00:00There is no better way to announce yourself as a trainer than by sending out your first runner to
00:07win, which is exactly what Michael Keady did. Having been previously part of a training
00:12partnership, Keady has now set up on his own in Newmarket. With the eve of the turf season upon
00:18us, TDN paid Michael Keady a visit at Ravida Place to find out about his plans for the future.
00:23I got into horse racing at a young age. My original plan was to try and be a professional
00:30jockey. I cut my teeth as an amateur for a little while, but I was always on the heavy
00:34side and was always going to struggle at that. So the plan was to work for as many trainers
00:40as I could, learn as much as I could, and then the ultimate goal was to hopefully end up training
00:46and I'm lucky enough to be here now at Ravida Place training under my own name. So a good
00:51owner of mine, Jim Gill, who's also my business partner, was keen to set me up. So a few long
00:57discussions and plans, and we decided to take the leap and set up our own business, Keady
01:03Racing, and here we are. So I grew up in Cambridge. My family were in Cambridge, but have now moved
01:08back home to Ireland. Newmarket's always felt very much like home to me. I worked in Newmarket
01:13when I was young, so I know the place well, and obviously we've got the best gallops in
01:18the world here in my opinion, and it's always been a dream to train here, so that's what
01:22we decided.
01:24So we're on the Hamilton Road, which is the race course side of Newmarket, and the benefit
01:29of being here is really, obviously Newmarket's split into two parts. You've got the Bury side
01:34of town and the race course side of town. We're lucky enough to be based on the race course
01:38side of town where it's flatter and it's quieter, so that benefits horses that need to be trained
01:44with that in mind. But also where we're located on the Hamilton Road, we're on the top end,
01:48and it allows us access to the Bury Hill side of town. So we tend to do two lots every day
01:53over the Bury Hill and use Warren Hill or Long Hill, and then we do two lots on the race
01:58course side. So we're very lucky to be located where we are, and it enables us to cater for
02:04all types of horses really.
02:06It all started very quickly. We moved in here at the beginning of December. My license was
02:12issued on the 17th of December, and lucky enough, my first runner was my first winner at Southall
02:17was Kurumbin. That was also for my syndicate Apollo Horses that I run with my best friend
02:22Dan, and it was also his birthday, so it was a great all the stars aligned. It was also
02:26Kieran Schumark's hundredth winner of the year, so the stars did align on that day. We've
02:30been lucky enough now to have seven winners so far. We've had a couple of doubles as well,
02:34so going really well and very happy with how things are progressing.
02:38We've got a very smart Amahatha two-year-old. He's been named Akabusi, so his owner Jim
02:43Gill, he plays golf with Chris Akabusi, and he was named after him, so hopefully he can
02:48live up to the expectations of that name. But he's showing us plenty at the moment.
02:53We're toying with the idea of aiming him at the Brocklesby, but that's still very much
02:57just a thought at this stage. We've obviously got a little month or so to go now until the
03:00start of the grass, and we'll see how things go until then.
03:04I think the ultimate goal, especially me, is to hopefully one day train on the international
03:09stage successfully, but that will obviously take time to build up to that level. So we're
03:14very much focused in the short term on the remainder of the all-weather season and trying
03:18to get as many winners as we can on the all-weather. And then our attention turns to the grass where
03:23the same philosophy will stick. It's as many winners as we can, and trying to attract as many
03:27new owners as we can to help us build towards our ultimate goal of competing on the international stage.
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