Veteran will navigate a passage in stormy seas

Edward O'Grady has seen it all before, writes Brian O'Connor, and the trainer is well placed to thrive in these straitened times

WITH OVER €350,000 worth of prize money available on a triple-Grade One racing programme at Fairyhouse tomorrow, tales of economic sackcloths and ashes might appear a little incongruous. But the first major day of jumping action this winter provides a timely morale boost to an industry facing an uncertain future.

Last week's announcement by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) of cuts in prizemoney and slashed budgets throughout the sport has had many peering nervously at a future which now looks even more dependant on February's Government review of the Horse and Greyhound Fund.

To a new generation of trainers weaned on nothing but Celtic Tiger good times, it provides a test of mettle they probably never expected to have to face. So is it coincidence, then, that the man facing into tomorrow's action with one of the strongest hands of all is a trainer who has seen it all before?

At 58, Edward O'Grady hardly presents a grizzled face to the world, but he is very much a veteran when it comes to navigating the tempestuous waters of a cut-throat game.

Tomorrow, he pitches Catch Me into the featured Hattons Grace Hurdle, and the exciting, Grade One-winning hurdler Tranquil Sea will try to make it two from two over fences in the Drinmore Novice Chase. They are the type of horses to aid any trainer's profile at an uncertain time. Mind you, there is uncertain and then there's just plain scary.

An early start that O'Grady didn't want, at just 21, when he left veterinary college to take over from his just deceased father Willie meant a harsh dose of both racing and business reality which propelled him into a stark, sink or swim situation.

The proof of his ability to strike out confidently is still best illustrated by his total of 18 Cheltenham festival winners, the highest tally by any current Irish trainer. And many of them came during the 1970s when money was a lot tighter than it is now.

A few years ago, during the height of the economic boom, O'Grady's reaction to colleagues grumbling about financial problems was succinct: "They just don't realise what it was like running for £500 and training for £8 a week, and then you sometimes couldn't get paid. God Almighty!"

What is different now, he feels, is simple: people's expectations have been lifted.

"Back in the 1980s, and especially the 1970s, when there was recession in Ireland, it didn't really affect racing here too much. Nobody had very much so there wasn't very much to lose. Life simply continued. The difference now is that a lot of people have accumulated a lot of wealth and now have a lot to lose - or they've lost the lot," O'Grady says.

"Trainers are no different now to anyone else in business. It is quite expectable that trainers will face cash-flow problems for the foreseeable future. Right now cash is king," he adds.

It's typically cold-eyed analysis from a man who maintains a 70-strong racing yard in Ballynonty, Co Tipperary, and whose ability to strike at the highest level in both Britain and Ireland has never wavered.

Already, after just one start over fences, Tranquil Sea is a leading fancy for one of the major novice prizes at Cheltenham. Catch Me could also return to the festival for another crack at the Champion Hurdle. They are a pair of horses with which to view the future with some confidence, something O'Grady feels racing here can also do.

"It's a half-cup situation. It's how you look at it. For one thing, buying better horses for less money will be possible for those fortunate enough to be liquid. I believe, overall, racing still presents a good opportunity. HRI have done their best to maintain a good standard of prizemoney at the lower levels and it is up to us to build on that. The actual business of racing is in pretty good shape," he says.

O'Grady's prospects of adding to his Cheltenham festival tally could look just as good after this weekend's action, with Tranquil Sea part of what may be a vintage group of novice chasers in Ireland this season.

The Punchestown festival-winner was plunged straight into Listed company for his chasing debut and ran out an impressive winner at Cork despite jumping to his right at the last two fences. O'Grady knows what it takes to win the Drinmore, as he managed to land it last year with Sky's The Limit. His confidence in Tranquil Sea is obvious, but tomorrow will be a major test.

"Everybody has been quick to throw superlatives at the novices this season. I just hope everyone will have the same opinion at the end of the season," the trainer says.

"From October on in Ireland most winners' chases here are either Listed or Graded races, so you can get fooled into thinking they are better than they are. But I was happy with him at Cork. Some of the others might not have run up to their best form, but I was pleased with his jumping. Cork can often be a tricky track for a novice. I don't know why he jumped right at the last two, but overall he was good.

"We have always had a high opinion of the horse. We wouldn't have campaigned him last season the way we did otherwise. He won his maiden at Christmas, and then went straight into a Grade One. I honestly think we rode him wrongly at Cheltenham (eighth in the Supreme). We should have dropped him in, but he ran with the choke out the whole way and burnt himself out," O'Grady adds.

Tomorrow's card has been dogged by bad weather for the last two years. In 2006, just two races could be run before the rest of the card was transferred to the following Wednesday. But, however testing the conditions get this time won't be a problem for Catch Me, who follows his German breeding by thriving on heavy going.

Throw in the suspicion that two-and-a-half miles is his ideal trip and the Hattons Grace looks an ideal opportunity to break his Grade One duck.

"He was unlucky in three Grade One races as a novice, which takes a bit of doing. He ended up on his arse one day at Leopardstown, got beaten by De Valira another day and then fell at the last in the race won by Glencove Marina at Punchestown.

"He wasn't himself last year because of an allergy problem. I have to say I was sceptical about the allergy explanation, but the evidence this season suggests it was right," O'Grady says.

That evidence is primarily based on an impressive victory in the Lismullen Hurdle at Navan over two-and-a-half miles, but afterwards O'Grady appeared to dismiss any chance of training Catch Me for the World Hurdle over three.

"I want to wait and see what happens in the Hattons Grace before deciding about any other race he might run in. But two-and- a-half miles on heavy ground would seem to be ideal for him. It was testing at Navan and also when he won his other Grade Two in the Red Mills at Gowran."

And as for any diminution of Irish prospects at Cheltenham on the back of less prosperous economic times, O'Grady is also far from gloomy.

"I don't foresee our assault being any lesser. It always depends on whether the best group of horses are in Ireland or Britain at any one time," he says. "But it's important to remember it is only November. Cheltenham in March and Fairyhouse now are two horses of very different colours."

Whatever the circumstances, though, you get the feeling that one trainer at least fancies his chances of navigating a successful route.