
It was a great place to start. It was a good grounding for me, and I learned how to work hard and worked my way up there from mucking out to riding out to riding work and then eventually riding on the track.
Family Affair
It's been brilliant. He's ridden them in all his starts on the track. He knows the horse well, and he rides him brilliantly. When I started out training, I remember telling someone my dream would be to train one winner with Daniel riding. We did that, and we’ve just kept going. Hopefully, we can have plenty more winners over the next few years together.
Training For JP
At the moment, I'm just taking it day by day and just trying to do the best with what I have and see where that takes us. I've never thought too far ahead, and things have gone well. Now, to be training for Mr McManus is great.
I'm just going to keep doing that and see what happens. In time, I'd love to give it a good go, but I’ll definitely just gradually build it up.
Biggest Challenge
Proving yourself. You need to be getting the results and winning because otherwise you don't really get noticed. I’ve been lucky, training two horses for my family. Challenges? Just getting the right horses and then trying to do everything right. It's amazing, really, because things change every day.
I'm kind of happy with the two at the moment, especially as they’re decent! It makes it a bit easier. But gradually adding one or two every year or something like that would be good. Staying chasers are just the way things have worked out with Oscar's brother. I'd be open to giving anything a go.
Grey Jude is probably going to be a similar type of horse in time. He's running over two miles at the moment. But we can see that as he gets older and stronger, he could be another staying chaser, but at what, I'm not sure yet.
Competition Makes Us Better
I suppose it just kind of makes you try to have high standards with what you do. When you're going to the races, you're more than likely going to be running against those people who will have entries or multiple entries in those races, especially in the better races. And even in a maiden hurdles, you're going to be taking them on.
But you can't get much better than going to Cheltenham and seeing those names on the race card. It’s nice then to look back and see your name down beside them. I have always looked up to those big trainers, even when I was riding. They were the people that you wanted to ride for. If I can do just a small part of what they’ve done would be incredible. I just see how hard it is just to get a horse to Cheltenham or to Aintree. There's just so much to do, and for me, that’s just for one horse! I can't imagine how they keep on top of it every day, and get the results they do is remarkable.
Jockey
Achieving Jockey Dream
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a jockey. I'm from Kilbrin, a small village in north Cork. There were a lot of horses around us, National Hunt and hunting, that sort of stuff, in the area. We didn't have horses of our own, but my Dad was big into watching racing on TV and going to the local point-to-points and the races in Mallow. That's where it came from - Dad taking us to places when I was younger and watching on TV.
I started riding when I was about seven. I was going on at my parents about it for a good while! They took me for lessons in a small riding school outside Mallow, and I loved it. Then I started doing the pony club, then pony racing, when I was 10. I did that until I was 16. It was a great start.
It started off great. I had a great run at it for the first couple of years. When I first started riding, I was able to do bottom weight on the Flat and even claim it off. Every year, though, I got a few pounds heavier, and I think when I got to about 20, it was just very difficult to keep it down and to keep on top of it, especially in the winter when there wasn't as much racing. But I wouldn't swap it for anything. I enjoyed it, and I feel I’d done the best I could at the time. It happens to a lot of people. I was just a bit too tall and got too heavy.
Two-Time Champion Apprentice Jockey
It was brilliant. At the time, I was just going with the flow, kept riding and didn't think about it too much. As far as looking back at it, it's nice to have it. I don't think I would be dwelling on it too much, but it is nice to have it on my CV.
Retiring
I rode over the jumps for a few years. It wasn’t really a wrench because it had just happened gradually. It wasn't like I suddenly had to stop. I kind of went from riding a good few winners to not being able to do the lighter weights, and the opportunities weren't there as much.
It wasn't too bad at the time, but I would have loved to have kept going. I was riding with the likes of Colin Keane, and like all the lads there. It wasn’t as bad as you’d think it could have been. It is what it is now.
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