Miracle escape for Galway trainer and Cheltenham hero

Date Published: 01-Jun-2011

Galway trainer Paul Gilligan had a lucky escape when his truck carrying five horses, including stable star Bertie’s Dream, burst into flames while in transit – the animals were just seconds away from incineration.

It was 2am last Sunday week and Craughwell native Mr Gilligan, his brother Éamon and Una Corcoran were driving along the A55 motorway in England transporting five horses, collectively valued at about €300,000. All of a sudden, the engine of the truck ‘cut-out’ and within seconds, burst into flames.

The truck had an automatic ‘power out’ on it and just seconds before the power out kicked in, the trio managed to dramatically rescue the horses by shepherding out of their compartments and away to safety. The ramp at the back of the lorry opens and closes using power from the engine – if the power had cut out any earlier,

Mr Gilligan would not have been able to open to ramp to save the horses.

“They would have been burned to a crisp,” he told the Connacht Tribune.

Four of the horses were going to the Doncaster sale and Bertie’s Dream, who won the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle at 33/1 at the 2010 Cheltenham Festival, was heading for France in to run in a race that was to be preparation for the French Champion Hurdle.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.