Big Shu to turn a pretty buck for Peter Maher in Glenfarclas Cross-Country

Press

Peter Maher

on his job occupation and he boils it down to “horses” and “anything that turns a buck”. Today, though, he is definitely a trainer, the man responsible for perhaps the day two Irish banker Big Shu who defends his Glenfarclas Cross-Country crown.

It’s limelight stuff, but tomorrow it will be back to whatever turns that proverbial buck.

“Breaking horses, pre-training horses, training horses for point-to-points, training them for ourselves, for others, selling them, you name we do it,” says Maher without even referring to another major part of his Ashfield Stud operation near Donore in Co Kildare.

Ashfield is where Maher trains a team of 10 racehorses with Big Shu the undoubted headline act. But he is also master of the nearby Blackrath Stud which houses a number of stallions and broodmares that carry on a rich family history in the breeding game.

Influential stallions
Maher's grandfather, Frank Latham, was responsible in the 1960's and 70's for standing some of the most influential stallions in the country, the likes of Le Bavard, Vulgan and many more, sires of Gold Cup and Grand National winners such as L'Escargot, Team Spirit and Mr Mulligan, and proof that the French influence on National Hunt racing and breeding is hardly some modern phenomenon.

It was a heady enough time for a youngster who proclaims himself a “proud Dub” to be grabbed by the horsey bug.

A native of Clondalkin, he says: "My mother's side were the Latham's and I used to come down here during summer holidays and started riding, then doing pony club and point-to-points, went to work for PP Hogan, then Francis Flood and now I'm back here.

Breeding horses is a tradition in our family, we’ve always done it, and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”

In fact the more you talk to Maher, the more you realise "horseman" is the word that sums him up best. At a time of year when the breeding season is in full swing, as well as the old reliable point-to-point circuit, he is also juggling the preparation of a prime Cheltenham Festival candidate, a proven performer he believes even better now than he was last year when springing a 14/1 surprise.

Behind him that day were two previous winners of the race among a collection of stars from some of the most powerful yards in the sport, including Willie Mullins, Henry De Bromhead, not to mention the cross-country king Enda Bolger. All the big guns are back for another crack at the titleholder today.

Paint a picture
In such circumstances it would be easy to paint a picture of Maher as 'David' against the 'Goliaths' but that is to overlook the confidence this particular 'David' has in himself and his horse. "Big Shu has class. He's big, he's brave, he's strong and he's got both speed and stamina which is unusual. We're not talking about a slow horse. In schooling races he's finishing just behind horses fancied for the Cheltenham Bumper. He's a right one. If he was trained by Willie Mullins he would be taken very seriously because he's as good as anything out there," Maher says.

That faith means he is thinking in terms of trying to improve even further on the family’s connection with the Aintree Grand National next month but today is the first priority.

“I was delighted with his comeback run at Punchestown when he was second. First time out last year he was fourth in a point-to-point.

“He definitely seems to be getting better with age – like myself, he’s a late maturer – and all the vibes are he is going the right way.

“He’s a big strapping animal and he was fit the last day, but not match fit. Now he’s had his prep, the cobwebs are blown off, I’ve prepared him right and he’s fit,” he says.

It’s a quiet confidence, born out of a lifetime dealing with the maddening swings of emotion that come with a lifetime spent fascinated by half tonnes of fragile exasperation. That’s the same whoever you are in the horse game. The difference as Maher sees it is simply scale.

“I’d be laughing sometimes at these lads with big egos,” he says.

“But it all comes down to the firepower you have. The horses have to do the talking.”