Hurley hopeful Whyso can double up in Foxhunters
He finished eighth of eight runners that day in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown and most racing observers were writing him off as a spent force in Grade 1 steeple-chasing.
The great horse was not seen on a racetrack again until October of that year when he turned out at the Munster Grand National in Limerick. Sutherland had retired and the horse’s owners, Lisselan Farms, had replaced him with a young man called Raymond Hurley who few in racing had ever heard of.
Imperial Call justified 6/4 favouritism that day and it was a day the young man from just outside Shannonvale near Clonakilty will never forget – just like the day last year at Cheltenham when he sent out his first ever festival runner Whyso Mayo to win the Foxhunter Chase.
Hurley is not your typical horse trainer. Now 31-years-old, he had little background in racing before going to work with Andrew Lee at Lisselan after leaving school and when Lee then left to set up his own business, the then 22-year-old was left holding the reins.
He was “in the right place at the right time” and as an enthusiastic young man was given the chance to become a horse trainer.
“They were looking for a trainer and I was young and enthusiastic and they knew that. I went away and got my licence and they gave me the chance. I am so grateful to them for that,” he says.
“Imperial Call’s first race for me was in the Munster National and then he won at Naas, he won the John Durcan at Punchestown and then finished third in the King George. We brought him to Cheltenham but he didn’t run and that was the right decision because he came back to Punchestown and won.
“Ruby (Walsh) rode him that day and it was his first Grade 1 winner, so it was a big day all round. He beat Florida Pearl and won quite well,” he recalls.
The young man, it appeared, had a big future ahead of him, but a nasty back problem, which ultimately required an operation to remove three discs, saw his training career put on hold for three years.
“After a while the pain went away and I got planning permission on a bit of land I had and while the Imperial Call days were great and the Lisselan days were great, it was time to do my own thing.
“I started off with eight boxes and I had a couple of young horses – breakers and pointers and so forth – and I had just one runner the year I came back. The following year I put up a few more stables and in November 2003, Whyso Mayo came to me.”
It might seem strange – and it certainly does to Hurley himself – but from the first moment he sat on the horse he felt he had something special to work with. “I knew I had a right one,” he comments.
“It was something I’d never experienced before. It wasn’t that I rode him on a racecourse or anything, it was just a little gallop at home and I immediately got that feeling he was something special. On that basis I was determined to do right by the horse and do whatever was needed to make sure the fulfilled the potential I saw there.”
Owned by Kathleen O’Driscoll and bred by her husband Edward in Bandon, Whyso Mayo thankfully proved to be a very straightforward animal and the owners too were sensible and undemanding in terms of what they wanted from the horse.
“He went point-to-pointing his first year and won a race, but my biggest fear was that the horse would be sold to a big buyer. I’d have willingly sold any other horse, but not him and it was agreed early on that he would not be sold – without much argument, I have to say.
“So the second year I had him he went point-to-pointing and did a bit of hunter chasing as well. He made his track debut in Cork before his first win at Gowran. He followed that up with a third at Punchestown to close out his season.
“The following year, the idea from the start was to send him to Cheltenham. He’d won at Aghabullogue in a point-to-point and (a fourth at) Thurles came too quickly for him. We knew going into the race he was a bit tired and wasn’t himself, but after that performance on soft ground we were raving about him. That was the day we realised he could win at Cheltenham.”
Then came the final big test before Cheltenham and in a race won by the subsequently unfortunate General Montcalm, he unseated his rider Damian Murphy. He was travelling very easily when it happened and the jockey was adamant later he was going so easily, he’d have won.
“We were lucky in a way that it didn’t happen at the fourth fence, because we might have been tempted to run him again before the festival – even in a point-to-point or something, just for peace of mind. But I’m glad we didn’t because it would have taken the edge off him and ruined Cheltenham,” Hurley says.
What happened next is now part of festival lore as Whyso Mayo beat First Down Jets by a length, leaving a trail of fancied runners in his wake. It was not a trail-blazing win, especially as the horse jumped poorly at the tenth and also three out. But he flew the last fence, landed galloping and stayed on well to claim the honours.
“We were concerned beforehand about his jumping and the stiffness of the fences, but not overly concerned,” the trainer remembers. “We were probably more concerned about the likes of Willie Mullins’s Bothar Na, or Noel Meade’s Harbour Pilot, but we felt that if he got around he’d be in the frame. It was all quite exciting really,” he deadpans.
First Cheltenham runner, first Cheltenham winner. Unbelievable. But now, the time has come for Hurley’s horse to defend his title and the trainer is under no illusions about the difficulty facing him and his charge. With three subsequent victories under his belt, the most recent being at Leopardstown on February 10 last, he is as short as 2/1 to repeat today. “He’s a ridiculous price,” the trainer says. “But he certainly goes back there with a big chance. Having said that if ever there is a sport to bite you back, this is it. From the outside, it looks like his preparation has been ideal, but from my point of view it has been a little disjointed.
“We’re travelling with the thought that he has a fighting chance to do it again and I just hope he does himself justice and comes home safe.”
Hurley has already put himself on the racing map, but if his horse were to repeat again today at Cheltenham, he might just find himself on the legendary plateau occupied by Imperial Call.
