Taaffe at the top
When you add in the fact that he was the man who piloted the legendary Arkle to his greatest successes, then his place in the sport's Hall of Fame is guaranteed.
However, for the offspring of such a sporting great to make their mark in the same sphere is no easy ride and that is something Tom Taaffe has had to live with throughout a career as a jockey. The constant comparisons with your dad in such circumstances can become tiresome and unwanted, but even now with his own riding career well behind him, it is not something Taaffe junior shies away from. Rather, he still revels in the memories his father left behind and even though he is now at the point of becoming one of this country's pre-eminent trainers, Taaffe is an articulate and interested party in the current debate about the merits of steeplechasing's current eminence grise, Best Mate, and the comparisons which are inevitably made with 'Himself' as Arkle was fondly accepted by the Irish racing public.
"I was too small when Arkle was around to remember much, but I know what an exceptional horse he was," Tom recalls. "I have to say I was delighted to hear Best Mate's owner Jim Lewis say recently that he thought there would never be another Arkle, even though his own horse is obviously brilliant.
"It annoys me to hear Henrietta Knight and Terry Biddlecombe waffling on about Best Mate and Arkle, especially when Terry says something like 'Arkle was only a slow old horse' as he did in print recently. He must have forgotten Arkle once won a one mile five flat race at Baldoyle.
"I don't think there will be another one, but I do have to say that looking at Best Mate at Leopardstown over Christmas, it was awesome just to see him there. He is a model of a horse and has an awful lot of presence about him. He's without doubt the best around and he's the best I've seen in recent times, but that does not make him Arkle.
"Arkle used to take on rivals in handicaps and you'd never see that nowadays. In fact, a separate handicap was devised to try and allow horses take him on. I don't think we'll ever see another Arkle and I hope we don't not unless I'm training him."
But, we're here to talk about Tom Taaffe, trainer, rather than anything else. However, given the family history, it's no surprise that his direct involvement with horses goes back a long way.
"Yes, from the time I was a gossoon I was riding. When I learned to walk I learned to ride. My father's place is only two or three miles down the road from my place here. There were always horses there and while we were never pressurised to ride, the horses were there and it was just a natural thing to do.
"There are five of us now in the family Olive, Peter, Carol, Elaine and myself. We lost a sister Joanna when she was 13 and I was 11. It was a freak accident in school where she hit her head off a table and got a haemorrhage and it was simply lights out, God love her. That had a huge effect on my parents. But we were all riding at a very young age, but I suppose I was the one who took it up most in the riding sphere itself.
"I went to Arthur (Moore) as a kid when I was 14 or 15, just working during school holidays to keep me off my arse and earn a few bob. I meandered my way eventually into a job there and I eventually rode there as a professional for 12 years. I'd a great relationship with Arthur and I still have, thank God.
"But I was always into buying and selling a few horses and I suppose moving into the training end of things eventually was pre-ordained in a way. My weight was always against me when I was riding and I had to struggle with that and it came to the stage where I just said: 'look, let's forget about it.' In 1992, I bought this place and in 1994 I stopped riding and in '95 I started to train. I had the place ready and I had a few bits and bobs of horses.
"When I was riding, the Taaffe name was a fantastic name to have. The thing was I was always going to be Pat Taaffe's son who couldn't ride or Pat Taaffe's son who could ride. I was always ware of that, but luckily I was able to ride. You have a high profile as a rider and I capitalised on that when I started to train.
"Having said that, though, I think I've probably found my niche. I still have a lot of the owners I had when I started and, as time has gone on, other owners have come along and we have a good clientele, most of whom are friends as well."
Although only a couple of miles off the Naas Road, the Taaffe establishment is perched on the side of a hill and enjoys unspoiled view across the verdant Kildare countryside. The house where Taaffe and his wife Elaine and two small children live looks down on a training facility which, as Tom says, makes the operation fairly self-sufficient. "We have our own gallops and schooling grounds, so we don't have to go anywhere specific to do anything with the horses. We can do everything we need to do here." It is without doubt an impressive set-up.
On a personal level, Taaffe comes across as a keen student of every aspect of the game from the training methods themselves to the keep of the horses and the necessity to be a small Public Relations machine in a wider environment which is essentially three parts entertainment industry and one part sport.
On the training front he is quick to compliment people who have been in the vanguard of moving the business forward with a combination of intuitiveness and invention. Indeed, his training hero is probably quite an unexpected choice.
"Training methods have come along an awful lot in recent years and I believe that what Martin Pipe did in the UK, Joe Crowley did here and I don't think he's ever got proper recognition for it. Joe Crowley was the first man to seriously gallop horses up a hill and he changed the methods of Irish training, I would say. I could not have more respect for him. Everyone got on the bandwagon ever since, but training as a whole has become very specialised and you're involved now in every aspect of the horse from the gallops to the physio. It's become highly qualified and highly technical and it does not stop developing.
An essential part of the training business is making sure owners are happy, but Taaffe also feels that unless you have a certain type of owner, then you'll make no progress.
"The most important thing is that you need people who have an understanding of the game. If they understand horse racing then that means they are good losers and good winners and I believe that is the single most important aspect of a good owner. I'd be emphatic on that because the horses run a lot of races over the course of a season and there are a lot of losers. I mean, how many favourites get beaten. The horses can't talk to you and can't tell you things, so owners have to be philosophical.
"Conor Clarkson, who owns Kicking King, is an owner as well as a friend, is a good example of that. After we won the Arkle at Leopardstown recently, he said: "Well at least the pressure is off, we've won the Grade One which was our aim this season and we can go to Cheltenham now with the horse with no pressure on us. Likewise the Emotional Moment guys. I mean it is probably a bit of a fairytale that he's got to the heights he's got, but never once have they interfered or tried to tell anyone their business, they just take the highs along with the lows."
TAAFFE reckons it's taken eight years to get to the point where he's going to Cheltenham with two reasonable prospects. Kicking King and Emotional Moment both ran there last year and while it was a fantastic experience, the yard still has to experience a Cheltenham victory. The two horses go there again this year, but last year's experience still lives large.
"The Emotional Moment team and Conor Clarkson walked the track with me before racing and they were in awe afterwards. As we came back in towards the parade ring, I said to them: 'If we're really, really lucky, we'll take the left hand turn on the way back in into the winners' enclosure. If we're not lucky, we'll go straight on into the enclosure for the unplaced horses.' Believe me, it's the saddest place in racing. I've seen people cry there every year I've been there. Cheltenham is the greatest place and the worst place."
But what of the history and the current form of the two stable stars?
"Well, I bought one and I bred the other. I bought Kicking King as a yearling at Fairyhouse. I liked him the first time I saw him and I knew I wasn't going home without him. He was brought up on the farm here and he showed us plenty as a three year old in. Even though he was a big horse, he was always advanced and he was always mature. He won a four-year-old bumper in Leopardstown and it was always the plan that he'd run twice that year and while he didn't run well the second day, we let him off after that. He began his hurdling career with an impressive run at Naas and then won a Grade Two at Punchestown and then he was second to Back in Front at Cheltenham.
"The Cheltenham run was a great performance for him because people were slagging me for running him in the two-mile race last year, but the options were two-an-a-half miles or two miles five. I thought two and a half miles would be too much for him and two miles five could have left us in a situation were we had no horse to go forward with because it would have been too hard on him at this stage of his career. So, the two-mile race was good for him and since he's come back from his summer break this term, he's more settled and showing more pace and more toe. He's more settled in his work and more settled in his racing and we ride him in behind now and there is a lot more toe there. He has what it takes.
"He had a week off after winning at Leopardstown and we'll pick him up with four weeks to run and try and go there nice and fresh like he was at Christmas. I had him tuned in that day and if he's in the same form I'll be delighted with him.
"Emotional Moment I bred myself here and I still have the mare. In fact she's due to foal again on March 4. He's a different horse from Kicking King in that he doesn't have as much scope, but he has the heart of a lion and he's a great battler. I've never seen him being beaten when he was upsides at the last. He's a tough hardy boy."
However, when it's put to the trainer that the horse is prone to the odd mistake, he is quick to defend his charge. "Believe it or not, he's never actually fallen. At Leopardstown at Christmas, he caught the top of the fence and he slid on his legs without actually turning over. The same the last day at Naas were he got rid of Barry (Geraghty) more than anything. He found it hard to keep his feet in his early days hurdling, but then he won a string of handicaps and he won the Grade Two Boyne Hurdle at Navan and then was fourth in the Coral Cup. If anything in that race, he was too well and got to the front too early. He went chasing then and he has his own clever way of jumping rather than being exuberant and for that reason we're going back hurdling with him now because on the deeper ground it is difficult for him to jump some of the fences. It will be easier for him on nice ground late in the spring. I'm dead happy with him because he has all his old confidence over hurdles back again and he'll probably go back chasing again when Cheltenham is finished and we'll find a nice race for him. But the Coral Cup is the intention now because over hurdles in England he'll have a nice rating, whereas he'd be giving a lot of weight away here in Ireland."
"We've a very good band of horses at the moment, some nice young horses. We've about 45 riding out and maybe 80 on the farm. Man About Town is a very smart horse and won his bumper well in Fairyhouse on New Year's Day and I think he's a high-class horse of the future. Solar System is a horse that seems to be back well again and I think he will pull his weight in the novice area, handicap area, in time to come. We've an OK bunch of handicappers and a good bunch of youngsters to come along. But it takes four or five years to assemble them."
This is an exciting time for Tom Taaffe and his charges and a time perhaps when he will add to the lustre of a family name which is already well polished. That he has the determination and the talent is without question. He may never train a legend like Arkle, but then it's doubtful that anyone will.
