‘It was a big move at my stage of life’: Patrick Neville on leaving Ireland to shake up horse racing’s elite
BIG MOVE: The Real Whacker and Sam Twiston Davies won the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase (Grade 1) for trainer Paddy Neville. Pic: Healy Racing Photo.
Like most of us at some point in our lives, Patrick Neville started to wonder a few years ago whether the time might be right for a complete change of scenery. Unlike most of us, he did something about it.
Neville had been training race horses in his native Ireland for 15 years and watching on as the serious money and firepower became concentrated in an ever-decreasing number of stables. Winners were never easy to come by, but from the autumn of 2017 the annual trickle of four or five had all but dried up. Even getting a run for a lowly rated horse was becoming a struggle.
