Address: Slieverue, Co. Kilkenny

Principal Jockey: Barry Geraghty

Notable Wins: United House Gold Cup Handicap Chase (The Last Derby 2009), Boyne Hurdle (Kazal 2008), Tied Cottage Chase (Don’t Be Bitin 2008), Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle (Kazal 2007), Johnstown Novice Hurdle (Kazal 2007), Toshiba Copier Novice Hurdle (Kazal 2007), Woodlands Park 100 Slaney Novice Hurdle (Kazal 2007), Dorans Pride Novice Hurdle (Kazal 2006), Durkan New Homes Juvenile Hurdle (Lounaos 2006), Leopardstown November Premier Handicap (Lounaos 2006), Guinness Handicap (Kevket 2006), Lartigue Handicap Hurdle (Don’t Be Bitin 2005), Irish Stallion Farms EBF August Handicap (Back To Paris 2005), Kevin McManus Bookmaker Grimes Novice Chase (Mirpour 2004), Dawn Milk Mares Novice Chase (Orthez 2002), Dawn Milk Handicap Hurdle (Rua Lass 2001)

Eoin Griffin has steadily risen through the ranks of the dual-purpose trainers in Ireland in the last decade and is now established as one of the most solid handlers on the circuit. His stable invariably houses a smart performer and he is well known for his shrewd placing of his horses. However, not being from a racing background, Griffin’s rise through the ranks has taken a somewhat unorthodox course and he certainly didn’t get an easy passage to where he is now.

Early Days
Griffin’s first career was as a maintenance fitter with the Guinness brewery in Waterford, but his father always kept thoroughbreds and Eoin was always involved on a pastime basis. When his father decided to breed from his mare Lady Esmond, Eoin took out a training permit to train her offspring. When he and his wife Martina moved to their new farm, they built six boxes and started to get to work from modest beginnings.

A Slow Beginning
Griffin’s early training career was a slow-moving by all accounts, as he saddled his first runner on the racecourse when sending out Treanaree to contest a bumper at Leopardstown in February 1994 and it wasn’t until November 1997 that the same horse gave him his first win as a trainer in a handicap hurdle at Navan. However, it wasn’t until the new millennium that Griffin’s fortunes really began to pick up and appropriately, his increased success came courtesy of two daughters of the aforementioned Lady Esmond, Rua Lass and Orthez. The former gained five wins for Griffin, with two of them coming at the high-profile Galway Festival, including the valuable Dawn Milk Handicap Hurdle in 2001, while the latter won two handicap hurdles before going on to win the Listed Dawn Milk Mares Novice Chase at Limerick in 2002. Those were very important winners for the yard and the publicity they attracted brought a new influx of horses into the yard that laid the foundations for the many successful years he had ahead of him.

Reaping What Was Sown
It was in the 2003/4 season that Griffin began to reap the benefits of the new horses that had been placed with him in the preceding years, with two horses in particular standing out from the pack. Patrizio had looked in danger of becoming a disappointing horse until coming good in spectacular fashion in the opening weeks of the season, winning five novice hurdles in a row thanks to a remarkable sequence of placing on Griffin’s behalf. Another horse that had threatened to be a disappointment was the expensive perchance Mirpour, but he also came good at around the same time, winning three novice hurdles in quick succession. Those wins helped Griffin register a career-best tally of winners and the following season saw him register a career-best tally of prize money thanks to the continued success of Mirpour (won the Grade 3 Kevin McManus Bookmaker Grimes Novice Chase at Tipperary) as well as the contribution of a new smart performer for the yard called Don’t Be Bitin who would go on to claim seven victories for Griffin in the years ahead.

Unfortunately, in the business of training racehorses, every yard will go through a quiet spell and with his horses having picked up a virus, Griffin had to go nearly seven months (November 2005 to May 2006) without a winner. However, every cloud has a silver lining and as is often the case when a trainer eventually emerges from a quiet spell, the winners can come thick and fast and that was certainly the case for Griffin in the 2006/7 season.

A Season To Remember
Almost every successful trainer can refer back to a season that saw them make the leap from one level of their profession to a significantly higher level and there is no question that Griffin’s break-out campaign was 2006/7. While that campaign saw Griffin only saddle marginally more runners than he had in the seasons that preceded it, that was the season that saw both Kazal and Lounaos burst onto the scene and they contributed handsomely to an immensely successful season for the yard.

Kazal arrived in Griffin’s yard having run in a point-to-point and he wasted no time in making an impact, making a winning racecourse debut in a novice hurdle at Wexford in October. A solid fourth in the Grade 1 Barry & Sandra Kelly Memorial Novice Hurdle at Navan on his next start would prove to be the only time he was defeated for the remainder of the season, as he then embarked on a remarkable win streak that saw him claim two Grade 3 novice hurdles and three Grade 2 novice hurdles, once again exhibiting Griffin’s skill in placing his horses well.

Lounaos arrived in Griffin’s yard in 2006 as a maiden on the Flat, but that didn’t last for long and she had soon won a maiden at Roscommon, a handicap at the Curragh and the prestigious Leopardstown November Premier Handicap on the final day of the Flat season. All these wins were considered a very welcome bonus by Griffin, as the mare had been bought with a view to going hurdling and she didn’t take long to make a splash in that sphere either. Having made a winning debut over obstacles at Navan, she went to win the Grade 2 Durkan New Homes Juvenile Hurdle Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting. After that, Griffin made the bold decision to pitch her in against the best hurdlers in training in the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown where she would get a massive weight allowance as a four-year-old filly against her elders. That decision was thoroughly vindicated as she finished an excellent fourth to Hardy Eustace and while she didn’t run to expectations when sent off as favourite for the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival the following March, she had more than contributed to Griffin’s remarkable season.

All told, the 2006/7 National Hunt season saw Griffin saddle 17 winners, not to mention eight winners during the 2006 Flat season. It was a performance that brought him to national attention and it saw the number of horses in his care increase significantly.

Consolidating Success
The hardest thing for any trainer to do after having a much-improved season is to keep the momentum going in the years that follow it, but Griffin managed to do this admirably well in 2007/8 and 2008/9. Kazal, Don’t Be Bitin and Lounaos continued to fly the flag, with Kazal’s win in the 2008 renewal of the Grade 2 Boyne Hurdle at Navan being a notable highlight.

Unfortunately, Griffin had to endure a big blow at the end of 2008, as the highly-promising unbeaten novice hurdler Academy Sir Harry suffered a serious injury that ruled him out of action for the foreseeable future. That began what would prove to be another prolonged quiet spell for the yard that would continue for over a year. The only notable break came when The Last Derby ran out the shock winner of the United House Gold Cup Handicap Chase at Ascot in October 2009. Even that win came with a sting in the tail as just 35 minutes earlier Griffin’s Sanglote had taken a fatal fall in a maiden conditions chase.

Back In Form
Thankfully for Griffin, thus far his strike-rate for the 2010/11 season has been very good and it looks as though the form of his yard has been restored. Considering that Griffin’s best-ever season followed directly after a prolonged quiet period, it could well pay to closely follow the fortunes of Griffin’s string as he could well have an abundance of well-handicapped horses in his care that he will be anxious to make up for lost time with in the coming months. Regardless of how many winners he trains this season, nothing will change the high regard that Griffin is held in by the racing public and his fellow professionals.

Updated July 2010