Ray Cody
Ray Cody had been there before. Lartigue Hurdle day at the Listowel Harvest Festival, and a runner in the feature race with a real chance.
He was brand new to the training ranks seven years ago when he put the saddle on Razoul and sent him and Donagh Meyler out to win the 2019 renewal of the Lartigue Hurdle. He probably didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, he says. The magnitude of it all. You have to take the time to appreciate these landmark wins.
This year’s contender Game Point was in a different mould. Similar profile, a four-year-old who had won his maiden hurdle on his previous run, and same owner, Razoul too raced in the Ballygallon Stud silks. But there’s a touch of class about Game Point, the trainer says. Razoul wouldn't have had the same talent.
He made his way from the parade ring down towards Listowel’s stands with his wife Gillian.
“Where did we watch Razoul from?”
They got their position in the owners’ and trainers’ stand and watched as Game Point and Sam Ewing lined up at the start. Willie Mullins was just in front of him on the steps of the owners’ and trainers’ stand, the champion trainer had two runners in the race, and they exchanged greetings. Talk of gallops, talk of horses’ fitness levels. No real talk about the specifics of the contest that was about to unfold on the racecourse in front of them.
Good luck. Good luck.
Sam Ewing had to ride Game Point along for a few strides in order to get him to the front but, once there, horse and rider were able to relax. He jumped the first flight well and settled into his racing rhythm.
“It was always the plan to go forward on him. Let him jump and run. We had been riding him wrong, trying to get him to settle in behind. Donagh Meyler rode him at Wexford in July, and he said you’re better off just letting this fellow make the running. So when he went back to Wexford last month, I told Paddy (Cody, nephew) to let him stride on. He seemed to enjoy that and he won easily.”
The Blue Point gelding seemed to enjoy it too on Thursday, bowling along in front of his 12 rivals, pricking his ears and looking for the next flight of hurdles. He went a bit to his right early in the home straight first time and his rider had to straighten him up.
“That’s just him,” says his trainer. “He looks to his right when he’s going left-handed. And when he raced right-handed at Roscommon, he went to go to his left. He could be even better when he learns to do things right.”
The Lartigue Hurdle had been the plan for Game Point for a while. In the winner’s enclosure at Wexford four weeks earlier, he had said it, Lartigue Hurdle next, but actually, the plan had been hatched long before that.
“I was thinking that he could be a horse for the race from the time that we got him,” he says. “He was a good horse on the flat for Ger Lyons. He didn’t manage to win, but he ran well in defeat on a few occasions. We were delighted to get him, he ran twice on the flat for us but, deep down, I was thinking that he could make up into a nice hurdler. I said it to Belinda (Strudwick, of Ballygallon Stud), and she was very happy to allow him go over hurdles.”
His association with Ballygallon Stud goes all the way back to the time that he took out his trainer’s licence in 2018. Ray Cody grew up on a dairy farm, cattle his first passion. He grew up in Dunnamaggin in County Kilkenny. Joe Crowley’s yard was seven miles away, so he started going in there when he finished school. He had never sat on a horse before he arrived in Joe Crowley’s.
He cycled there and back every day: seven miles in, seven miles home. All weather. He did that for 10 years, and he learned lots about horses. He says that he wasn’t a very good rider, yet he still rode three bumper winners for Joe Crowley, before a fall in a point-to-point shattered his knee and ended his riding career.
He continued his education with trainers Sean O’Brien, Seamus O’Farrell, Eoin Doyle and Ellmarie Holden. He was assistant trainer to Seamus O’Farrell when they won the Galway Hurdle with Perugino Diamond in 2000, and he was assistant to Ellmarie Holden when they sent out Abolitionist to win the Leinster National and to finish third in the Irish Grand National in 2017.
“I never really had it as an ambition to take out my own licence,” he says. “But my wife thought that it would be a good thing to do, so we said that we would give it a go.”
Gillian Cody is a qualified vet, and it was through her work with Ballygallon Stud that the connection was made between owner and trainer. She rides out in the morning before she goes to work. Ray is back riding out now himself too, back to (almost full) fitness after an ankle injury. His nephew Ray is with him full-time. His other nephew Paddy is in three days a week.
His niece Emily, recently also qualified as a vet, rides out in Joseph O’Brien’s, but she is in when she can. Dick O’Gorman does the gallops. It’s a small team of horses, a small team of people, and it works. They added two furlongs to the gallop to make it six and a half furlongs, and they changed it from woodchip to sand, and they have had more winners this year so far than they have had in any full year since they started.
“They’re all running well, thankfully,” says Ray. “We have brilliant owners, and we’re lucky that we have a few nice horses now. Merlin The Wizard ran well to finish second in an apprentices’ handicap at Dundalk last Friday. We hope that he can go one better next time. Bell Ex Too was good in winning his maiden hurdle at Ballinrobe, and we already have next year’s Lartigue Hurdle in mind for him!”
It looked good for this year’s Lartigue Hurdle when Game Point landed over the second last flight on Thursday afternoon still in front, still travelling well. The cheering started from that point. He jumped the final flight well, and Ray and Gillian cheered him all the way to the winning line.
“Willie Mullins was the first one to congratulate us,” says Ray. “He turned around and said, well there were no worries about his fitness level anyway!”
They went home that night and opened a bottle of champagne. You have to take the time to appreciate these landmark wins.
© The Sunday Times, 27th September 2026
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