Track Manager, Sean Ryan, one of the unsung Punchestown festival heroes

There are many well-known faces down the years that have been associated with Punchestown and the Punchestown Festival. Faces such as its saviour, Dick O'Sullivan; the present CEO Conor O'Neill, Richie Galway (Racing manager), Shone Dreaper (PR and Communications); Hillary Cahill, not forgetting Snowy (aka Snowball), and that is to name just a few of an incredible group of people who do tremendous work at the home of National Hunt Racing.

However, there is one person, who may not be known visibly as well as others but has one of the most important tasks at the racing venue, in fact his task is absolute vital.

Meet Sean Ryan, Track Manager at Punchestown.

For the last sixteen years Sean has been the man responsible for keeping the magnificent track that is Punchestown course in pristine condition.

Tipperary native Sean, who lives in Naas, explains that his dad (Jim) was an agricultural contractor who branched into watering racecourses and from that he (Sean) began helping him out, watering the track, amongst other tasks.

Then all those years ago when the job at Punchestown became vacant, the then boss, Dick O'Sullivan gave Sean, as he says himself “a shot at it and I have been here ever since.”

Over the many years on our annual pre-festival visit, more often than not we would witness the course being watered at this juncture, to have it in the best of condition.
Needless to say, not this year.

In fact the opposite is the case such is the weather we have been experiencing over the last days, weeks and months, and even longer.

And while Sean admits that he would like the weather to be a bit kinder, at the same time, doesn't want a heatwave to hit us, normally we would be watering at this stage coming up to the Festival, he confirms.

“Usually around 1 April if the ground wasn't slow at that stage, we'd be making it slow, obviously we haven't or won't have to think about that this year.”

Sean describes the going at present as heavy (a few weeks out from the festival) and explains that it would take longer this year to change that with so much water in the ground.

“We have had 230ml of rain since 1 January, about a third more than normal, and it is not necessarily the amounts of rain it is the constant rain, normally you would get a wet day, followed by three dry and that would take care of that where this year it is just wet, 5ml of rain now is just like 20ml of rain, the water table is so high and has nowhere to go.” But, adds Sean, “we are not bad, it is heavy but certainly fit for racing at the moment, no issues that way.”

Sean has six people working along with himself that's the track end of things, plus other lads for various facilities.

While no extra staff are taken on, on the run-up to the Festival, the week of the Festival some 70 or even 80 are, depending on the ground, as they prepare the track each night for the following day's racing as Sean confirms “usually a crew of about forty, they would be going around with forks replacing the sods.”

The old ways still best?

Still no machine, there hasn't been a machine invented yet to replace those lads and I don't think there ever will. “Trying to put back the divot into the hole it came out of; no machine can do that yet.”

Another job that the general public would not be aware of is preparing, fixing and mending hurdles, both before, and very importantly, during the Festival Week, and of course, after every meeting.

“We have different lads for hurdles repairing them every night; while moving the rail each night, we would employ another 20 lads or so for those tasks.”

Lucky enough those fellas are here a long time, they know their stuff; they can be left alone to do that work; put a few causal workers with them and they take care of that, says the Track Manager.

As for the maintenance of both fences and hurdles Sean explains.

“We finished racing here on 24 February so all our fences have to stay on the track until then; they are then take off, and packed with new birches every year, two-thirds of them re-built every year, you see if you let the birch get too old, they get brittle, stiff and the fence won't move to let the horse through and the horses can get bad falls; those fences would take 5,000 bundles of birch which we source in the midlands and some from the Wicklow area.”

No doubt an art in itself?

“Absolutely” says Sean adding “you won't learn that in a day, a few lads here are expert at that.”

And the hurdles?

They are a much bigger thing than fences says Sean.

“We have 200 separate hurdles out there, they all have to be birched, the idea being that you shouldn't see daylight between them, if you can see daylight through them there is a risk of a horse getting his leg through them and that's where injuries can happen so the lads are practically at that task nine months of the year.

“They are all packed, every single stick you seen in them, about 500 sticks in each hurdle, each one of them has to be put in individually in each hurdle, a soul destroying task.”

On an average race meeting some 20-25 hurdles are broken, so they have to be brought in over night and repaired and back out again for the next day; usually about six lads doing that task during the Festival.

The small things that a lot of race goers would never realise but absolutely vital and necessary.

We often hear, particularly at racing festivals or a two or three day meeting, that the horses “are racing on fresh ground today” but here again their is a lot of work that the racegoer would not see and really take for granted.

“We move onto fresh ground every night (during the festival) the hurdles are taken up for the bumper, replaced in new holes, while moving the rails is a job you just couldn't teach anyone to do” says Sean.

“You have to learn that particular job by doing it, a really vital and important job because if the horses are not “flowing” around the bends, if a horse is wandering off the rails, it can cause horses to clip heels and that is all down to the rail; the rails are really important and two lads, Stephen Coyle and Aidan Cassidy here, they are experts at that.

Sean explains: “Every track is different and as the track moves 'in' obviously the bends get tighter so you have to 'soften' the bend; if they are not right it can cause problems, big problems.

“Horses will always suffer falls from coming together but if the bend is right horses stick to the rails so if the bends are not right horses will not be on the right line; just like the hurdles have to be at the right angle, have to line up right to the bend; these are all things that many people (mostly) know nothing about.”

So as the track is fully prepared and ready as the festival approaches, what work is required during racing week?

“The week of racing we would be working 18 hours a day; we have the stables, all 127 of them, people might not always realise they all have to be cleaned out every day, washed, disinfected.”

So everything has to be cleaned just like a room in a hotel, change the sheets I suggest.

“Yes, absolutely, that's a good way of saying it, laughs Sean, adding “you can't expect horses to go into stable that has not been properly prepared.”

Of course the overseas horses have to be catered for as well.

“They usually arrive the Saturday before the Festival and they all have to be catered for their duration, their gallops each morning and all that entails.”

Sean says that 75 per cent of the ground used for the Festival is not used during the winter and that gives the track people a huge advantage .

“With the new piece of track that gives us some 170 acres of racing ground, that is excluding the car parks etc; we would have more than doubt the amount of racing track than any other track in the entire country.”

Sean says “take this year for instance, if you were using the same ground for the festival that you had been using all winter it would be near to impossible, our winter ground out there at the minute is probably not raceable so that saves us big time; as I said we would normally be watering at this stage; so that is one plus of the wet weather laughs Sean.

So there is obviously a lot of work that can't be done until the last week prior to the Festival?

“If you put up the rails too soon the grass will grow around the white legs and then you have to send lads around with strimmers to cut each one of them, so in fact the more work you do early the more work you are making for yourself so you have to leave it but it all falls into place.

“We have great lads here, who all know their stuff; you couldn't do without them, they are the lads that are so knowledgeable, the real unsung heroes” adds Sean.