Locally-owned horse shortlisted for Horse of the Year award
A horse owned by a local syndicate is in the running for Horse of the Year at the Horse Racing Ireland awards.
Flooring Porter is owned by the Flooring Porter syndicate consisting of Ned Hogarty, father and son duo Tommy and Alan Sweeney, along with Kerril Creaven (Alan’s uncle).
Alan and Kerril previously ran The Countryman pub in Creagh and with the Hogarty family running a flooring and DIY business in Woodmount.
Flooring Porter rose through the ranks last season to secure Grade 1 success at both the Leopardstown Christmas Festival and the Cheltenham Festival.
The horse is owned by a syndicate consisting of Ned Hogarty, father and son duo Tommy and Alan Sweeney, along with Kerril Creaven (Alan’s uncle).
Alan and Kerril previously ran The Countryman pub in Creagh, in South Roscommon, and with the Hogarty family running a flooring and DIY business,
His first win of the season came in a handicap hurdle at Navan in early December, three weeks later he was the all-the-way winner, again under Jonathan Moore, of the Leopardstown Christmas Hurdle and he went straight to Cheltenham in March where he made all the running in the hands of Danny Mullins, replacing the injured Moore, to take the Stayers’ Hurdle in tremendous fashion.
In a seven-strong shortlist, Flooring Porter faces competition from the unbeaten Champion hurdler Honeysuckle, Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Minella Indo, top-rated chaser Chacun Pour Soi, St Mark’s Basilica, the joint highest-rated horse in the world; Newmarket 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Poetic Flare and the Epsom, Curragh and Yorkshire Oaks winner Snowfall.
Meanwhile, trainer John Shark Hanlon has been nominated for the National Hunt Achievement Award category for his role in the success of Skyace, which is owned by a syndicate including Curraghboy's Cathal McHugh.
Hanlon trained the £600 to victory Grade 1 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final at Fairyhouse on Easter Sunday. It was a fifth and by far the most important win for the Birdinthehand Syndicate-owned six-year-old.
He faces competition from seven other nominees including trainer Gavin Cromwell for a Grade 1 double at the Cheltenham festival with the aforementioned Flooring Porter and Vanillier; Dermot McLoughlin for his BoyleSports Irish Grand National success with Freewheelin Dylan; Jack Kennedy for his famous Cheltenham Gold Cup win on Minella Indo at just 21 years of age; Peter Fahey for his Cheltenham Festival and Aintree Grade 1 success with Belfast Banter; Paul Hennessy who enjoyed Dublin Racing Festival and Cheltenham Festival wins with Heaven Help Us; the Flynn Family for their success with Colreevy and perennial champion amateur Patrick Mullins who rode four Grade 1 winners and won the Guinness Galway Hurdle for the third time in four years.
The winners will be decided by a ballot of the Irish racing media.
Athlone jockey Rory Cleary has also been nominated. See story here