JP McManus

Stories?  How long do you have?  In truth, you’d listen to JP McManus telling stories all day.

Like the one about him buying tickets from a tout.  The total came to an odd number.  He didn’t have the correct amount in cash and the tout didn’t have change.  Or he said he didn’t anyway.  

(Imagine a ticket tout not having change.)

Anyway, they said that they would toss a coin for the odd amount.  The loser paid the difference.  If the ticket buyer won the toss, he got a discount.  If the tout won, the buyer paid over the odds.

“You toss the coin,” said the tout.  “I’ll call in the air.”

JP tossed the coin and the tout called it as it spun:

“Heads on the ground!”

The coin landed and JP looked down.  He could see the harp looking back up at him.  Tails.  Not so bad, he thought.  Every win counts.  He went to shake the tout’s hand, gracious in victory, but the tout wasn’t conceding.

“No, no, no,” said the tout.  “I called heads on the ground.”

JP looked at him, knowing that this was going against him without being fully sure how.

“Heads on the ground,” said the tout again.

He pointed to the coin that was still on the ground between them, Tails side up.

“Heads on the ground.”

JP smiled and shook his head.  For ingenuity alone, the tout deserved to win the bet.  He named a horse Heads Onthe Ground, and that horse won the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham in 2017.

There are more stories, and the one element that they all have in common is that they are all told against himself.  Like the one about the time that he went to Killarney Races with £600 in his pocket, loaded.  He stood in the ring for the day and lost £300.  He played cards that night, all night, and lost the other £300.

He had to hitch home the following day, broke, all the way from Killarney.  He got home and faced into a field of hay.  Start again.  Work for your money, build up your tank again, get back in the game.  Be smarter next time.

***

Cheltenham.  Again, how long do you have?  It’s everything.  Every day at Cheltenham is special for JP, every race, every winner.  

He first went to Cheltenham in 1973, he saw The Dikler beat Pendil in the Gold Cup and he saw Comedy Of Errors win his first Champion Hurdle, and he thought, imagine owning a horse that was running at Cheltenham and seeing your horse carrying your colours come up that hill in front.

There were losers before there were winners, like Jack Of Trumps, sent off a short-priced favourite for the National Hunt Chase in 1978, fell at the 15th fence or Deep Gale in the same race the following year, again sent off at a short price and travelling well when he departed at the fence after the water.  That was the year too that Jack Of Trumps was well fancied for the Gold Cup, only to miss the race through injury.

JP had to wait three more years for Mister Donovan, but the wait was worthwhile.  At the time of purchase Mister Donovan had failed the vet because he had a heart murmur, but JP liked him as an individual, he saw enough in him and having been highly recommended by trainer Edward O’Grady he took a chance on him, and reportedly backed him accordingly to win the 1982 Sun Alliance Hurdle.  

Some 72 more horses carried the famous South Liberties green and gold hoops up that Cheltenham hill in front before this year.  All are memorable, some were extraordinary.  Mister Donovan’s win was obviously very special, not just because he had backed it and it was his first Festival winner but as he has often said if he didn’t have this one he may not have had any subsequent runners, however Mister Donovan will always be JP’s first Cheltenham Festival winner.

Elegant Lord winning the Foxhunters in 1996 for Enda Bolger, Like-A-Butterfly winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2002 for Christy Roche, Danny Connors winning the Coral Golden Hurdle Final in 1991 for Jonjo O’Neill.  Synchronised’s Gold Cup in 2012. And Istabraq again, again, again and again.

There will always be a poignancy about Istabraq, because he was John Durkan’s horse.  He was the horse that John Durkan was expecting to train, until he contracted leukaemia.  In the winner’s enclosure at Cheltenham in 1997, and in 1998 and 1999 and 2000, thoughts were always of John Durkan.  The three-time Champion Hurdle winner, brilliantly trained by Aidan O’Brien, provided his owner and all those around him with many memorable days and, after the curtain came down on his racing career in 2002, Istabraq lived out a long and happy retirement at Martinstown until last July.

He reflects on the passing of Istabraq. 

“I usually have my phone by the bed but that night it was downstairs charging. I didn’t hear the calls. But when I got up I could see all the missed calls. Immediately I suspected something was wrong. Istabraq was 32 years old. His time had come. Old age had caught up with him in the end. There were lots of tears shed and you’d miss him around here. He was a special horse, he had a great life, we owe him so much.“

He takes a moment to pour the coffee.  

Milk?

***

JP went to the Cheltenham Festival in 2024 with a strong team.  Corbetts Cross in the National Hunt Chase, Majborough in the Triumph Hurdle, the siblings Limerick Lace and Inothewayurthinkin and Fact To File in the Brown Advisory Chase.

“Fact To File,” says the horse’s owner.  “I thought going there in top form he was the one they all had to beat, as long as he settled.  It was important that he settled over three miles because the three-mile novices’ chase was the race we wanted to go for. Corbetts Cross in the National Hunt Chase, you always have a distinct advantage in an amateur riders’ race when you have Derek O’Connor on your side. We were hopeful enough going, but sure you’re always hopeful.”

The Cheltenham routine is the same as it always has been.  Get there on Sunday night, maybe early Monday morning.  Meet up with the family.  Walk the track on Monday.  Soak up the atmosphere, immerse yourself in the anticipation.  

Cheltenham still means as much now as it ever did. 

“It’s a unique week, every winner there is so special.”

The week started well this year, and continued well.  Corbetts Cross won the National Hunt Chase on the Tuesday, Fact To File won the Brown Advisory Chase on Wednesday, Inothewayurthinkin won the Kim Muir on Thursday, Majborough and Limerick Lace both won on Friday.  At least one winner on each of the four days and two on the final day and six seconds to go with the five winners, which took JP’s total number of Cheltenham Festival winners to 78.  And he and his wife Noreen bred Inothewayurthinkin and Limerick Lace, full siblings, by Walk In The Park out of their mare Sway, making the meeting all the more special.

It could have been better too because Jonbon would have had an obvious chance in the Champion Chase. But there was a cloud over the Nicky Henderson horses at the time, and the decision was made to take him out of the race.

“I have little doubt that he was in top form but if you do the right thing, you're never upset.  When you're asking yourself the question, you really know the answer, I spoke to Nicky, and it was like pushing an open door.  We were both on the same page. In the end, you have to do what you think is the right thing for the horse.”

JP has had runners at Cheltenham in six different decades, from the 1970s to the 2020s, and he has had winners in five.  He just couldn’t get there in the 1970s, Fate and the fences conspired against Jack Of Trumps and Deep Gale, but Mister Donovan got it done in 1982 and subsequent Irish Grand National winner Bit Of A Skite won the National Hunt Chase the following year.

He didn’t have a Cheltenham Festival winner between Bit Of A Skite in 1983 and Danny Connors in 1991 and he had to wait another three years after that for Mucklemeg and Time For A Run in 1994, but since then there has hardly been a break.  With the exception of 2011, JP McManus has had at least one winner at every Cheltenham Festival between 1994 and 2024 inclusive and that is remarkable.  

He had won the Grand National twice before this year and they were both so cherished.  Don’t Push It was his first in 2010 and the victory was a first also for trainer Jonjo O’Neill while for jockey AP McCoy it was his one and only success and all was right with the world.  Minella Times was JP’s second, Henry de Bromhead’s first, that win memorably shattered history’s glass ceiling, ridden to victory by Rachael Blackmore, the first female rider to win the Grand National ending what was thought to be an impossible dream less than a generation ago.

I Am Maximus last April was JP’s third Grand National winner and that was memorable too.

“It was a pity that we couldn’t be there for Minella Times,” he says.  “That was during the Covid restrictions.  To win the National again this year was fantastic. All the family go to Cheltenham and to the Grand National.  It’s lovely, it brings them all together.  The grandkids come to the National and that makes it very special. They got so excited, and they caught it on camera, which was lovely.  It was heartwarming to see the emotion from them all.”

They all watched intently as Paul Townend smuggled I Am Maximus into the race.

“There's something about the National. Now, I know the purists would prefer to win the Gold Cup and that’s a wonderful achievement, I consider myself so lucky to have won it and we had a great celebration.  I don't think though there is anything to equal the Grand National.”

It wasn’t all plain sailing.  I Am Maximus can be quirky – less quirky than he used to be, his owner assures you, but still a little quirky – and the Willie Mullins-trained gelding was the beneficiary of a superb ride from Paul Townend.

“Paul, having won the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup, riding at the top of his game, I was so happy when he chose I Am Maximus for the National.  The ride he got when winning the Irish Grand National last year was one for the ages.  We were very hopeful going to Aintree.  We felt that I Am Maximus had won the Bobbyjo Chase with plenty in hand.”

The National was always the primary plan after the Bobbyjo.

“Willie wanted to enter him in the Gold Cup as well. He felt that he would have a big chance, which was understandable.  I just felt that it may be too much.  To get revved up for the Gold Cup, and then to try to peak for the National would be a big ask, so we agreed, let’s just go for the National.”

It was some season last season being champion owner again in Ireland and Britain.  These included important wins with Harvard Guy for Eddie and Patrick Harty, Battle It Out for Conor O’Dwyer, Jonbon coming back to win at Aintree and Sandown, Spillane’s Tower winning Grade 1 races at Fairyhouse and Punchestown.

“That was tremendous, seeing the excitement when Spillane’s Tower won.  He was excellently handled by Jimmy Mangan.  You’re excited for yourself but you’re also excited for Jimmy and his team, seeing how much it means to them. He got a wonderful ovation in the Winners’ enclosure, a very popular winner.”

The benefits of the McManus horses are spread out through many different trainers.  Last season 30 different Irish trainers and 13 different British trainers had at least one winner in the green and gold hoops.  Decisions on who trains what are decided by logic and feel.

“When we have bred a horse and should the trainer have done well in the past with members of the family, or with the dam, we tend to send the progeny to the same trainer.”

Like, Gavin Cromwell trained Spades Are Trumps to win an Ulster National, so it made sense that he would also train Ilikedwayurthinkin, Inothewayurthinkin, Walk Me Home, Mywayofthinkin and Limerick Lace.  If it ain’t broke.

 If he buys a horse in training he tends to leave the horse with the trainer.

“When we buy a horse at the sales, it might be different, but when we buy a horse in the yard, we usually leave the horse there.  It may upset a few of people when you move a horse.  You must consider the lads and lasses who look after that horse as they are so important. You know if you’re buying a horse who is already in training the chances are that the trainer has done well with the horse up to then so why would you move to another trainer?”

There is lots to look forward to too.  Significantly, his five Cheltenham Festival winners are all young horses.  Corbetts Cross is seven, Fact To File is seven, Inothewayurthinkin is six.  All three were novices last season.  Limerick Lace is also seven, Majborough is four.

Five of the top 10 in the betting for next year’s Gold Cup are owned by JP, seven of the top 12 if you include Jonbon and Impervious, who is on the way back.  

“We’re looking forward to having Inthepocket back this year too,” says JP. “With A Dream To Share.  They never got a run at it last year.  Down Memory Lane could be a nice chaser for Gordon this year, Johnnywho for Jonjo, Jeriko Du Reponet at Nicky’s.”

The conversation has moved outside now, to the Martinstown grounds which JP himself cleared as a 19-year-old, manoeuvring a digger for his father’s earth-moving business when the property was owned by Mrs McCalmont.  It’s stranger than fiction this world sometimes.

“I remember all of that very well,” says JP, “because Mrs McCalmont owned Linden Tree who was running in the Observer Gold Cup (the modern day Futurity Stakes) the following week.  She told me that Mr Walwyn thought that he would run well so I had a fiver on him at 25/1.”

Linden Tree won the 1970 Observer Gold Cup but the story doesn't end there because Linden Tree ran in the Derby the following year, JP had a score each-way on him at 20/1 and he finished second to Mill Reef.  He had £200 on Linden Tree in the Irish Derby too three weeks later but, sent off the 7/4 favourite, Peter Walwyn’s horse was left at the start after getting his tail stuck in the gate.

The story goes on.  How long do you have?

© Irish Racing Yearbook, December 2024