Niall Hennessy on combining training with his role as an electrician
The Waterford handler has enjoyed recent success with Lilian Bland
/Niall-Hennessy.jpg?ext=.jpg)
Niall Hennessy celebrates Lilian Bland's victory at Downpatrick
For many involved with training racehorses, it is a full-time profession occupying every waking hour and even then, winners are far from guaranteed.
Niall Hennessy is managing to buck the trend with his small operation which he is still juggling with life as an electrician.
The Waterford trainer saw his nine-year-old mare Lilian Bland come home first, ridden by Richard Deegan, in the Download The Tote App Mares Handicap Hurdle on Sunday at Downpatrick.
It was Hennessy’s first winner over hurdles and followed up Lilian Bland’s win at the start of the month in the Mares Handicap Chase at Navan.
Hennessy’s success is all the more impressive given the fact that training is just a hobby for him and has only had four winners during his career – three from Lilian Bland, with Mary Fields providing his first winner in August 2020.
"Just a complete hobby."
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) March 30, 2025
Great stuff - Niall Hennessy only has a maximum of two riding out and he's a full time electrician who farms as well as trains.
Lilian Bland won at @DownpatrickRace today - just the five hours from his Co. Waterford base! 👏 pic.twitter.com/jMbIg7Bp6l
The Cappoquin native works full-time as an electrician and also manages his 60-strong dry cattle farm in the evenings.
“I am an electrician until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, then a horse trainer until about six and then I am a farmer,” he told Racing TV.
“Its [training] a complete hobby. Two horses are the most I have ever had riding out.”
Despite his limited resources, results like the one on Sunday make it all worthwhile for Hennessy, who praised the resilience of Lilian Bland.
He said: “You maybe get one day a year like this. Maybe you win a point to point or a handicap. It [this win] is brilliant for all the hard work.
“When you rush home from work in the evenings and ride out and drive on. It has worked.
“She [Lilian Bland] has been holding her form brilliantly throughout the year. Heavy ground, quick ground, it does not matter, and we are delighted.
“She is tough. At home she is the same way as well. You could not give her enough work. And she will take it too. She will go out in a field kicking buck and then go again.”
It took Hennessy five hours to travel to Downpatrick from Cappoquin, which he described as “a real trek” and he joked it would have been nicer to have won closer to his base.
“Knowing my luck, this will be the track she likes, and we will be up and down for the summer,” he quipped.
The trajectory of Lilian Bland, who is the offspring of Mountain High and Well Water, is not typical for Hennessy’s horses.
“It is a small operation is my operation,” he added.
“Normally what we do is we buy two foals every year, bring them through and if we cannot sell them as three-year-olds, we try and point-to-point them and then sell them.
“And if it does not work out like that, as with her [referencing Lilian Bland], then we come down to Downpatrick and obscure places like that!”
“I started off hunting as a young lad,” continued Hennessy when recounting his early experiences with horses.
“And then one thing led to another. A few of the older lads I was hunting with had done point to point and I followed them.
“I thought that looks like a bit of craic, so I went on to point to point and then I got into training.”