Ask any trainer about what the future holds for a JP McManus-owned horse and the response is almost invariably the same –"Talk to Frank." It doesn't matter if it's Nicky Henderson or Joe Bloggs: if it's a 'JP' horse, you talk to McManus's racing manager, Frank Berry.
He’s the linchpin of jump racing’s biggest operation, the link with trainers on both sides of the Irish Sea nurturing those hundreds of horses which carry the legendary billionaire owner’s famous green and yellow colours.
Buveur D’Air’s Champion Hurdle success on Tuesday was the latest major winner to carry them and they will be the focus of attention again on Thursday when the hot favourite, Unowhatimeanharry, lines up in the Stayers Hurdle.
McManus's fascination with the game is famous. But it's a hobby. And whether he's in Geneva, Limerick or Barbados, supervising a business empire doesn't allow much time for the nuts and bolts of maintaining a well-oiled racing team. That's where Berry comes in.
"There's unbelievable trust between the two of them," says trainer Enda Bolger. "It's a big operation and Frank does it without hassle. He keeps it simple, tries to keep both horses and men happy. He's the go-to man. I know I wouldn't be able to operate without him."
As well as communicating with scores of trainers every day, and talking to McManus most evenings, Berry’s brief extends to the purchase of new stock, organising the logistics of jockeys, poring over formbooks, teasing out future plans, even handling media enquiries.
It perhaps only adds to the public’s fascination with McManus’s vast wealth and influence that his public face on the racetrack is the antithesis of any exuberant, smooth purveyor of easily digestible PR-coated, 140-character bullshit.
Berry barely breaks out of a whisper, often responding to questions with the caution of someone filling out a passport application. Invariably courteous, he is nevertheless a polar opposite of McManus’s former jockey, Sir AP McCoy, who remains a determinedly ubiquitous media figure.
Mouths shut
McCoy likes to quote McManus as saying how many fish would still be alive if they’d learned to keep their mouths shut: Berry’s instinct is to hesitate at divulging even the tiniest titbit.
"You won't fill a page with Frank!" jokes the Gold Cup-winning trainer, Tom Taaffe. "But JP couldn't have a better man. He stays calm when those around him don't. And it's as if he's able to see around corners in terms of what might be coming down the road. He also has the advantage of having been there and worn the T-shirt."
That T-shirt primarily includes a luminous career as a rider. It's almost half a century since Berry landed the 1968 Irish St Leger on Giolla Mear as a teenage apprentice not long after leaving home in Granard, Co Longford.
Just four years later, after switching codes, he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Glencarrig Lady. Berry was no stranger to the Festival winners enclosure subsequently, including a famous Arkle success on Bobsline in 1984 for the late Francis Flood.
In 1975 he tied for the Irish jockeys championship with Tommy Carberry. He won the title on his own seven more times and tied twice more. That pedigree was passed on to his children. Fran Berry is a leading rider on the flat. Another son, Alan, is a Festival-winning rider too.
Living up to such standards was always unlikely once Berry started training. His most notable moment was when saddling the McManus-owned Laura’s Beau to finish third in the 1992 Aintree Grand National.
But rarely can a trainer have handed in their licence and simultaneously fallen on their feet as Berry did almost two decades ago.
Trustworthy
The logistics of organising McManus’s rapidly expanding team required someone both knowledgeable and trustworthy. Berry fit the bill then and still does.
“He’s a good judge of a horse and is involved in all those discussions about what gets bought, like Unowhatimeanharry last year. He also buys for JP at those Derby Sales. I think he might have even bought the Grand National winner [Don’t Push It] as a foal,” Bolger says.
“But Frank is on top of everything, dealing with vets, dealers, running plans, the whole shebang. He takes a lot of weight on his shoulders when it doesn’t go well too,” he adds.
Even for an owner like McManus, disappointments are plentiful. However, whether it’s inside the winners enclosure or out of it, Berry is next to him, happy to blend into the background as attention focuses on the boss and whoever the winning trainer or jockey might be.
Everyone involved, however, recognises the vital role he plays, especially the boss man himself.
“Even JP always says ‘talk to Frank,” Bolger says. “Actually it would be a good name for a horse, wouldn’t it?”
Just so long as it gets the nod from the go-to man.
