Cheltenham glory for two Galway owners

Date Published: 13-Mar-2009

IT’S THE stuff of make believe old Hollywood movies – someone who attended the Galway Races only once buys a horse and wins his first race at Cheltenham.

Galway city businessman, Eamonn Doyle, co-owner of Go Native, which won the Supreme Novice’s hurdle opener at Cheltenham on Tuesday, is the first to admit that he probably didn’t know one end of a horse from another.

But 18 months ago a regular customer, Martin Cullinane from Athenry, told Eamonn’s partner, Kitty Carr that he had a good horse to sell. Eamonn and Kitty have been running Park House, formerly Eyre House, on Forster Street, for 34 years and have few interests outside work.

“We got him at a good price and we decided this would give us an interest outside of work. We sent him to Noel Meade, the trainer, for a year and we nearly forgot we owned a horse to be honest.

““But then he won a few races and figured prominently in othersand it was decided to enter him at Cheltenham. We thought he might come in the first three, but we never expected him to win. We backed him at 12/1 and we know there was great support for him in Galway and that many got him at 14/1 so the bookies felt the pinch I imagine.”

Eamonn says that…