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TULLYRAINE EQUINE CLINIC
37, Quarry Road, Banbridge, County Down Tel/Fax: 0044 (0)28 40624566 O.O.H.: 0044 (0)28 40630385 Email: tullyraine@btconnect.com
www.tullyraine.com Best wishes to SRB Crawford
Kilcross Feeds Continued Success To SRB Crawford From
CATTLE, SHEEP & HORSE FEED Nutt’s Corner, Crumlin, Co. Antrim
E:gerald.erwin1@btinternet.com
T:0044-7831577742
Robin McCann Best Wishes & Continued Success To SRB Crawford From
Agricultural Contractor
26 Larne Road, Ballynure, Ballyclare BT39 9UA
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E & L T SO T Y L A
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Telephone: Home 028-9335 2722 Mobile: 07980253976
June and July respectively. Within a relatively-short space of time, Stuart and his brothers have earned a great reputation for themselves as one of the premier horse-training enterprises in Northern Ireland. Reflecting on how he got involved in the sport of kings, the affable Antrim man notes: “My father farms at home and there were always ponies there and I was around them from a very young age. It was just a natural progression from there, really.” Stuart started in the pony club and worked his way up to three-day eventing. He was good enough to represent Ireland at the World Equestrian Games [in 1998]. “But the eventing is more of a rich man’s hobby – there’s a lot of money tied up in it but not much to be made,” he reflects. “We made our money by selling our horses on in June, July, August time, which was obviously frustrating because you want to bring a horse on as far as you can yourself. “In the winter, I started to do a bit of pre-training. I got my first pointto-point winner in 2005-2006 and it snowballed from there. I was still eventing but over the next three or four years the balance swung towards the thoroughbred and training. The last time I rode at an event was around 2009/2010 and the racing side of things has taken over completely since then.” So would it be accurate to suggest that Stuart became a National Hunt trainer by accident rather than design? “No, it’s something I was always interested in, to be honest. Physically, I was probably a bit too tall to become a jockey but I loved the cross-country aspect of threeday eventing and I was lucky enough to win a Young Rider Team Gold Medal at European level in 1995. It just took off from a young age and I kept at it. But one thing led to another and the thoroughbred and racing side of things has just snowballed…” Stuart has a particular penchant for breaking young, unproven horses. His selection and preparation of young horses is a rare talent that has resulted in numerous first-time winners on the racecourse, as highlighted when he landed the bumper on Super Saturday at the Down Royal Festival in 2012 with highly-regarded newcomer Gilt Shadow under a ride from Steven. That completed a Crawford double on the day with Latin Connection partnered by brother Ben (the 2012 Ulster Region point-to-point champion) winning the Tayto Hurdle earlier in the day. Another brother, Ross, also travels with the Crawford runners and supervises on race days while Steven and Ben are normally in the saddle … but all four can be seen in action during early mornings on their excellent uphill woodchip gallop just outside the village of Glynn, where the 60-acre Newlands Farm boasts a sizeable, family run team dedicated to ensuring that all horses are superbly prepared for race days and well looked after. “Since the beginning, I’ve never really got horses that knew their business,” says Stuart. “We started with young horses, did a bit of pretraining, then got a few of our own. We were working with three-yearolds and producing them. That was our bread and butter, but in the last three years we’ve started to attract better horses that people want
PLANT HIRE Est 1993
FOR ALL YOUR SITE WORK, LAND DRAINAGE, AGRI & EQUESTRIAN WORK, HEDGECUTTING, TRACTOR & DUMP TRAILER WORK Contact Jim on 07711405676 Roger 07714769364
Wishing Continued Success To SRB Crawford
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IRISH TRACTOR & AGRI