Trainer Open Morning

John ‘Shark’ Hanlon is encouraging as many people as possible to get involved ahead of his yard’s open morning on Saturday 16 July for a window into the world of horse racing ownership, writes Jack Lacey-Hatton.

Hanlon will be the first in a series of trainers who are throwing open their doors to the general public in a programme, in collaboration with Horse Racing Ireland, that aims to give those interested in potential ownership an opportunity to look behind the scenes.

Those who attend will be able to see two stars of the Bagenalstown stable, with both Grade One-winning hurdler Skyace and bet365 Gold Cup Handicap Chase winner Hewick on the gallop.

“We’re really looking forward to having people down again,” said Hanlon. “I want people to know it (the event) is for everyone. It’s for the public and hopefully new owners as well.

“For some, it will just be a great chance to see our horses ridden out, but we’ll explain to everyone what goes into looking after the horses.

“We can meet new people, introduce them to what we do, we can get syndicates together for different horses.

“We’ll also have current owners to come down on the day and it’s a nice day out for them.

“They can come, see their horse, say hello and have a drink and something to eat.

“But we want to see as many as possible, even if they aren’t hardened racing fans.”

The County Carlow trainer did previously host an open day in 2019, but the pandemic scuppered subsequent events in the years since.

But they are back for 2022 with mornings running nationwide throughout the summer and into October, with Noel Kelly and Thomas Gibney also confirmed to be hosting events. All events are free to attend, although visitors do need to pre-register.

Hanlon says the morning will also offer a chance for more casual fans to see what goes in behind the scenes.

“It’s the first opening day in Ireland for a while due to Covid,” he said. “So it’ll be brilliant to see people again.

“We did one back before and had a really great day. It was a real success so that is the plan again this time.

“We’ll have a few good jockeys come down as well I think, like Jody McGarvey.

“They get the chance to see what the staff do behind the scenes and what we do every morning to prepare our horses.

“That is why we’re opening and hopefully everyone who comes down gets a little bit of a window."

Hanlon is one of the trainers who has shown you don’t need a huge budget to find winners.

He first purchased Skyace for just £600 back in November 2019 after just three starts in National Hunt Flat races.

“Skyace is great at the moment,” Hanlon added. “We’ve only had her back in for the last week, but she’ll be there for people to see.

“She probably won’t run until October, November but we’re very hopeful she can go over to Cheltenham and have another crack at that next year.

“We have Hewick who’ll be there also doing a bit of work.

“And we’ll have a nice team of horses who’ll be heading for Galway Summer Festival.” 

To pre-register for a Trainer Open Morning (including John Hanlon’s) click here https://www.racehorseownership.ie/openmorning/