Carey Turns To Serious Business

It's often said that who you know is the key to success, but it must be said that being liked by who you know is all the more important. Sonny Carey is arguably one of the most well-liked people in Irish racing circles, the one-time amateur jockey and all-round funny man having carved himself a reputation for entertaining singing performances, often wittily written himself.

Now, the Kildare native is proving that there is serious ambition behind the jokes and laughs, having quickly built a successful pre-training operation within the past two years. Now based at the yard of Arthur Moore outside of Naas, he explains how it began: “I began pre-training part-time; I'd ride out for Willie Mullins in the mornings and work on my own horses in the afternoons. When I went full-time this season, I needed a bigger place and, luckily, it suited both myself and Arthur Moore to share the facilities. I'd worked for Arthur as a kid and his facilities are top-class.”

Setting up a pre-training operation was a natural path for Carey, who says, “I've always broken and pre-trained horses on the side since I began race riding; whether it was horses of my own or belonging to family or friends. When I was riding in point-to-points, I broke store horses and picked up a plenty along the way.”

His knowledge of young horses, in fact, dates back to his childhood, as he explains, “I was very lucky in that my dad broke probably thousands of horses and I'd been watching him do it since a young age, I suppose. He's a genius with young horses and I've been learning from him all my life.”

His father, Paddy Carey, is best known for working for legendary trainer Mick O'Toole before moving to the Aga Khan's operation, where he broke the majority of their homebred yearlings for over 20 years. Sonny was immersed in racing from a young age and his love for the sport is something his siblings share, with sister Rosie working in Newmarket, while brother Jim is a stud manager at Coolmore Australia. For Sonny, there was never any doubt that he would continue the family trend.

He says, “There was never a time I wasn't going to work in racing. Racing is a great way of life and I was always going to do something in the industry.”

As well as the influence of his father, Carey is keen to stress the importance of his fiance, Mary Kilduff. He says, “I'm very lucky to have Mary–she's backed me up the whole way. She's the first one in the yard in the morning and she does everything for me, basically. There was never a bother when we started up, there was never going to be any issue.”

In fact, throughout our conversation, Carey constantly heaps praise on others, and perhaps the word he most uses to describe himself is “lucky”. Willie Mullins, for whom Carey was an important team member for a number of years, is who Carey credits with starting him off when he made the leap to pre-training full-time.

“Willie and Jackie Mullins have being very good to me,” says Carey. “They started me off with my first two horses when I started full-time. I don't really know how it grew. I got a lot of business through word of mouth, really.”

And grew it did, as Carey elaborates, “I'm very lucky to have some very good clients, including Harry Fry, Michael Donohoe, Yulong Investments, Tinnakill House, Sheila Lavery, Johnny Murtagh, Kilcarn Stud, Sarah Lynam and I had a yearling for the Irish National Stud this year.”

Carey's people skills have most definitely stood him in good stead in his new operation, with many clients stemming from previous encounters. “It's amazing the people you meet along the way, from working in yards or race riding–it always comes full circle.”

He adds, “I've met them again in what I'm doing now and I'm doing business with friends I made working for Willie Mullins, or when riding in point-to-points. For such a big industry, it's very small in some ways.”

One of Carey's clients is his good friend Emmet Mullins, a past colleague at his uncle Willie Mullins's yard, and who is also enjoying success in his new role as a trainer. When quizzed on the yearlings who impressed him most this season, Carey was quick to highlight those the young trainer sent to him, saying, “I had a gorgeous Karakontie (Jpn) filly for Emmet Mullins, and he's bringing her to the Goresbridge Breeze-up Sale. I've broken a lot of yearlings for Emmet and he has a smashing bunch of horses this year. There was a lovely colt by Hard Spun and he also has a Kitten's Joy colt who really impressed me–he sells at the Arqana Breeze-up Sale.”

It is nice to see two young friends enjoying simultaneous success and supporting each other's new businesses. Of Carey, Mullins says, “Sonny broke a lot of yearlings for me this season and he did a fantastic job with them. All of them were ready to go when I got them and that's a huge help to me. I've known Sonny since I started riding as an amateur jockey when I was about 18. We've always been very friendly, but it was when he came to work for Willie Mullins that we became the best of pals.”

Carey was also taken with a yearling put into his care by Zhang's Yulong Investments. He says, “I had a nice No Nay Never colt for Yulong Investments, who is now in training with Archie Watson. We had Indigo Balance (Ire) for Mr Zhang last season and he went on to win a listed race, while another three or four we had for him went on to win their maidens nicely.”

Winning is the most important aspect of racing, even in the pre-training business. Carey says, “Seeing them go on to win is definitely the best part of what I do. We've been lucky in that the horses we've had go on to very good trainers, so we're fortunate to see a lot of our stock go on to win, which makes our job a lot easier.”

The business has grown to breaking approximately 45 yearlings this season and Carey says he has no ambition to start training.

“It's developing as it is,” he says. “I'm happy with how it's going. Wherever it goes, it goes. We're enjoying it; we work for very good people and I've a great team around me. It's important to have a good team and we're enjoying it, so if it keeps going the way it's going, I'm happy out.”