‘The Racing Community Has Been Amazing’: Frances Crowley Lauds Support of Pat Smullen Fund

[Wandering Eyes]

During 2019, we were fortunate to have Pat Smullen as a regular and immensely popular columnist for TDN. The struggle the former champion jockey faced in his life at that stage never coloured the effort and enthusiasm he put into reporting his weekly thoughts and valuable insights on racing. 

One aspect that really shone through was how much he was dedicated to encouraging the younger members of the weighing-room, not to mention boosting the profile of the sport as a whole. That determination to help others was seen again in his efforts to raise funds for Cancer Trials Ireland.

At the Irish Champions Festival of 2019, some €2.6 million was raised through the Pat Smullen Champions Race and other events surrounding the weekend. Exactly 12 months later, Smullen died, but his vital fundraising work has been continued by his family and the dedicated committee of the Pat Smullen Pancreatic Cancer Fund, which has subsequently raised almost €1 million more, largely through the annual charity race day run in the jockey's name at the Curragh, which was launched in 2021.

“Our aim is to make it to a million this year,” says Smullen's widow Frances Crowley, who has been the driving force behind ensuring that the funding for trials now being conducted continues to help others afflicted by cancer. 

“Every year for the past few years, we've tried a few different things. But we have the charity race that worked really well and we're starting to put out a call now for people to think about if they'd maybe like to do it. And we have the the Curragh to Curragh cycle ride, which is 100 kilometres, and actually it's a really feelgood occasion as well. 

“A lot of the riders in the charity race have ridden in memory of somebody or for somebody, and Pat usually organises a bit of nice weather for us as well.”

She continues, “Whenever we have a meeting with the board of the Pat Smullen Fund, you just come away thinking, 'Wow, to be involved with these people who are so brilliant at what they're doing.' It gives you a bit of a kick to go and do it all over again for another year.”

 

Hannah Smullen with the mosaic of her father at the Curragh | Racingfotos

 

From an original idea by Smullen's oncologist Ray McDermott, in 2024 Professor Grainne O'Kane was appointed to the Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at University College Dublin (UCD). Described by Crowley as “scarily impressive”, O'Kane is already making an impact in this role.

“Just to see it making such a big difference is humbling,” says Crowley. “With patience and time, Grainne is really able to work on trials, on bringing trials to Ireland. I do think it's going to make a huge difference to pancreatic cancer. It gathers its own momentum through her, and it does more even than what the Pat Smullen Fund can achieve. She puts things in motion and we get investment from other places with that, and it brings more trials to Ireland. It's amazing really, and I think Pat just wanted it to go directly to the people who knew what to do with it, straight to the medical profession.”

Crowley says that the focus has been placed on the genetic aspect of the disease and in trying to establish which people may be more predisposed to being afflicted by pancreatic cancer.

“There's never going to be a big cure, we're never going to stop it,” she says. “But, certainly with pancreatic cancer, if you catch it early you have a better chance of treating it. 

“If you can reach that group of people and you're giving them help with screening, it actually could do a huge amount that way, by catching it early so that these people don't get into a life-threatening situation.”

Clearly, the regular updates on the progress being made in the trials has not only a galvanising effect on fundraising efforts, but offers some solace to the Smullen family, as does the ongoing response from their many friends in racing.

“The racing community has been amazing,” Crowley says. “They are the people who have supported us, and that's where all the money is coming from at the end of the day. The Breeze-up Consignors Association sponsored the charity race last year because a lot of their families had been touched by cancer. People have been so good.”

 

Pat Smullen aboard Free Eagle at Royal Ascot | Racingfotos

 

Smullen's name lives on at the races in more ways than one, and this year sees the launch of the Smullen Series by the Irish EBF. The 18-race series is for juveniles and three-year-olds with the intention of providing a progression for those horses bred more for middle distances. It includes a new two-year-old listed race at Naas, named the Irish EBF Pat Smullen Stakes, and the €200,000 Gowran Classic.

Crowley says, “It's lovely to see Pat's name continue to be honoured and being recognised, so we're really grateful for the Smullen Series and the new listed race in Naas.

“It's quite appropriate as Pat was associated with so many good middle-distance or staying horses, like Harzand, Fascinating Rock, Vinnie Roe and Rite Of Passage.”

Crowley was a decent former amateur rider herself – not to mention a Classic-winning trainer – and both she and Smullen are being followed in this regard by their children. Hannah and Paddy have already ridden in the race in their father's memory on the Pat Smullen Charity Race Day, with their younger sister Sarah, a budding eventer, giving it consideration for when she is old enough to compete. 

“We are putting out the call for expressions of interest for this year's race now, and we usually get oversubscribed. I must give special mention to Charlie O'Neill, who raised a huge amount last year, I think he raised €40,000 on his own,” Crowley says.

With Hannah and Paddy Smullen both now holding amateur licences, Crowley recently resubscribed to a training licence, but anyone hoping to see the talented trainer of Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Saoire and Grade 1-winning chaser Moscow Express (Ire) back on the racecourse more regularly should brace themselves for disappointment. 

“It was really just for fun,” she says at the family's Brickfield Stud in County Offaly. “The kids wanted to see what it was like to train one and bring one to the races. But do you know what? I actually love breeding. I actually love the mares and the foals and bringing the foals to the sales. My heart's not in the training any more.”

Brickfield is home to eight mares, and its graduates include last year's G2 Queen Mary Stakes third Maw Lam (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}).

“That was just so exciting, having a runner at Royal Ascot that we bred. I don't even feel that I need to own them,” she continues. “We have a few now this year, that's the first crop of a bigger bunch of foals that we sold. They're all two-year-olds now, so that's going to be exciting.

“But, look, it's good to have the option of the trainer's licence because maybe in the future I think this place would suit getting a little two-year-old going. But I have no aspirations to start training again.”

Smullen and Crowley at Brickfield Stud with Bobbi Grace, dam of Maw Lam

Hannah Smullen, whom her mother describes as “very focused, very like Pat”, is now in her final year reading law at Trinity College Dublin, while Paddy is treading a path that their father knew so well by riding out for Dermot Weld before school.

Sitting alongside his mother and regularly contributing to the conversation with reminders about horse names and pedigrees, he is clearly the next member of the family likely to be forging a full-time role in the racing business once his studies are over. As lunch wraps up, he and Sarah are dispatched into the yard to exercise the resident small string of one racehorse and a few eventers.

“I'm just keeping fit and keeping my foot in the door,” Paddy says of his riding-out duties. “[Dermot Weld]'s been very good to me and given me a few chances so far, so hopefully more to come. I will go back into Gordon Elliott's during the summer as well; Gordon gave me the spin in the charity race.”

Paddy has been fleshing out his knowledge with an obligatory stint of bidspotting at Goffs, as well as leading up for neighbours Ringfort Stud at the sales and completing work experience at Kildangan Stud. His mother, meanwhile, talks of him becoming an accountant. We'll see who wins that battle. 

He says of his mornings at Weld's Rosewell House on the Curragh, where his father was stable jockey for 20 years, “They're all very nice to me in there. And Tom Daly, the head lad, even drops me over to school afterwards.”

As Paddy rides away on his eventer, the initials PJS on the back of his hat silk in the colours of Moyglare Stud, it's hard not to think of the person missing from this scene. But, in so many ways, Pat Smullen is still very much around, not least in the continued drive to raise funds in his name to help others to live for longer. That's a legacy every bit as important as any Group 1 winner he ever rode.

 

Details of this year's Pat Smullen Charity Race Day, which takes place at the Curragh on Saturday, August 30, can be found here. Budding riders wishing to participate in this year's race should email charityrace@curragh.ie and further details about the Pat Smullen Pancreatic Cancer Fund can be accessed via this link.

 

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