Galway breeder Murphy comes up trumps with Flooring Porter at Cheltenham

HE was a hurler, a footballer and rugby player. He enjoyed some good days in all three sports, but nothing compared to what unfolded in Cheltenham last Thursday.

Sean Murphy, like the rest of us, wasn’t even there; no horse was running in his colours; and he doesn’t possess a trainer’s licence.

Instead, the Monivea man was watching on TV a lifetime’s dream being fulfilled – breeding a winner at the most prestigious National Hunt meeting of them all.

And it wasn’t any old race either. The Stayers Hurdle is one of the Cheltenham Festival’s five flagship events and here was the horse that Murphy had bred – the offspring of Yeats and his own mare Lillymile – flying up the hill in the Cotswolds.

Flooring Porter, owned by a West of Ireland Syndicate comprising of Alan and Tommy Sweeney, Edward Hogarty and Kerril Creaven, proved the stoutest stayer of them all under a perfectly judged ride from late stand-in jockey Danny Mullins.

Naturally, Murphy was a giddy mix of excitement and nerves before the big-race, but once the six-year-old defied his 12/1 odds, there was bedlam in the family home in Ryehill.

Watching the race with his mum (Peggy, 90) and dad (John, 95) together with his brother-in-law Bobby Collins, and grandnephew Dean Collins, Murphy’s heart was thumping ahead of flagfall.

“It’s the biggest stage of all and you’re hoping he runs good, and comes back safe and sound. But once the race got going, you’re thinking he could win this. The TV pundits were saying he was a bit quirky and could end up running into and out of Cheltenham town, but he didn’t and was nearly foot-perfect.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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