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Address: Ballinasloe, Co. Galway
Principal Jockey: Andrew Thornton
Notable Wins: Guinness Sligo Handicap Hurdle (Kahuna 2009 + 2008), Guinness Handicap Chase (Kahuna 2009), www.galwaynews.ie Handicap Hurdle (Kahuna 2008)
Background
Muredach Kelly began his career in racing in the saddle and having graduated from RACE in 1987, he started off with Mick O'Toole and rode winners for Willie Mullins. He also spent some time in Australia before moving to England, where he worked for Karl Burke and Jenny Pitman when her yard was sending out Grand National winners. After taking his final racecourse ride at Hereford in May 1996, Kelly took a job in Japan where he spent nine years breaking and pre-training. He returned to Ireland in 2005 with a career in training at the forefront of his thoughts.
A Career In Training
Having been granted his training license in mid-2008, Kelly’s first representative was the veteran performer Kahuna in a handicap chase at Cork on June 8th. Kahuna had been a very lucrative performer for Dusty Sheehy, winning a Grade 2 novice hurdle back in 2004. At the time he joined Kelly, he had lost his form and was already a veteran at 11 years of age. However, it didn’t take long for Kelly to revitalise him, as just two months after his first start for the yard, he returned to winning ways in the valuable Guinness Sligo Handicap Hurdle at Sligo, giving Kelly his first success as a trainer. Just over six weeks later, he saddled Kahuna to defy an 11 lb rise in the ratings in the valuable www.galwaynews.ie Handicap Hurdle at Galway, with the veteran showing remarkable enthusiasm to make all the running and forge home 15 lengths in front of his nearest pursuer.
Having achieved such good results with a horse that was familiar to many, it would no surprise to see the number of horses in Kelly’s care increase notably in the months that followed. 2009 saw Kelly saddle quite a few runners on the Flat and he saddled his first winner in that sphere when sending out Champagne Blitz to win a 6f maiden at Dundalk on July 12th 2009. That win represented the beginning of a successful period for Kelly, with Kahuna having an exceptionally lucrative week that began later that month. First of all he gained a popular win in the valuable Guinness Handicap Chase at the Galway Festival and a week later he gained his second consecutive success in the Guinness Sligo Handicap Hurdle. It was a remarkable performance from horse and trainer, considering those wins represented career-best efforts in each sphere for the 12-year-old veteran.
Continued Success In 2010
As had been the case in 2009, Kelly was a bit slow to hit full stride in 2010, but his horses began to come into form as the summer months approached. With his horses running well in Ireland, Kelly sent out a number of raiders to England and the result was two wins from just four runners. The first to get off the mark was the previously disappointing San Jose City, with the five-year-old returning to form to land a notable gamble at Redcar on July 28th 2010. The second of those wins came courtesy of My Girl Anna, with the daughter of Orpen justifying strong market support to win a 6f maiden at Kempton on September 11th.
The now legendary Kahuna bowed out from racecourse action with a respectable performance in a conditions chase at Ballinrobe on August 22nd. He had unquestionably been Kelly’s star performer and had played a substantial role in getting his name out there. While he must now find a new stable star, Kelly has already shown his training talents and it is unlikely to be too long before he finds such a performer.
Updated September 2010.
