Barry Connell

shy-tall-knight

This man really has no luck when it comes to the horses.

Spends 160k on a 11yr old horse to run in a national....fails to win the foxhunters.
Sells Pineu de Rae...he goes and wins the Grand National.
1 million on Our Conor...never wins a race for him.
How much did Minsk set him back again?
Other highlights include Old Kilcash, his choice of stable jockey and his handling of the Fenton situation.
Poor old Barry at least he still has his millions

Colonel Sanders

I remember thinking when he bought Golantila

He'd spend about a million quid on him, Mount Benbulben & Old Kilcash

Seems a decent person anytime I've heard him interviewed but the return he gets is quite poor IMO. Compare & contrast with Ricci, I know he shops at the equine equivalent of Harrods but at least whoever buys for him comes up with the goods

triggerharvey

when mr Connell gets a good horse he wont run him ie the tullow tank

Nulty

triggerharvey wrote: »

when mr Connell gets a good horse he wont run him ie the tullow tank

When he owns a grand national winner he sells him

mdwexford

Ah he deserved better after his prize money gesture with Our Conor this season, really hope he gets a bit of luck in the future.

jimjamcos

The man's a philanthropist. He's clearly no fool yet continues to pay way over the top for Irish stock. Judging by his honourable actions this season (both IJF donation and TTT being pulled), he places the good of Irish racing well above whether he wins or makes profit from the game. He should be applauded as he's bound to be keeping some smaller trainers going with his purchases.

If he is driven by success, he should be signing Harold Kirk on a hefty retainer and getting him on the next plane to France.

Realalemadrid

shy-tall-knight wrote: »

Sells Pineu de Rae...he goes and wins the Grand National.
o

Didn't need to sell him, just needed him to change the trainer.

BumperD

Saw an interview on atr. He seems to enjoy being very much part of the sport eg when he took up riding his own horses etc. And he stated he's doing the same by doing his own purchases. He must have money to burn to be able to indulge himself that much because he is paying top dollar and not getting the success he deserves. Harold Kirk would sort that latter part out for him. I just sense that now he's not riding horses, he's getting his kicks from the buying process and trying to find the next superstar himself. Each to his own.

walrusgumble

triggerharvey wrote: »

when mr Connell gets a good horse he wont run him ie the tullow tank

That was a brave decision. Whether ot not Fenton did nothing wrong, innocent till proven guilty, he did it to avoid bringing the game into disrepute.

The English media (Guardian, meh) said if Last Instalment had won the Ryanair, it would damage racing - that is despite no evidence that Fenton committed an offence.(suppose with the English hoping that their own would win, they would say that,)

He comes across as a decent man. Didnt realise that he owned the recent Grand National.

I would hope he is not the kind of owner that throws his horses into races, just for the priviledge of having a runner in a big race. Why on earth, with the fragile legs, did O Leary run Last Installment at Cheltenham, on good ground?

Personally I did not like the fact that our Conor was ran in the Champion Hurdle. He couldn't bet HF when Hurrican gave weight and 5 year olds didnt have a good history in the race. Why notgo for an easier race? (under NO circumstances do I say that caused his death, that could have happened at any race.) why did he move him from Hughes and Cooper, though?

jimjamcos

walrusgumble wrote: »

That was a brave decision. Whether ot not Fenton did nothing wrong, innocent till proven guilty, he did it to avoid bringing the game into disrepute.

The English media (Guardian, meh) said if Last Instalment had won the Ryanair, it would damage racing - that is despite no evidence that Fenton committed an offence.(suppose with the English hoping that their own would win, they would say that,)

He comes across as a decent man. Didnt realise that he owned the recent Grand National.

I would hope he is not the kind of owner that throws his horses into races, just for the priviledge of having a runner in a big race. Why on earth, with the fragile legs, did O Leary run Last Installment at Cheltenham, on good ground?

Personally I did not like the fact that our Conor was ran in the Champion Hurdle. He couldn't bet HF when Hurrican gave weight and 5 year olds didnt have a good history in the race. Why notgo for an easier race? (under NO circumstances do I say that caused his death, that could have happened at any race.) why did he move him from Hughes and Cooper, though?

Agree with everything above bar the last part. They were perfectly entitled to run Our Conor in the race, and there was no 'easier' alternative. Hindsight is pointless commodity n racing and you can't legislate for bad luck. He didn't move the horse from Hughes and appointed a retainer jockey which although a poor choice, made sense given his number of horses with different trainers..

mulbot

walrusgumble wrote: »

That was a brave decision. Whether ot not Fenton did nothing wrong, innocent till proven guilty, he did it to avoid bringing the game into disrepute.

The English media (Guardian, meh) said if Last Instalment had won the Ryanair, it would damage racing - that is despite no evidence that Fenton committed an offence.(suppose with the English hoping that their own would win, they would say that,)

He comes across as a decent man. Didnt realise that he owned the recent Grand National.

I would hope he is not the kind of owner that throws his horses into races, just for the priviledge of having a runner in a big race. Why on earth, with the fragile legs, did O Leary run Last Installment at Cheltenham, on good ground?

Personally I did not like the fact that our Conor was ran in the Champion Hurdle. He couldn't bet HF when Hurrican gave weight and 5 year olds didnt have a good history in the race. Why notgo for an easier race? (under NO circumstances do I say that caused his death, that could have happened at any race.) why did he move him from Hughes and Cooper, though?

jezki couldn't beat hurricane fly here either yet destroyed him in the champion hurdle. Our conor had finished in front of jezki the race before that so it's fair to say he was entitled to run in the champion hurdle,and being able to mix it with these horses showed he wasn't the average 5yo

Motivator

I must say I like Barry Connell. He has no airs or graces about him. I met him in the stand at Clonmel last year he seems a smashing fella to be fair to him. He deserves luck & success in racing, same with JP McManus despite what people say about him.

finbarrk

It was a very decent thing for him to do, that prizemoney offer for the season for the JT McNamara fund. Unfortunatley things just didn't work out all concerned. Best of luck to him in the future. Seems to be a sound man.

walrusgumble

mulbot wrote: »

jezki couldn't beat hurricane fly here either yet destroyed him in the champion hurdle. Our conor had finished in front of jezki the race before that so it's fair to say he was entitled to run in the champion hurdle,and being able to mix it with these horses showed he wasn't the average 5yo

Our Conor did all of that in Leopardstown. Leopardstown is a much different place to Cheltenham - despite Our Conor's win the year before. 5 years olds did not have a good record in that race. Anyway, that is just my opinion, ye have yers, I respect them, if he had placed the decision would have paid off, and he would be a huge hopeful the year later for that race. Maybe, he would do the job, after a few runs and win at Punchestown against these guys

Anyway, beside the point, O'Connell was woefully unlucky

faoile@n

walrusgumble wrote: »

Our Conor did all of that in Leopardstown. Leopardstown is a much different place to Cheltenham - despite Our Conor's win the year before. 5 years olds did not have a good record in that race. Anyway, that is just my opinion, ye have yers, I respect them, if he had placed the decision would have paid off, and he would be a huge hopeful the year later for that race. Maybe, he would do the job, after a few runs and win at Punchestown against these guys

Anyway, beside the point, O'Connell was woefully unlucky

Going to have to pull you up on this but that is very lazy analysis.

Five year olds DO NOT have a bad record in the race. The reality is that very few 5yos run in the champion hurdle. On a ratio of runners to winners 5yos have a respectable record in the race.

Plus Our Conor was no ordinary 5yo. He was the highest rated juvenile hurdler in the history of the classifications with his best form coming at Cheltenham.

The champion hurdle was the right race for Our Conor.

mdwexford

Nonsense analysis rather than lazy I'd say.

Not running him in the Champion Hurdle would have been ludicrous.

Nialler15

walrusgumble wrote: »

That was a brave decision. Whether ot not Fenton did nothing wrong, innocent till proven guilty, he did it to avoid bringing the game into disrepute.

The English media (Guardian, meh) said if Last Instalment had won the Ryanair, it would damage racing - that is despite no evidence that Fenton committed an offence.(suppose with the English hoping that their own would win, they would say that,)

He comes across as a decent man. Didnt realise that he owned the recent Grand National.

I would hope he is not the kind of owner that throws his horses into races, just for the priviledge of having a runner in a big race. Why on earth, with the fragile legs, did O Leary run Last Installment at Cheltenham, on good ground?

Personally I did not like the fact that our Conor was ran in the Champion Hurdle. He couldn't bet HF when Hurrican gave weight and 5 year olds didnt have a good history in the race. Why notgo for an easier race? (under NO circumstances do I say that caused his death, that could have happened at any race.) why did he move him from Hughes and Cooper, though?

He didnt move him from Hughes. Danny Mullins is his retained rider thats why Cooper didnt ride him. Would loved to have seen Cooper kept on him but thats the way it goes.

We will never know what could have been with Our Conor. Such a shame. To be honest spending the sort of money he did on a stock horse, is in most peoples eyes madness. Then again shows how much money he has.

I do think he is nothing but good for Irish racing. On a smaller scale than JP and Gigginstown but take all these lads out of Irish racing and there is not much left.