Mouse Morris the big winner at HRI awards

Trainer Michael ‘Mouse’ Morris was the big winner at the Horse Racing Ireland Awards which took place yesterday afternoon in the Leopardstown Pavilion, the Fethard-based trainer scooping the Outstanding Achievement Award for becoming the first person in almost 150 years to train the winners of the Aintree and Irish Grand Nationals in the same season.

Fortunately, his training skills far outweigh his desire to talk to an audience, but Morris, of eminently likeable character, can laugh at himself. On accepting his award, he said: “My son showed me a lot of tweets after the English National, and they were asking ‘what was Mouse Morris saying?’, as they couldn’t understand me. Well, I’d just like to tell them, I didn’t know either.”

Speaking after the ceremony, he admitted: “The whole experience is quite humbling.”