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December 23, 2020
By Breandán Ó hUallacháin
Six American jumps horses have been based in Ireland since 24 November 2020 as US Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard’s team aims their National Hunt horses at a European campaign.
Overseeing their training and preparation in Ireland is former champion apprentice jumps rider, Keri Brion, who has been assistant trainer in the USA to Englishman Sheppard for the past twelve years.
Brion explained to Past The Wire why the US jumps horses have been brought to Ireland.
“When Covid really took a turn for the worse, our season really got messed up,” she says, “and all the Grade 1 races were cancelled, our season was cut very short. A lot of these horses we had bought the winter before and not a lot of them had really good chances to run. When they cancelled the rest of the Grade 1s that was when we had the idea to bring Winston C over. When we decided we were bringing him a couple of other owners decided they would be happy to take a shot with their horses as well” Keri added.