Willie Browne - trainer profile

Article by Daragh Ó Conchúir

He may be in his 77th year, with a resumé of excellence as an industry pioneer and a well-earned sobriquet, King of the Breeze-Ups, but all along, Willie Browne has had a trainer inside of him, straining to be let off the leash.

Economic pragmatism meant he travelled another route, and it has paid rich dividends. The Grangebarry Stables boss, who operates under the Mocklershill banner in his primary occupation, bought, educated and sold the first ever breeze-up graduate to win a Classic - the 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa. 

Willie and daughter Jane

That came a year after Penkenna Princess was beaten a short head in the Irish equivalent. Derby runner-up and now darling of National Hunt breeders Walk In The Park and Ascot Gold Cup victor Trip To Paris are other alumnae.

Browne has consigned the top lot at all the marquee sales, breaking the million-pound barrier twice, and in Mill Reef Stakes winner Sakheer, he has a real contender for 2000 Guineas honours in 2023.

Son of Zoffany, Sakheer powers clear to win the 2022 Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury for trainer Roger Varian.

Yet greeting a winner of a 0-65 in Dundalk on a wet Friday night would, he insists, give him more of an adrenaline infusion.

Sure, the monetary rewards are oceans apart, but training is about something far more elemental. It is about DNA and who he is.

“I wanted to be a trainer for as long as I can remember,” says Browne over a mug of tea and a plate of sandwiches in his kitchen. Roxy and Chanelle are his two dogs, happy with scratches but with longing eyes on the platter on the table.

“Give me a winner at a small track any day to a big day at the sales, you know? Economically, it doesn’t make sense, but I just love it.”

His father Mickey was a talented jump jockey, who had learned his trade at Athassel House, which is now where trainer Paddy Twomey has built his select but quality-laden empire. From there, Mickey moved on to work for Tim Hyde, father of Camas Park supremo Timmy.

The family moved to Mocklershill from Ballagh when Willie was five. School took a back seat because he was needed to work at home.

“I would regret that now. Apart from the education, in this day and age, it’s so important to go out in the world and see how other people do stuff.”

His equine instruction was top class however, and he would go on to ride around 250 winners in total under Rules and in point-to-points, with the race that became the GPT Galway Amateur Handicap and is now the Connacht Hotel Handicap – Galway’s unofficial amateur riders’ Derby – among the highlights thanks to Troubled Sole in 1965 along with a big handicap hurdle win on Pearl Of Montreal for his father.

With Michael, also a jockey, at home as well, they were struggling to make enough for three families. It was all well and good having this passion and talent but not much use if you were struggling to keep a roof over your head.

Willie noticed Tony O’Callaghan landing a few nice touches by selling two-year-olds he had bought as yearlings. That was in 1976, and he reckoned that maybe it would be worth dipping their toe in this particular water the following year.

It was a life-changing decision; and when the first official breeze-up sales were held in 1978, the Brownes were ready. Willie has been at the sharp end of that sphere since, an amazing feat given how it has changed along with modern trends, demands and fashion. One thing that never changed, of course, was the horseman’s judgement and depth of knowledge.

It was all very satisfying, building houses, putting children through school and all the rest, but it was really just business. 

So, the opportunities that presented themselves in the past 12 months have been manna, miraculous sustenance to satisfy the inner desire. 

After registering a grand total of 18 winners as a trainer in almost 30 years up to the beginning of last season, mostly with horses that didn’t get picked up at the breeze-ups or were not up to scaling the sort of heights some of the clients he pre-trained for (such as Coolmore and the Niarchos family) operated at, Browne has added seven more in 15 months.

Spirit Gal provided two of those, including the most prestigious success of his life as a conditioner when scoring in the Listed Star Appeal Stakes; and she subsequently brought him to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last November, a couple of months after he had been there buying yearlings.

She has now been moved to France to be trained by Andre Fabre, and while he was disappointed to see her go, Browne has another project for the same owner-breeder, Charles ‘Chuck’ Fipke. A geologist and diamond prospector, Fipke has seen his colours carried to victory in 16 Gr.1 contests in America, including at the Breeders’ Cup, and is now keen to do something similar in Europe.

Stormy Entry (blue cap) prevailed at the line in a cracking finish to a recent Winter Series race at Dundalk

That said, Stormy Entry’s initial goal this spring was qualification to the Kentucky Derby. Not seen on the track until last December, the Point Of Entry colt was a promising second on the all-weather to the far more experienced Song For Whoever, who followed up with a facile triumph at odds-on subsequently.

Browne’s charge improved to win his three-year-old maiden in January under the septuagenarian’s go-to jockey Seamie Heffernan and scored again before finishing a close third at in the Listed Patton Stakes won by Killavullan Stakes winner Cairo, a Ballydoyle horse that was runner-up to Spirit Gal in the Star Appeal Stakes.

“It was all by accident really,” Browne explains. “I used to pre-train quite a bit for Chuck Fipke—a very rich Canadian man about the same cut and go as myself age-wise. I met him in Kentucky, 20 years ago; and for some reason, we palled up.

“I’d always be pre-training them to go somewhere else—first John Oxx and now Joseph O’Brien or Mark Prescott—and I was dead happy with that, being honest. I trained one or two horses for him okay, but they didn’t amount to anything.

“Out of the blue last year, at the end of January, he sent me six horses over from Florida, which was unusual at that time of the year, and said he wanted the Invincible Spirit and No Nay Never fillies to be aimed for the Doncaster Breeze-Up.”

The Invincible Spirit would turn out to be “a machine” called Spirit Gal, but after breezing like a “jet”, she developed some lameness due to sore shins and was withdrawn from the sale.

“It was a bit of a blow but I tipped along with her when she came back home, gave her a bit of a break after the breeze-up, and she was flying. I said, ‘Chuck, I’m going to keep this filly for a bit, give her a run and see what happens.’ She had a nice first run at The Curragh, was just touched off in Naas and then she won the two including the Listed race which qualified her for the Breeders’ Cup.”

Fipke wanted an American-based jockey on board, though Heffernan had won the Breeders’ Cup Turf and Secretariat Stakes on board Highland Reel in the past and played a significant role in Spirit Gal becoming more amenable to training and racing.

Ricardo Santana Jnr got the nod, but nothing went right for the pair on the day. Spirit Gal broke like a rocket from the stalls, ironically not the norm for European-trained horses, but raced far too keenly and trailed in 13th of 14.

The race aside, Browne enjoyed the occasion and feels that there is a lot that European racing can learn from their US counterparts when it comes to promoting the sport of horse racing.

“It was a great occasion. It was so much different from sitting down at home in front of the telly watching it. It was fantastic.

“The Americans know how to do it. There were busloads of them there every morning—groupies you could call them—watching the horses. You’d never see that in Europe. They were like film stars—that’s the way they were treating the horses.”

He can’t deny that he would have liked to have kept Spirit Gal, having played such a part in her development, but that’s racing and he is eager to see her take things to the next level under Fabre’s tutelage.

Now, he and Fipke are dreaming with Stormy Entry, he's qualified for both The Preakness and Belmont Stakes - the last two legs of the US Triple Crown.

“He is a good horse in his own right. He ran nicely in the Kentucky Derby qualifier at Dundalk behind a good horse [Cairo] of Aidan (O’Brien’s) that was actually beaten by Spirit Gal but I know they like [him].”

Among the half-dozen horses that arrived in January 2022 was Shirl’s Bee, who was only beaten a length in the Gp.3 UAE Derby in February, on just his second run. 

His half-sister is being put through her paces in Tipperary’s Golden Vale now and will begin her juvenile career at least under Browne’s eagle eye.

This is an extremely busy time for him, with the major breeze-up sales looming into view but he has thoroughly enjoyed proving his ability as a trainer.

“If I died 12 months ago, I’d have died wondering, ‘Would I? Or could I?’, but you know the secret of training horses? Get a few good ones. It’s simple. If you feed them and exercise them, that’s the secret. There’s an awful lot of very good people in Ireland who train horses. The problem is they are training 50-rated horses. And if you are dead lucky, you can win one race a year with a 50-rated horse. Most of the time, you’ll come home and blame the horse or yourself: ‘What am I doing wrong?’”

Spirit Gal’s progress didn’t precipitate any offers to train more racehorses. Would he accept if they came?

“I would,” comes the succinct reply, though he notes that perhaps people view a conflict between training and prepping horses for the sales.

“Maybe people would think I’m keeping the best of them for myself? I’m a straight shooter, but it’s hard to know what people think and maybe they’d think that if I got into it more.”

After all, he has always maintained a full licence. That tells you all you need to know about the kid inside him, bursting to spend his time prepping horses to run at the track with his name alongside them, even though laying the groundwork for someone else to do it leaves him far more handsomely recompensed.

Mind you, he tends to keep some sort of lid on his glee when a horse he trains wins. Unlike Michael, who could be heard in the next county roaring one home from the stands. And he would be as animated for Willie as he would for himself.

“I get a good buzz out of him having a winner, of course, yeah. Not as much as him though, he’s a complete lunatic!”

The older sibling smiles. And he has every right to. It’s been a long road from when his father got the show up and running. He has taken things another level and it must be a source of pride.

But seeing a horse trained by W P Browne being led into the winner’s enclosure? Nothing will ever top that.