If Christmas is a time of rest, nobody told Co Waterford horse trainer Pat Flynn and his staff. At 6 a.m. on Christmas Day it was business as usual when one longserving employee, Michael Gazeley, walked the 1 1/2 miles from his home to feed the horses at the trainer's Rathgormack stables.
Sometimes, remarks his boss, Mr Gazeley "comes in early" and gets the feeding under way at five o'clock, particularly if he's going away for the day. "Michael doesn't consider six o'clock to be an early start."
By Mr Gazely's standards other staff members had something of a lie-in on Monday, turning in for duty at 7.30 a.m. The horses, the trainer says, "have no notion it's Christmas Day. They still have to be fed and their beds have to be kept clean, seven days a week."
Only Co Kildare can boast a higher concentration of top-class racehorse trainers than the south-east, and this is a busy period for the likes of Jim Bolger, Aidan O'Brien, John Kiely and Frances Crowley. Some will have runners this Christmas at Fairyhouse, Leopardstown, Clonmel, Cork, Tramore and other venues, while others are preparing intensively for next year's flat-racing season.
Mr Flynn, who trains for both National Hunt and flat races, trained the last Phoenix Park winner, Wild Jester, before the racecourse closed just over a decade ago. And he trained a horse that won successive races at Cheltenham: Montelado won the last race of the 1992 festival and came first in the opening race, the Supreme Novices Hurdle, the following year.
French Ballerina was another Cheltenham winner. It's occasions like those, he says, that make all the bad days worthwhile. "We've had a very successful year, but last year was disastrous. I had only seven or eight winners. We didn't know what was wrong with the horses but we got it sorted and we bounced back."
Today he expects to have runners at Clonmel and Leopardstown, trying to add to the 29 winners he's had in 2000. He has a "lovely team" for next year and hopes to do even better.
Most people, he says, think the flat racing season begins in March, "but the hard work starts now". Assisting him in the task is a staff of about 20, half of whom were on duty on Christmas morning, albeit for a shorter working day than usual. Most finished at about 11 a.m.
Staff who took Christmas Day off will make up for it by coming in at 7.30 on New Year's morning, while their colleagues take the day off.
The only thing which spoils Christmas for him is the weather, and he looks forward to summer days when, if there's a race meeting to attend, the working day can stretch from 7.30 a.m. until 1 a.m. the following morning. With his wife, Catherine, and six children, he takes a two-week break in the sun each winter, but a summer holiday would be out of the question.
"The only time I might take a break would be if we had to stay overnight, at the Galway races, for example. Then I might have a drink."
His father, Pat Flynn, a farmer now aged 86, had a couple of horses with the great trainer A.J. Maxwell. Mr Flynn says he "drifted into" training, almost by accident. "I trained one and it won, and then I trained another. I was never in a training ground," he says, referring to the fact that he trains on his own land and is self-taught.
New Year's Day will find him at Tramore, the racecourse rescued from near-oblivion by local businessmen like Peter Queally and Vince Power, where he hopes to have two or three runners. "Tramore is a great success story. At the last meeting the atmosphere was electric. I see great hope for it."
But isn't it a difficult track to negotiate? "It's a fair enough track," he replies, with characteristic pragmatism. "It's only difficult if you get beaten."
