Sole is a strong pretender to the Guinness Hurdle crown

IT’S a perennial quest for the small trainer – to find that one horse which would elevate the stable to the big-time and the prospect of winning graded races.

And one Galway-based trainer could be on the brink of making that transition when his stable star lines up in the Guinness Hurdle at Ballybrit next Thursday.

And Norman Lee will have family history on his side when he attempts to plunder one of the festival’s features with the hugely progressive Sole Pretender.

A winner of five of his seven races to date and having shot up the handicap ratings by a whopping 36lbs this season, the five-year-old is already the best horse Lee has ever trained.

And he will draw inspiration from the feat of his father Christy, who in tandem with the late Mark Scully from Gort, plotted the victory of bottom weight Lesabelle in the 1973 Galway Hurdle.

Lee grew up on the family farm in Tubber where there was always horses around. His dad was particularly active on the Point-to-Point scene, and part of the business was buying and selling young horses.

Though he had the racing bug, Lee opted to pursue a career in carpentry locally for a few years, but then the recession hit and the work began to drop off. It forced him to bite the bullet and try his hand at full-time training.

He bought some land in Kilmacduagh near Gort and over a period of time, he built the place up into amodern training facility which now comprises of over 30 stables, a five-furlong Wexford sand-gallop, and a horse-walker.

Lee also has access to a six-furlong grass gallop in Athenry and when it’s required, he will also bring his string to the Curragh to fine-tune them for upcoming races.

With his training base only a couple of miles from where he grew up in Tubber, Lee’s feats with Sole Pretender have caught the attention of racing aficionados in both Clare and Galway.

The horse was brought as a three-year-old at the Goffs Land Rover Sales. He cost €20,000 and runs in the colours of Michael Hogan from Castletroy in Limerick, a good patron of the yard.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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