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Andy Oliver is looking forward to giving his local community a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his yard for the first time in eight years, writes Tom Masters. 

The doors to his facilities in Caledon, County Tyrone, will be thrown open on September 3 and Oliver hopes to welcome around 100 guests – while he will also be crossing his fingers for the weather gods to be on his side.

“It was raining very hard when we last hosted one but we had a good turnout, so we are looking forward to doing it again,” he said.

“It was a time of redevelopment and then Covid obviously slowed everything down for a couple of years.

“But HRI have a great initiative and incentive on at the moment with HRI Ownership, so I expressed interest and it has really stemmed from there.”

The event will get underway at 11am and the yard tour will see Oliver run through day-to-day life as part of his operation.

Attendees will then have a chance to visit the gallops and see horses exercising, and he also hopes to have a racing figure available for a question-and-answer session.

Oliver has enjoyed several successes at local track Down Royal so far this summer while last year saw him become the first Ulster trainer to saddle a runner in the Cazoo Derby at Epsom.

He admits he ‘is not the greatest salesman’ himself but hopes to use events such as the upcoming open morning as a way of raising awareness about his yard, which is currently undergoing redevelopment, as well as attracting future business.

“We do everything in house anyway, so all our work riders, all the people that we have available will be there,” he added. 

“The idea of the day really is to be both informative and let people see the facilities that we have. People will see a self-contained and progressive yard. 

“We have all the facilities and the opportunities to compete at the very best level, that in itself is a unique point for a lot of yards. 

“A lot of yards need to go galloping and things like that, we do not need to go anywhere and that is what we will strive to build over these last few years. 

“You can send horses out the first time out but they have never left the farm and they can compete and win, which I think is a good selling point for us. 

“It is just a case of letting people see around and somewhere along the line, whether it be word of mouth or Chinese whispers, people may find out about what we do here."