Ballingara Racing Stables
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Established in 1981, Ballingara Racing Stables is renowned for having a steady flow of winners to come out of its yard every year since it began. With 593 winners and counting it is one of Irelands strongest yards. Founder and trainer Patrick J Flynn's dream of owning his own successful yard has come to fruition in the form of all weather and sand gallops, 2 automatic horse walkers, 3-phase advanced hay drying machine for perfect hay, racing yard and stud farm with a combined 110 stables spread out over 150acres situated 5miles outside Carrick On Suir, County Waterford.
BALLINGARA
Having a horse in training with us.
On our farm the horses come first, we spare no expense in making sure they are treated to the highest standards. We have the best of hay thanks to our unique VEDA hay dryer and the horses are fed with a range of red mills and gain products, the best on the market. Our staff are highly trained and experienced horsemen/women. We strive for customer satisfaction and love nothing more than seeing our horses in the winners enclosure. If you have any questions regarding having a horse in training or would like advice on buying horses and having them trained, feel free to give us a call or e-mail us at pjflynnracing_eircom.net.
Regards
Patrick J Flynn
pjflynnracing_eircom.net
Ballingara
Carrick on Suir
Co. Waterford
Tel. 051646194
Fax. 051646381
Mob. 0862577380
Picture by ottonassar
For holiday goers we provide accomodation in the form of a re-decorated large ninteenth century cottage with stone walls intact. It contains 3 bedrooms, kitchen, utility area, 2 large living areas, 2 bathrooms with an electric shower in each along with a bath in one, It also has a large decking area to the back, perfect for barbeques. It is set on a half an acre of land with gardens to the front and side. While on holiday you are always welcome to visit our training yard, here we will show you the ins and outs of having a racehorse in training and bring you right to the action on the gallops. With the cottage only 4 miles from Carrick on Suir and 8miles from Clonmelt you are never far from shops, restaraunts, pubs and if town life is not what you're here for, why not try the local village Rathgormack only 3 miles down the road for a quiet relaxing drink or a hike on the comeragh mountains provided by the local community centre. For more information on staying with us feel free to e-mail us at pjflynnracing_eircom.net or give us a call on 051646194 and we'll be happy to help.
'I'm Pat Flynn, not Keith Barry' The Irish Independant
Pat Flynn's pursuit of excellence has led to some innovative approaches to training winners, writes Johnny Ward
'THE reason I ran the horse was that there was €5,000 prize-money right down to sixth place. We'll surely come in the first six, I thought. If we get fifth we'll get more; if we get fourth we'll get more again, and so on. We were there to win, of course, but the money certainly swayed us towards running him."
The trouble was Bahrain Storm ended up winning the Galway Hurdle. Pat Flynn was bullish that the six-year-old would run creditably, but even he was taken aback by the gelding's six-length hammering of the heavily-backed favourite, Deutschland. And there were a further five and a half lengths back to third.
This was all on ground softer than ideal for the Bahhare-bred, which took a long time to win on the level and was initially allotted a hurdle rating of 97. By the time he had left his foes floundering in the Hurdle under young Stephen Gray, he had already been declared to run on the Flat the very next night. As if those who doubted the horse's toughness needed another reminder of how wrong they had been, he bolted up in that as well.
"He was never tricky," Flynn stresses. "Bahrain Storm is so laid-back, it's unreal. He's lazy, real lazy. If he hasn't blinkers on, he won't bother his head."
For many, the sight of the horse quickening away up the hill for the second time on the Friday was the defining moment of the 2009 Galway Races. Flynn is an extremely popular figure in the sport. "I couldn't believe the pouring out of congratulations -- the texts, the cards and so on. I was uplifted. People came out of the woodwork that I hadn't known for 20 years. People shook my hand; they were genuinely happy."
The 52-year-old is widely viewed as one of the most capable trainers in Ireland. He started off in the early 1980s with a mare owned by his mother, which won. His very next inmate was a two-year-old named Virginia Deer, which won four races that season, including a Group Three. It was an astoundingly good start for the farmer turned trainer in Carrick-on-Suir.
His ascension was more gradual than dramatic in the '80s, by the end of which he had earned a reputation for being adept at placing his horses astutely. Twenty years on and Flynn stresses the relevance of this just as much as he would have back then.
It governed his decision to resaddle Bahrain Storm a day after he had won the Hurdle. "Some people don't realise the rating system in horses. He was rated 98 on the Flat and he was carrying level weights with horses rated in their 80s. I said: 'Jesus, I have to run here'. I'm always into handicapping horses and watching that.
"I didn't want to run him two days in a row but an opportunity like this wasn't going to come around for a long time and I wasn't going to miss it. I took a risk, because if he slipped up, people would be saying I should never have run. The purists would know why I ran him."
Flynn is also an undoubted horseman. He chose Gray to ride Bahrain Storm in the Hurdle race because of the Dundalk man's "kind hands", which the trainer himself would demonstrate by his treatment of the gelding between his two wins.
It seems remarkable and illogical in equal measure that he deemed it wise to have the horse driven back to Waterford on the Thursday, only to load him up in the lorry to return to Galway the very next morning. Flynn saw it differently: he was thinking outside the box, by wanting Bahrain Storm inside the box.
"By the Friday, he'd actually travelled 250 miles, as well as running in the race the day before. I was going to leave him there, but I said: 'look, we'll bring him home'. He was home at 9.20 that night and had a lovely 14 hours in his box. If I'd left him in Galway, he'd have been wondering where he was and he wouldn't have rested as well. He'd have been uneasy. We were able to give him everything he wanted at home -- in his own box, where he felt safe in himself."
Flynn describes the gelding, owned by Pat Sweeney, as "like a pet lamb". He nurtures the talents of his horses -- as do his staff which he so persistently praises -- with patience and empathy. Why else did Bahrain Storm win nine times after failing to do so in his first 14 outings? She's Our Mark ("a phenomenon" in her trainer's words) was once a modest 69-rated handicapper; now she is a five-time winner, the last of them a Group race at Leopardstown just over a fortnight ago.
The late MV O'Brien is accepted as the greatest trainer of them all, yet to complement his innate horsemanship, he was always looking to learn and be innovative. Flynn, likewise, pursues the crucial edge that will allow his list of winners to lengthen further.
That is why he gave Bahrain Storm a spin over fences for the first time in Limerick in May. "The main reason for this was I had the Galway Hurdle in mind. I knew they were going to be using these new 'easyfix' hurdles in Galway.
"I thought if he runs over fences, he'll have no problem over these new hurdles -- he'll make little of them. They look like baby fences. I was afraid that if he hadn't run over fences, he might try to brush through those hurdles. He was like a gazelle at the second-last."
Though his profession has taken him on a journey nearing three decades, he is as excited by it now as he was when he saddled his first horse. In order for that to be so, he must continue to experiment and endeavour to do things that bit better.
"I went off last year to Iowa in the States and bought a humongous Veda hay-drying machine. Now I have it here and we save our own hay with gas. We can save 24 big round bales at a time. Most trainers import their hay from Canada or France; I make up my own hay here. And it tests perfectly. I'm making hay for years, having been a farmer, but I'm increasingly frustrated with the Irish weather conditions. If you can get a window to save the hay, it's usually when the hay is either not ready or too ready.
"I had to do something so I looked around and eventually I came across this. No other trainer, I think, has followed my lead; they're fairly expensive I suppose.
With the Irish hay, you don't get that extra day to save it. Once heat gets into the hay, the damage is done and once you feed it to your horses, their lungs get infected."
Flynn interprets Bahrain Storm's victory as a clear vindication of his decision to import the hay-maker, and he revels in relating how that was not the only new gadget at Ballingara Stables this year.
"We've gone a step further now and got this new thing in from Australia. It's a blanket for the horse's back. We've magnets in the blankets and we have it wired up to the jockeys. We've a satellite tracking system and we can measure the heart-rates of the horses on the gallops. We can then input that into the computer and we can see how hard our horse worked or didn't work.
"We have it about a month and Bahrain Storm's heart was very, very good before he went to Galway. I've an owner out in Australia and he was telling me that all the good horses had it in Australia. We're still learning but I'm excited about it. I'm like a kid with a new toy."
If Flynn pursues continual improvement, so must Bahrain Storm as he will be aimed at the Champion Hurdle next march at Cheltenham. He needs to progress at least a stone to be competitive at that level, but his trainer likes a challenge.
"Of course he has improvement left in him, though he'll be up there with the top stuff now and he'll have to improve. I will hope to run him in the English Cesarewitch. Thereafter, I might put him in a few conditions hurdle races, run him in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown and then the English Champion Hurdle. Davy Russell said after he won in Cork last month that it was sheer class that won out."
As we talk, I make note of Flynn's career wins, 592. Lest it have escaped me, I received a text from him the next day informing me that Wordly Wise had won the feature race in Gowran the previous evening to make it winner number 593.
"See if you can get to the 600 mark by Sunday," I replied, in reference to his most immediate training goal, to which he responded: "I'm Pat Flynn -- not Keith Barry!"
One of these Waterford men has performed works of magic, while the other is an illusionist.
WHITE = WINS
YELLOW = PLACES
28/09/09 Roscommon -12f Mdn 1st/16 Prince Chaparral - Ballyleague M'dn €8,500
28/09/09 Roscommon -12f Hcp 1st/14 Galianna - Derrinstown Stud Apprentice H'cap €9,500
26/09/09 Gowran Park -8f Hcp 1st/16 Final Flashback - Autumn Team Classic 2009 At Gowran H'cap €13,500
13/09/09 Curragh - 7f Hcp 1st/29 Final Flashback - Anglesey Lodge Equine Hospital H'cap €11,500
13/09/09 Curragh - 8f Hcp 1st/17 Worldly Wise (GB) - K & M Timber H'cap €22,500
07/09/09 Clonmel - 10f Mdn 3rd/12 - Prince Chaparral - Rathronan (C & G) M'dn €680
07/09/09 Clonmel - 1m2f - 1st/12 - Binocular -The Derrinstown Stud Apprentice Claiming Race €8000
22/08/09 Cork - 10f Hcp - 2nd/10 Final Flashback - Fermoy H'cap €2,295
18/08/09 Killarney - 8f Hcp - 3rd/15 Connyella - Joe O'Shea Electrical H'cap €600
16/08/09 Tramore - 20f HcpHdl - 2nd/16 Aliceaneileen - Graun Hill (Mares) H'cap H'dle €1,785
15/08/09 Tramore - 12f Hcp -1st/13 Bay Swallow - Madra Dog Foods H'cap €6,650
15/08/09 Tramore - 14f Hcp -1st/13 Galianna - Bet On Course With Tote H'cap €4,900
15/08/09 Tramore - 12f Hcp - 2nd/10 Mon Champion - R.McDonald & Sons H'cap €1,955
14/08/09 Tramore - 16f NHF - 4th/15 Dancing Bird - Tramore Amusement Park INH Flat Race €400
13/08/09 Leopardstown - 9f Hcp - 1st/20 Final Flashback - 'Saw Doctors' Live After Racing H'cap €7,350
13/08/09 Tramore - 12f Hcp - 1st/13 Bay Swallow - Harney's Dunhill H'cap €5,600
13/08/09 Tramore -12f Hcp - 1st/11 Belle Of The Lodge - Tote Jackpot Races 3 to 6 H'cap €5,950
12/08/09 Gowran Park - 9f - 3rd/11 She's Our Mark (GB) - Ir.Stallion Farms EBF Hurry Harriet Stks €4,250
12/08/09 Gowran Park - 8f Hcp - 2nd/16 Worldly Wise (GB) - Tote Jackpot Races 3 to 6 H'cap €4,300
05/08/09 Gowran Park - 9f Hcp - 1st/8 Worldly Wise (GB) - Golf Open Week At Gowran Park H'cap €14,190
02/08/09 Cork - 6f Mdn - 2nd/10 Miss Faustina - Irish Stallion Farms EBF M'dn €2,635
31/07/09 Galway - 14f - 1st/9 Bahrain Storm - Guinness Race €14,190
30/07/09 Galway - 16f HcpHdl - 1st/20 Bahrain Storm - Arthur Guinness Galway H'dle H'cap €152,500
24/07/09 Wexford -14f Hcp - 3rd/16 Binocular (GB) - Belmont H'cap €560
23/07/09 Leopardstown - 10f - 1st/8 She's Our Mark (GB) - Meld Stakes €40,920
18/07/09 Tipperary - 12f Hcp - 3rd/5 Mon Champion - Willie O'Rourke Memorial Hcap €1,120
12/07/09 Curragh - 10f Hcp - 4th/13 King Royal - Bradys Mercedes-Benz H'cap €725
12/07/09 Dundalk - 12f Hcp - 3rd/14 Belle Of The Lodge - Connolly Kelly CharteredAccountants Hcap €720
12/07/09 Curragh - 9f - 1st/8 She's Our Mark (GB) - Kilboy Estate Stakes €31,350
10/07/09 Cork 20f Hdl - 1st/15 - Bahrain Storm - E.P.S. Mallow H'dle €14,190
09/07/09 Leopardstown - 9f Hcp - 1st/21 Birregurra - Aslan-Live After Racing Apprentice H'cap €4,900
09/07/09 Leopardstown - 8f Hcp - 2nd/17 Worldly Wise (GB) - Fernleigh H'cap €2,295
05/07/09 Limerick - 7f Hcp - 1st/15 Aoibhinn (GB) - www.limerickraces.ie H'cap €5,950
04/07/09 Bellewstown - 14f Hcp - 3rd/14 Aliceaneileen - O'Neills Sports Supporting Fam Day H'cap €600
01/07/09 Fairyhouse - 10f Hcp - 3rd/11 Worldly Wise (GB) - Mill Tree Park H'cap €2,150
20/06/09 Down Royal - 7f - 2nd/6 Worldly Wise (GB) - Rainbow Telecom Rated Race €1,785
19/06/09 Limerick - 11f Hcp - 1st/14 Final Flashback- Derrinstown Stud Apprentice H'cap €5,600
15/06/09 Ballinrobe - 9f Hcp - 3rd/15 Birregurra - Derrinstown Stud Apprentice H'cap €640
06/06/09 Curragh - 10f - 2nd/8 She's Our Mark (GB) - Mogeely Stud Silver Stakes €8,500
30/05/09 Tramore - 12f Hcp - 4th/8 Aliceaneileen - Lisselan (Fillies) H'cap €425
21/05/09 Clonmel - 10f Hcp - 2nd/14 Binocular (GB) - Knockmealdown H'cap €1,275
03/05/09 Gowran Park - 9f - 1st/8 She's Our Mark (GB) - I.S.F. EBF Victor McCalmont Memor.Stakes €42,900
03/05/09 Gowran Park - 9f Hcp - 3rd/17 Worldly Wise (GB) - Kilkenny H'cap €880
06/04/09 Limerick - 8f Hcp - 2nd/16 Worldly Wise (GB) - Greenmount Park Members Club H'cap €1,870
Our Hay
Slide Show
Here at Ballingara we benefit from the making of our own hay. Our grasslands are monitored all year round and when the time comes to make the hay we save it within 3days, this is thanks to our unique VEDA hay drying machine imported from the U.S.A where it is widely used. The machine consists of a large 3 phase induction motor which sucks in air which in turn is heated by a gas burner and then blows it through a total of 24 round bales which have been clamped from above and below and hot air is blown through each end of the bales until they come down to 10% dry matter, this gives us the benefit of perfect hay in 2-3 hours whatever the weather. Our hay is the best and comes off the dryer in top class condition every time.
