Tighthead props don’t usually make for good jockeys. Henry De Bromhead was no exception.
“I rode, I did hunting and pony club stuff, but I was probably poor-to-moderate as a rider,” he says.
Training horses is a different matter, however.
Last March he secured his place in the Cheltenham pantheon by taking an unprecedented triple crown of Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup.
He added the Aintree National a few weeks later for his own personal grand slam.
It was an extraordinary training feat, but De Bromhead is quick to deflect credit to his Knockeen team and his stable jockey Rachael Blackmore, who finished last year’s Festival as leading rider.
“Everyone was blown away. No one is more surprised than myself,” he says.
“It’s not just me, it’s a huge team effort. My wife Heather is hugely involved, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve anything of that on my own and Rachael was incredible.”
Now comes the difficult part, trying to repeat the trick after some indifferent results this season.
But with a team featuring the likes of Honeysuckle, A Plus Tard, Bob Olinger, Minella Indo and Journey With Me, he knows he won’t be far away.
Even if his target remains modest and not at all believable.
“One winner will do,” he says.
So who is Henry De Bromhead?
And how did he get here?
Ask those who’ve worked with him and they’ll tell you he’s someone with an insatiable drive for winners, his own harshest critic, a worrier and someone with charm, warmth and occasionally a short fuse.
Ask them what’s the secret of his success and you will hear about his work ethic, his ability to deal with demanding owners, his meticulous preparation and most importantly, how well his horses can jump.
“He’s an extremely competitive person,” says Blackmore. “He’s always results-driven, like all the good trainers.
“His attention to detail on all aspects of training has brought him the success he’s had. There’s a lot of thought that goes into everything he does.”
It’s been a gradual rise to the top for De Bromhead and it nearly never happened.
“I studied to be an accountant, but I wasn’t much good at that either,” he says, laughing.
Then there was the rugby, but we’ll come back to that later.
“I probably set out to avoid training,” he says. “I’ve done a lot of other things. But I just kept getting drawn back to it.”
Further education came from stints with Robert Alner, Ron Shaw, Mark Prescott and Coolmore and Derrinstown studs, where he soaked up information at every opportunity.
Prescott was at the peak of his powers in the mid-1990s when De Bromhead arrived in his yard, fresh-faced and eager to learn.
“He got me at my fieriest,” says Prescott.
“Initially I think I was pretty horrible to him and everybody used to say,
‘And how’s poor Henry?’.
“Anyway, poor Henry, in the end, got the hang of it very, very well and as you’ve seen he’s left me behind in his jet stream by miles.”
He recalls now in dismay the thought of De Bromhead nervously waiting by the phone for his calls whenever he was away.
But the experience was invaluable as the yard won a string of Group races with the likes of Pivotal and Last Second during De Bromhead’s time with Prescott.
“I think you’re lucky if you are assistant trainer to someone at a time like that,” says Prescott.
“I was assistant trainer to Frank Cundell when Crudwell won his 50th race. 50 races he won with that horse and I regard that as enormous privilege.
“It made an enormous impression on me, so if I made any impression on poor Henry with those good horses, I’m only too delighted.
“I was desperately fiery, but he quickly learned and everybody liked him. He’s the most charming man and he could always get people to work for him.”
De Bromhead himself has nothing but happy memories of his time with Prescott.
“He was brilliant to me, I learned a lot. I found him fascinating to work for, not just horses, but life in general. Brilliant man,” he says.
“It’s not like I came home and tried to replicate what he did. It’s more the work ethic, leaving no stone unturned, that sort of attitude that I would’ve got from him.”
De Bromhead comes from a background steeped in racing.
His grandfather Johnny was one of the leading amateurs in his day and bought the 200-acre farm at Knockeen in the 1940s, while his father Harry later enjoyed much success as a rider and trainer from the same County Waterford base.
It was disorganised and unorthodox, with half-converted agricultural buildings and no rugs on the horses, but Harry got results, including a Cheltenham Festival winner in 1993 with Fissure Seal.
When Harry called it a day after a mild stroke at the turn of the century, De Bromhead took over the licence.
He sent out his first winner in the second race of the new millennium with Paul Moloney on board 10-1 shot Fidalus at Tramore.
And sent out his first loser an hour later when 11-8 favourite Wild Spice was stuffed under the same jockey.
“You kind of need to work it out for yourself, make your own mistakes,” says De Bromhead.
“A lot of fathers to sons, it’s the father’s way or nothing. I think I was very lucky in that Dad gave me free rein.
“But if I wanted advice, he was there for me.”
Davy Russell first rode for De Bromhead at a point-to-point in April, 2002, when the trainer was still finding his feet.
“It was a horse called Curfew Tolls which won at Butlerstown,” says Russell.
“It was a very small operation back then.
“Henry’s first big horse was The Spoonplayer, it wasn’t until Potts came along that the whole thing exploded.”
Everything changed with the arrival of owner Alan Potts in late 2004.
The Yorkshireman made his fortune in the mining industry and invested heavily in De Bromhead’s yard with a string of horses named in part after a piece of mineral-sizing machinery he had developed.
One called Sizing Europe would bring De Bromhead to racing’s top table, but it was far from plain sailing.
Andrew McNamara rode the horse in the 2008 Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown when the trainer picked up his first ever Grade One.
He was also on board for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham a few weeks later when things went awry.
“The whole race went perfectly until the back of the second last when he lost his action,” says McNamara of that
Cheltenham experience.
“It was gut-wrenching. I remember just thinking: ‘This can’t be happening’.
“Potts was very disappointed, like we all were, but Henry would’ve had a few tricky owners in the early years and he was very good at dealing with that.
“Keeping the owners on board is a major part of the business.
“To keep Alan Potts on board for so long, it shows how good Henry was at that side of things.”
Andrew Lynch piloted Sizing Europe on many of his greatest days, including the 2010 Arkle, which finally gave De Bromhead his first Cheltenham winner.
“I think Henry was always under pressure with Potts,” says Lynch.
“No matter what he
did, Alan would always
question him.”
There were many glorious days, but the success of Sizing Europe wasn’t easily matched and at times, the pressure told.
“Henry is very straight and honest, he’d always lay out the cards on the table,” says Lynch.
“There’s no bullshit. Everyone always knew where they stood. If you done something wrong, you’d know about it.
“I would’ve probably just walked away from him, kept my mouth shut. That probably used to wind him up a bit more!
“But like any top trainer, they just want the best, they just want winners. Henry was good to me, I had plenty of good times with him.
“He was always going to get bigger.”
In 2016 Potts removed his horses from the yard, but the additions of Cheveley Park, Kenny Alexander and Barry Maloney as owners, allied to the support of Michael O’Leary, saw the operation kick on again.
De Bromhead enjoyed some success with jockeys like Jonathan Burke and David Mullins before the arrival of Blackmore, the final piece in the jigsaw.
“He has become easier to ride for over the years,” says Blackmore.
“Success brings about more trust, maybe.
“It’s no secret he can get frustrated when things don’t go right, but he’s a very competitive person and they’re the people you want to be riding for.”
Much of his frustrations during Covid were taken out on the wheelbarrow and the yard brush and the trainer himself acknowledges his fuse has been a little short at times.
He will turn 50 in
October and is still learning, still searching for improvement.
“I’m sure I’m renowned as being a bit fiery alright (by jockeys), but I’m trying to change that,” says De Bromhead.
“I’m trying to take the view that you try to have the best riders and the reason you have them is because they make the right decisions, they make their plans.
“You’re always trying to learn and I suppose I’m trying to do that.”
The trainer has long used dressage, flat work and loose schooling (jumping obstacles without a jockey on board) as part of his horses’ preparation, but his approach is constantly evolving.
“I’m always tinkering. I’m not sure you’ll ever say ‘that’s it’. It’s always changing,” he says.
His success has been the source of great pride to his parents Harry and Sally.
When Sizing Australia won at Cheltenham in 2011, Harry bought a round of drinks for everyone in a pub in Wales where they’d stopped to watch the race.
“That would be a very rare occurrence,” says De Bromhead, laughing.
Currently he has around 30 staff and 100 horses at Knockeen, along with Harvey the goat.
In June he was given the freedom of Waterford by the city and county council and was joined by Heather and their three kids Georgia, Mia and Jack for the celebration.
The next generation of De Bromheads are all keen riders, although the trainer himself mostly keeps his feet on the ground.
During his time with Robert Alner he once galloped future Gold Cup winner Cool Dawn in a piece of work, but is rarely seen in the saddle these days.
“Henry’s riding… it’s not something he’s ever put on display,” says Blackmore.
“Thankfully he leaves the riding to his three kids, who are all excellent riders!”
So what about the rugby?
Well, back in March, 1988, while the racing world was preparing for the annual jamboree in the Cotswolds, De Bromhead’s focus was on the Munster Schools Junior Cup.
“My claim to fame is I got to play in Thomond Park,” he says.
“It was a tiny little place then, there was barely a stand there, it wasn’t anything like it is now.
“But it’s great fun when you see it on telly, watching Munster play and you tell your kids: ‘Oh yeah, I played there’.”
De Bromhead was in the front row for Glenstal Abbey on the sacred Thomond turf, facing a St Munchins side that featured future Ireland international Anthony Foley.
“I don’t know how I got on the team,” says De Bromhead.
“I don’t think the team would’ve missed me too much if I wasn’t around.
“I was a prop and that was in the days when props didn’t have to be too mobile either! I was poor and we lost.”
Foley, who sadly passed away in 2016, scored two tries and set up another for Munchins as De Bromhead’s side were beaten 17-0.
But then, racing was always a safer bet…
They used to write ballads about Irish winners of the Gold Cup, such was their rarity.
Last year De Bromhead saddled the first two home.
Minella Indo and A Plus Tard are back again for Friday’s showpiece and in the unbeaten Honeysuckle he has the star attraction for the Champion Hurdle.
With Put The Kettle On and (possibly) Envoi Allen lining up in the Champion Chase, don’t rule out another triple crown.
Just not the rugby kind…
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