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27 Apr 13
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High - Having a relatively great elevation; extending far upward.
Stratos - short for stratosphere .
If you say that someone or something climbs or is sent into the stratosphere, you mean that they reach a very high level.
Stratos - short for stratosphere .
If you say that someone or something climbs or is sent into the stratosphere, you mean that they reach a very high level.
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yea the shark is in the middle of a sustained attack on the british isles,a winner a 2nd and a 3rd at MR today he sends over a montjeu 4yo gelding to ludlow tomorow......GO SHARK.....
The cattle dealer who’s a shark at the horses
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Although he only took out a trainer’s licence in 2006, John ‘Shark’ Hanlon has already had a huge impact on Irish racing. Declan Colley spoke to the Kilkenny man
By Declan Colley
JOHN Joseph Hanlon is a big man with a shock of red hair the likes of which hasn’t been seen since John Hinde’s romantic and idealistic postcards popularised a vision of an Ireland populated by red haired children and donkeys.
There was no colourist involved here; the ‘Shark’, as he is known, has hair as naturally vivid and thick as the lush sward which surrounds his base on the Kilkenny-Carlow border outside Paulstown. A former cattle dealer known the length and breadth of the country, Hanlon is a new breed of trainer, one whose initial burst of success has increased his profile hugely in a very short period of time.
The ‘Shark’ handle, by the way, has nothing to do with racing; rather it stems from his nascent days as a hurler when former Kilkenny great Pa Dillon christened the young Hanlon with the name which has stuck ever since.
“He was much bigger at U-14 than any of the rest of the young fellas,” his dad Willie recalls. “He was about a foot bigger than the rest of them and Pa Dillon, who was a selector on the team said: ‘By Jaysus, he’s like a shark’ and he’s been called that ever since.”
Like Willie and his father before him, John Hanlon was born into the cattle dealing trade, but he always had a fascination with horses and his first serious introduction to the racing game came courtesy of the late legendary Paddy Mullins, who trained at neighbouring Doninga.
The genial giant says he was always interested in the horses and years ago had horses with Paddy Mullins and he trained a few winners the then cattle man – The Crazy Bishop was probably one of the better ones.
“I used to own them in partnership with Paddy’s son George and we had a few good days. We won six or seven races with The Crazy Bishop and we got great sport out of him – he was a right horse. He didn’t have the straightest front legs you’ve ever seen, but he was able to gallop alright,” Hanlon recalls.
But, when the foot and mouth came to Ireland and the UK in 2001 the paperwork associated with the cattle got too much and Willie retired, so the Shark was left with nothing much to do.
“I started pre-training a few horses for point-to-points. For years we used to graze horses for the Mullins’ and I also drove a truck for George Mullins for a couple of years. After that I worked with Tony Mullins in his yard and I was involved with Peter Daly who was Tony’s head lad at the time. I got to learn my tricks that way. Paddy Mullins was also a great man in his own right and if you were with him and stopped talking and listened, you’d always learn something. We’d be feeding the horses and you’d learn more in five minutes with Paddy that you’d learn from a schoolteacher in a year. If you were willing to listen and learn, he was a good teacher.”
Then Hanlon and his partner Rachel acquired a filly called Wolsley Lady and they went point-to-pointing with her and while she was beaten first time out, she won the next day and the owner suggested that John take out a licence so he could train her for a bumper.
“I took out a permit and that filly won her bumper and I had another filly I’d bought at the sales, Shaimaa, and she won as well. When I had a few winners I got a few more horses and we decided to get a bit more serious. We turned what had been the cattle sheds here at home into stables and since then, touch-wood, it has been going the right way,” he says modestly.
“The horses were coming from all sorts of people and a lot of cattle people I knew from the old days gave me horses. But the thing was that when I started training winners, the horses just came. Tony Durcan is one of my very good owners and he knew I had been with Tony Mullins. When Shaimaa won her first bumper, he rang and wanted to know if I’d sell her and I told him I would. I was worried though because he was a client of Tony Mullins and I didn’t want to upset that. But he assured me he had horses all over with different people, so I sold him the filly. But the thing is that when you get involved with people like the Durcans, people see that and take notice. People are more inclined to put faith in you; Michael Mee has been one of those.
“Another owner I’ve had since the start is Barry Connell and he has been super to me. He’s bought a lot of horses and he sent me a lot of them and we have had a lot of luck together. When an owner has luck with you, they’re more likely to stay and he is happy enough to keep that going.”
WHEN it is put to the Shark that there is a common perception amongst the racing fraternity that he has the ‘touch’ when it comes to horses – that he is a natural in the game – he maintains that he would be nothing without the staff he has. “Unless you’ve good staff, you’re going nowhere and I have had very good staff from the outset. Rachel is also very good and she looks after all the paperwork and she’s a devil to find the right races for the horses. Before we do entries, we go through all the books and we’d be looking for a race even six months down the line. The thing is though, when you have good horses, it is easy to pick races for them, but if you’ve bad ones it is very difficult. Everyone has bad horses and we’re no different. This time last year I had more horses but with the climate that’s in it, we’re lucky to have what we have.”
Having started in ‘06 when he had a permit licence and only had three horses, it stayed that way for about two years.
“It was only in 2008 that we started getting numbers of horses,” Hanlon says. “But then things started to go wrong in the economy and through ‘08 and ‘09 we were just lucky we had enough good horses to get us through. We were having a few winners too which was crucial, because you are only as good as your last winner in this game.”
Hanlon cannot believe in the last three years he has had the highest strike rate of any trainer with graded runners in Ireland.
“You’d never dream that would happen; you’d be hopeful you’d have one good enough to run well in a graded race, but I’m after having seven or eight graded winners. The likes of the Sunday in Leopardstown when we won the graded race with Hidden Cyclone and then an hour later won the bumper, was unbelievable. If you had a placed horse, you’d come home happy, but to come home with two winners in the one day, well… it makes you get up the next day.
“The thing is that you’re always looking for good young horses because if they’re good this year, then they should be better next year. This year I’ve got the likes of Star Neuville and Hidden Cyclone and I’ve three or four other nice bumper horses which have not run yet, but which will win. You go from season to season, but it is the likes of them that keep your heart going.”
Curiously he has not yet had a chase winner, but that’s simply because he’s had no chase horses.
“It takes three or four years to know if they’ll make it, but I think next year I’ll have a couple of lovely chasers – with Luska Lad being one of them. We will finish out this season with him hurdling and then we’ll go chasing; we’ll have him and Hidden Cyclone and a couple more.
“But the thing is that you have to have winners to keep going and there are plenty of trainers around here who are back to minimum numbers because that’s just the way things are right now. We’re lucky that we have a few nice horses that keep the wheels turning for us. But you’d always be worried that you’ll hit a quiet time – it is inevitable at some point – but the important thing is to keep your head above water in the times that are in it. In my view you’re better off with an empty box than a bad horse.”
It seems certain, on the basis of his exceptional training record – he had another winner in Thurles on Thursday with Stowaway Pearl – that Shark Hanlon won’t have too many empty boxes in this yard, now or anytime soon. Not bad for a cattle dealer turned horse trainer.
“I’ve done ok buying my own horses,” Hanlon says. “But Paddy Mullins always used to say to me that if ‘you’re a judge of a bullock, you’re a judge of a horse,’ and maybe he was right.”
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Although he only took out a trainer’s licence in 2006, John ‘Shark’ Hanlon has already had a huge impact on Irish racing. Declan Colley spoke to the Kilkenny man
By Declan Colley
JOHN Joseph Hanlon is a big man with a shock of red hair the likes of which hasn’t been seen since John Hinde’s romantic and idealistic postcards popularised a vision of an Ireland populated by red haired children and donkeys.
There was no colourist involved here; the ‘Shark’, as he is known, has hair as naturally vivid and thick as the lush sward which surrounds his base on the Kilkenny-Carlow border outside Paulstown. A former cattle dealer known the length and breadth of the country, Hanlon is a new breed of trainer, one whose initial burst of success has increased his profile hugely in a very short period of time.
The ‘Shark’ handle, by the way, has nothing to do with racing; rather it stems from his nascent days as a hurler when former Kilkenny great Pa Dillon christened the young Hanlon with the name which has stuck ever since.
“He was much bigger at U-14 than any of the rest of the young fellas,” his dad Willie recalls. “He was about a foot bigger than the rest of them and Pa Dillon, who was a selector on the team said: ‘By Jaysus, he’s like a shark’ and he’s been called that ever since.”
Like Willie and his father before him, John Hanlon was born into the cattle dealing trade, but he always had a fascination with horses and his first serious introduction to the racing game came courtesy of the late legendary Paddy Mullins, who trained at neighbouring Doninga.
The genial giant says he was always interested in the horses and years ago had horses with Paddy Mullins and he trained a few winners the then cattle man – The Crazy Bishop was probably one of the better ones.
“I used to own them in partnership with Paddy’s son George and we had a few good days. We won six or seven races with The Crazy Bishop and we got great sport out of him – he was a right horse. He didn’t have the straightest front legs you’ve ever seen, but he was able to gallop alright,” Hanlon recalls.
But, when the foot and mouth came to Ireland and the UK in 2001 the paperwork associated with the cattle got too much and Willie retired, so the Shark was left with nothing much to do.
“I started pre-training a few horses for point-to-points. For years we used to graze horses for the Mullins’ and I also drove a truck for George Mullins for a couple of years. After that I worked with Tony Mullins in his yard and I was involved with Peter Daly who was Tony’s head lad at the time. I got to learn my tricks that way. Paddy Mullins was also a great man in his own right and if you were with him and stopped talking and listened, you’d always learn something. We’d be feeding the horses and you’d learn more in five minutes with Paddy that you’d learn from a schoolteacher in a year. If you were willing to listen and learn, he was a good teacher.”
Then Hanlon and his partner Rachel acquired a filly called Wolsley Lady and they went point-to-pointing with her and while she was beaten first time out, she won the next day and the owner suggested that John take out a licence so he could train her for a bumper.
“I took out a permit and that filly won her bumper and I had another filly I’d bought at the sales, Shaimaa, and she won as well. When I had a few winners I got a few more horses and we decided to get a bit more serious. We turned what had been the cattle sheds here at home into stables and since then, touch-wood, it has been going the right way,” he says modestly.
“The horses were coming from all sorts of people and a lot of cattle people I knew from the old days gave me horses. But the thing was that when I started training winners, the horses just came. Tony Durcan is one of my very good owners and he knew I had been with Tony Mullins. When Shaimaa won her first bumper, he rang and wanted to know if I’d sell her and I told him I would. I was worried though because he was a client of Tony Mullins and I didn’t want to upset that. But he assured me he had horses all over with different people, so I sold him the filly. But the thing is that when you get involved with people like the Durcans, people see that and take notice. People are more inclined to put faith in you; Michael Mee has been one of those.
“Another owner I’ve had since the start is Barry Connell and he has been super to me. He’s bought a lot of horses and he sent me a lot of them and we have had a lot of luck together. When an owner has luck with you, they’re more likely to stay and he is happy enough to keep that going.”
WHEN it is put to the Shark that there is a common perception amongst the racing fraternity that he has the ‘touch’ when it comes to horses – that he is a natural in the game – he maintains that he would be nothing without the staff he has. “Unless you’ve good staff, you’re going nowhere and I have had very good staff from the outset. Rachel is also very good and she looks after all the paperwork and she’s a devil to find the right races for the horses. Before we do entries, we go through all the books and we’d be looking for a race even six months down the line. The thing is though, when you have good horses, it is easy to pick races for them, but if you’ve bad ones it is very difficult. Everyone has bad horses and we’re no different. This time last year I had more horses but with the climate that’s in it, we’re lucky to have what we have.”
Having started in ‘06 when he had a permit licence and only had three horses, it stayed that way for about two years.
“It was only in 2008 that we started getting numbers of horses,” Hanlon says. “But then things started to go wrong in the economy and through ‘08 and ‘09 we were just lucky we had enough good horses to get us through. We were having a few winners too which was crucial, because you are only as good as your last winner in this game.”
Hanlon cannot believe in the last three years he has had the highest strike rate of any trainer with graded runners in Ireland.
“You’d never dream that would happen; you’d be hopeful you’d have one good enough to run well in a graded race, but I’m after having seven or eight graded winners. The likes of the Sunday in Leopardstown when we won the graded race with Hidden Cyclone and then an hour later won the bumper, was unbelievable. If you had a placed horse, you’d come home happy, but to come home with two winners in the one day, well… it makes you get up the next day.
“The thing is that you’re always looking for good young horses because if they’re good this year, then they should be better next year. This year I’ve got the likes of Star Neuville and Hidden Cyclone and I’ve three or four other nice bumper horses which have not run yet, but which will win. You go from season to season, but it is the likes of them that keep your heart going.”
Curiously he has not yet had a chase winner, but that’s simply because he’s had no chase horses.
“It takes three or four years to know if they’ll make it, but I think next year I’ll have a couple of lovely chasers – with Luska Lad being one of them. We will finish out this season with him hurdling and then we’ll go chasing; we’ll have him and Hidden Cyclone and a couple more.
“But the thing is that you have to have winners to keep going and there are plenty of trainers around here who are back to minimum numbers because that’s just the way things are right now. We’re lucky that we have a few nice horses that keep the wheels turning for us. But you’d always be worried that you’ll hit a quiet time – it is inevitable at some point – but the important thing is to keep your head above water in the times that are in it. In my view you’re better off with an empty box than a bad horse.”
It seems certain, on the basis of his exceptional training record – he had another winner in Thurles on Thursday with Stowaway Pearl – that Shark Hanlon won’t have too many empty boxes in this yard, now or anytime soon. Not bad for a cattle dealer turned horse trainer.
“I’ve done ok buying my own horses,” Hanlon says. “But Paddy Mullins always used to say to me that if ‘you’re a judge of a bullock, you’re a judge of a horse,’ and maybe he was right.”
Excellent rider in Mikey Fogarty,very very strong and as good if not better than most pro's. Will be lucky to avoid a ban there as he didnt spare it.
happy for the shark as its been a bad year..this horse took the eye with its breeding..but bought cheap!..good on him..but to be fair the 2nd was the best horse in the race..
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