The ‘small man’ in the Sport of Kings

Oliver Brady, who recently died aged 75, secured a singular niche for himself in Irish racing as the trainer people rushed to listen to after a race rather than before. Enough winners emerged from Brady's yard in Castleblaney over the years to also make prerace audiences worthwhile. But his exuberant celebrations afterwards are what made him unique.

Loudly proclaiming the virtues of Co Monaghan in the winner's enclosure, Brady would burst into doggerel about his native town of Ballybay, praise his usually embarrassed jockey to the skies, declare victory as one for the "small man" in the Sport of Kings, and generally transmit an infectious joy in victory often absent from a sport that can prize reticence.

Brady enjoyed telling the story of leaving the stands on one occasion and colliding with a rushing punter who apologised but explained he was anxious to get to the winner’s enclosure to see what that “Monaghan lunatic” might say.

However there was no lunacy, just natural exuberance and a generous desire to share the moment with others which seemed to connect to ordinary punters who came to realise there was a lot more to Brady than the fist-waving showman in a flat-cap.

Great friend

In the early 1980s he started the Shabra Plastics recycling company in Castleblaney with his great friend Rita Shah, in whose colours so many of the horses Brady trained in his spare time raced. The Shabra Group also has a lengthy history of supporting charities involved in research into cancer and heart disease, and in supporting Aids orphans in Kenya.

Brady was first diagnosed with cancer in 1995 and was told by doctors in 2003 he had just six months to live. In 2008 he had a quadruple bypass operation, and he was also diabetic.

Brady maintained that a positive mental attitude was important to his confounding of medical predictions and insisted the enjoyment he got from racing was fundamental to that.

The best racetracks in Ireland were a long way removed from Ballybay in 1938, where Brady was born into a family of 10 children. He was still a boy when his father died and his mother was left with the task of rearing a large family.

Aged 13, he left school and got his first job in a local tannery. He also worked in a silk mill in Ballymena before moving to London.

Drive and ambition

Brady set up a car dealership in London and was once described as an “Arthur Daley-type figure” during this period of his life. It was during this time that he first encountered the Shah family, who shrewdly saw past any stereotypical first impressions and recognised the drive and ambition that eventually propelled Brady to return home and set up Shabra Plastics.

If Brady and Rita Shah became important employers in Co Monaghan, they became known further afield through a shared enjoyment of racing.

Barr’s Hill was the first horse Brady trained to win, at Ballinrobe, in 1988. He recounted having £500 each-way on his runner. He also remembered originally buying Barr’s Hill for just £150.

“I took her home, put her in a field for six months, and fed her up,” he later said. “But I noticed something. In the field she didn’t want to be among other horses. And when we started working her, the moment you put her on the outside, she flew.”

Not for the first time, Brady’s ability to spot what might have been missed at bigger and more fashionable training yards paid off.

Over the years he won significant races with comparatively inexpensive purchases. Maralan won a pair of Grade 2 steeplechases in the space of a week during 2008.

Cheltenham

His big ambition was to train a winner at the Cheltenham festival. He came closest to fulfilling that dream when Baron De Feypo finished third in the 2007 Coral Cup.

Typically, in the aftermath, most postrace interest centred on Brady, who still celebrated by removing his shirt to reveal a Monaghan GAA jersey underneath.

Oliver Brady is survived by a daughter, Amy, and her mother, Margaret.