Patrick Prendergast: Building on a Legacy

[Wandering Eyes]

There was a time when trainers on The Curragh used to walk and trot runners from their stables to the nearby track for racing.

“We had a handicapper called Macgillycuddy (Ire), a good five-furlong sprinter, but he had his own idea of things so we used to jump him over three hurdles on the way and arrive just in time for the race,” recounts Patrick Prendergast as we drive towards the Old Vic gallop to watch some of his charges exercise.

“One day, my father really fancied him. I fell off him going over one of the hurdles and he ran around half The Curragh. I was too afraid to tell my father as I knew he had him backed. Despite doing all that, he still won and Robbie Fitzpatrick said he never moved better.”

That could never happen now but some things endure, like the appearance of the Prendergast name on a racecard. Patrick is known as Pa by his siblings. He was Little Pa as a youth, to differentiate him from his father, who in turn was Young Paddy, Long Paddy or just Junior, in deference to his own father, Paddy ‘Darkie’ Prendergast.

Darkie was a standard setter. A winner of 17 Irish Classics and four in Britain, he was the first Irish-based trainer to be British champion. He completed three in a row from 1963-65, to go with his six Irish titles.

He would always be a tough act to follow for his sons but “ironman” Kevin is a multiple Classic winner who continues to be one of Ireland’s leading trainers as he approaches his 86th birthday in July.

Junior, as he is still known despite being 83 in March, is part of a select group of trainers that enjoyed success at Group 1 level on the flat and Grade 1 over jumps, despite always being cognisant of the business side of the operation and selling on many of his more promising individuals.

“My father bought and sold a lot of horses. I remember it used to annoy my mother an awful lot. She’d say ‘Would you ever hold on to a few?’ Blue Wind (Ire) was one of the best ever 2-year-olds here and she went to Dermot Weld and did the Oaks double [in 1981].”

The 43-year-old’s memories of his grandfather are not vivid and it was only after Darkie’s death in 1980 that he grew to compute the scale of his greatness.

“He actually died when my father was at Royal Ascot,” he recalls. “My father had a horse there, Cooliney Prince (Ire), that won the Windsor Castle, but he didn’t get to see it as he came home. We were all waiting for Daddy to come home because he’d won at Royal Ascot. We were expecting ice-cream and lemonade. I remember him coming in and seeing his face. As a child, you’re not used to seeing your father cry. It sticks in your head. I remember the coverage then after, and it was a huge funeral.”

Prendergast the younger is establishing a niche for himself in the industry once more after nearly going to the wall. Like his father, he trains and lives out of Melitta Lodge. One of the oldest yards on The Curragh, it was where Pat Doucie prepped three G1 Irish Derby winners in 1873, 1881 and 1882. Hubert Hartigan was champion trainer from the facility on three occasions.

Junior bought it and put his own stamp on it and now it is his son that runs the show. That he is living there with his wife Gráinne and three children is born of necessity, as he had to sell their home in Kildare town to pay off the debts that almost buried him–just another victim of speculator owners leaving a slew of unpaid bills in their wake.

Now, he is adding boxes to increase his string from 25 to 40. That is as far as he’d like to go but don’t mistake this for an unwillingness to graft or a lack of hunger. He would not have survived the economic blitz if he wasn’t driven.

Prendergast is full of admiration for the large operations, their systems and ability to delegate, but it is not for him. He prefers to be hands-on, to know all his charges intimately.

Having served his training apprenticeship with his father, Dermot Weld, Jim Bolger and Jean-Claude Rouget, Prendergast also had a spell in California before working as an assistant to Ed Dunlop and Sir Michael Stoute, where he was highly valued.

“Patrick only spent two seasons with me so he did not qualify for a rating,” jokes Stoute before turning serious. “I can say, however, that I was extremely sorry to lose him but totally understood why he decided to go back to Ireland. Patrick is a very good horseman, was very adept at handling the staff and was a very natural communicator with the owners. I am delighted the 2018 season has started so well for him.”

He came home to pre-train for Taiki Racing at Strawhall Stables, succeeding another uncle, John Muldoon. When his patron became ill he turned to training in 2002 and, with his father assisting him, landed running. In 2005, he saddled nine winners, with Waterways (Ire) (Alhaarth {Ire}) bagging the Listed Marble Hill S.

Four years later, Prendergast was on his knees, with no winners and just €19,315 in prize-money accumulated. He refused to buckle however, and gradually built the operation back to a consistent level of performance once more.

“I’d a great year in 2005, with Waterways, who was owned by a really good guy in Pearse Gately, and everything in the yard won. My clients were speculators, and I got left in an awful mess. I had a nice house in town that came from my savings from England and I had to sell it, give it to the banks and move into the yard. I converted a few stables with a few quid I managed to keep.”

“You would have been angry enough at the time,” he says. “I had certain clients that genuinely couldn’t pay me but I have no doubt a huge percentage of my old clients used the crash as an excuse to make no effort.”

Tis Mighty (Ire) (Fruits Of Love) won the Irish Cambridgeshire in 2008 and Prendergast was hanging on. He concentrated on trading and proved extremely adept at it, clearing what he owed and getting back on a solid footing. The support of an American breeder, Rick Barnes of Grangecon Stud, helped him get going once more.

“Along came Coral Wave (Ire), Sugar Boy (Ire), Seolan (Ire)–I had some nice horses,” he said. “I am so appreciative of Rick’s incredibly loyal support. Rick’s system was that if he couldn’t sell them at the sales, he sold them off the track and we sold all of them. Racing is very competitive in Ireland but the flip side of that is that it is acknowledged as such and you can be placed in a maiden and increase the value of your horse, especially for the American market. ”

The current campaign began in spectacular fashion for Prendergast, in keeping with the arc of recent years and coming off his best season ever, with 16 winners and €313,388. Doubles at Dundalk and Leopardstown in six April days saw his strike rate hovering around the 40% mark at one point. That has dropped inevitably but with nine winners on the board and a number of unraced 2- and 3-year-olds still to emerge, there is plenty to look forward to.

At present, he has three Group 3 wins on his CV thanks to Coral Wave, Sugar Boy and Queen Blossom (Ire) (Jeremy)–the latter a recent Grade III winner in Santa Anita–but Group 1 races and Classics are the target. Ken Condon claiming the G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas with Romanised (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) proved that it is possible for a handler operating at his scale.

“My father always said to me ‘Good horses will win in spite of you’. If we have pedigrees coming from good studs, it’ll come,” he says. “I love going to the sales and buying a few, but I am training for a lot of owner-breeders on a small scale, sending me one or two. I have Ballylinch, Grangecon and Airlie, so they’re great studs and [now] if I can get more of that.”

“People say ‘What do you look for in a horse?’ and when all is said and done, pedigree is a great thing,” he recalls. “If they’ve great pedigrees and they go to the track, they’re just doing what they’re born to do if they win. If horses come from nothing, they’re a fluke. It does happen but you are looking for lightning to strike if a horse has no pedigree. So if I’m picking something up at the sales, I’ll forgive them a few things in favour of pedigree because I won’t have the budget otherwise.”

He continues, “I’d find training a yard full of 45-to-65-rated handicappers very frustrating. It’d drive you mad because when they do get through the ballots, it’s the day things are wrong half the time.”

He says, “I’d rather have a boutique hotel than a chain of hotels. And it’s not laziness, or a lack of ambition. I was an assistant trainer and there were 55 horses on a lot. I can see the merit in it but it was not something I wanted for myself. Ideally, I’d love to have 40 stakes horses here.”

“And this is also our home. I place a high value on my family life. I have a lovely staff and I’m comfortable with them being around my family. That’s very important to me.”

Of those that have been to the track, he is hopeful that Skitter Skatter (Scat Daddy) and Mm Sixsevei (Ire) (Dragon Pulse {Ire}) might become stakes horses. Standing as we are now, at the Fox Covert gallop to oversee another bit of work, with the sun beaming down, this is a man happy with his lot.

“I could be commuting to Dublin like a lot of my pals, who are getting into their car at half six in the morning,” he says.

Sure, he wants to join his grandfather, father and uncle on the Group 1 roll of honour and believes he will, but if it happens, it will be his way.

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