Paul Hennessy might be best known for his exploits in Greyhound Racing and recently his training of BoyleSports Bob, but he also trains horses and is a neighbour of Willie Mullins famous Closutton yard.
Hennessy’s most famous success in Horse Racing was with Heaven Help Us who was the winner of the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in 2021 and has his eyes set on the Champion Bumper at this year’s Festival.
What It Means To Win At Cheltenham
We went over for a maiden hurdle with Heaven Help Us on a whim and that was crazy winning that, and then we went back, was seventh in the Supreme then won the Coral Cup the following year - these sort of things don’t happen for a greyhound trainer with a horse he bred himself. It was like waking up in Disneyland for her to have done that.
The Irish Greyhound Derby is our day job, Heaven Help Us winning at Cheltenham, I have no words to describe it. You wouldn’t try and compare the two as one is your livelihood and the horses are just something that happened that went off the richter scale completely for us to have a Festival winner.
It was a one-off, Cheltenham. Anyone who has experienced it - has a life of its own. It has its own identity. When I took her over for the first time, when she was walking down past the stands, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I have been watching it since I was a kid, even to have her walking down the track I’d have gladly put her back in the box and drop her home, let alone let her run and then to win, that was absolutely amazing, and I couldn’t believe it - I don’t think anyone else could either.
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Neighbouring “Good Friend” Willie Mullins
Willie Mullins is a very good friend of mine and my neighbour too, in Gowran, about 70 miles outside of Dublin. He rang me the other day and the way I answered the phone was “Willie, are you looking for some advice?”
I’m about 10 minutes from his yard. I went to ask him a question about a horse the other day and halfway through he said “No.” I said you haven’t answered the question, and he replied “If you haven’t asked it already then the answer is no.”
Similarities Between Horse and Greyhound Racing
They are absolutely awesome down there. Training horses and dogs can be quite similar. It is the same, it is about getting them healthy. There is no great mystique about it. It’s as simple as that really.
If you take a person that is sitting around and started doing fitness, then they will get quicker and better but then you can develop for long distances, short distances, it might be different in terms of training methods but there’s no mystique, it’s just keeping them all fit.
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