Trainer Open Morning

Jockey turned trainer Paul Flynn is hoping to give racing fans an insight into the running of his yard as he opens his doors to the public in the latest open morning, writes Tom Masters. 

The County Longford trainer is set to welcome between 150 and 200 people to his yard this Sunday and guests will be able to witness a typical day on Flynn's yard.

The behind-the-scenes experience will be open to owners, friends and other local racing fans and Flynn is excited to welcome people to his world for a morning.

He said: “Before we start off properly, we’ll just have everybody parading around the yard and we will parade all the horses and just give them all a mention of what they are going to be doing for the rest of the season and what people can look forward to. 

“Then we’ll do a demonstration of the stalls room and a few of the therapy plates that we have here as well, so we’ll be showing them just what goes on every day and everything that gets done behind the scenes as well. 

“We’re trying to give an insight into that, we are looking to have the vet here to talk and we should have the farrier here too to do a demonstration. 

“We’ll then probably bring everyone up to the gallops and see a few horses riding out and let them look at that as well, hopefully Luke McAteer will be here, so they can talk to the jockeys as well and we will answer any questions that people want to know and just enjoy the day.” 

Flynn still rides out on the yard following on from his jockey days, but on Sunday he will leave the saddle to his jockeys as he looks to speak with potential new owners and syndicates. 

"I probably won’t ride out on Sunday to be honest, because I do it every other day, but the lads will ride out for them and I’ll stay back to talk to people,” he added. 

“The more people that come on board for the future, that would be brilliant, so those maybe thinking of joining a syndicate are more than welcome to come and we can talk about the ins and outs. 

“If they have any questions, they can talk to me or Claire or my brother or anyone really and we can really let them know how those things work, we can give numbers to them, we can give them a ring and we can try and make a little group. 

“So anyone with any questions on anything can ask me and we can chat through it all.”