Article by Darren O’Conghaile

The J M Hughes, P McGuinness & Killian McDonnell owned Callthebarman has been recently moved stables from Gavin Cromwell to Matthew Smith’s yard in Kilmessan, County Meath.

Speaking of the relocation and plans for the year, part-owner Killian McDonnell stated exclusively to us; “We gave him a break and gave him a change of scenery. He has done well and is ready for a run”.

Speaking of his ground dependency McDonell asserted; “He wants good ground and by his recent homework he is capable of a good day, ground permitting, we hope to have a few days of fun throughout the spring”.

Acquired by present connections from the August National Hunt Sale at Tattersalls Ireland in 2017, this proficient son of Lord Shanakill has run a total of twenty-eight times under rules thus far, winning five of them races – he is equally as good a hurdler, as he is a chaser which can makes things thought-provoking when he gets on a ‘workable’ handicap mark on whichever codes.

Callthebarman has a healthy winning strike of 18% and it is hard to believe he is merely a six-year-old, he conceivably could be open to even more progression with his new trainer.

Callthebarman is a half-brother to the JP McManus owned Jer’s Girl, the two horses have comparable traits, they are just a very genuine family and when getting into a jumping rhythm they are hard beat – relentless gallopers is the perfect way to summarize them up.

From a personal perspective, I’d be very excited about the relocation to the Matthew Smith’s yard, I wouldn’t put Smith down and say his stables is inferior to Cromwell’s, but I would say the individual touches of having less horses under his care could really help Callthebarman in the long run, some horses need a more one-to-one training regime. I would put my neck on the line and say, the fun has only started for The J M Hughes, P McGuinness & Killian McDonnell, the best of Callthebarman could still be to come. He is defiantly a horse to put in your notebooks this season, Smith will be eager to hit the ground running with him.

A bit about Callthebarman’s new trainer Matthew Smith.

From Kilmessan, County Meath, Matthew Smith took out his trainer’s licence in December 2012 and was on the mark the following month when Gretzky won at Dundalk on January 11. Matthew enjoyed notable success with Rawnaq which counted the Grade 2 Flying Bolt Novice Chase at Navan in February 2015 among his wins before continuing his career in America.

Smith achieved the remarkable feat of training the same horse to win three times at the Galway Festival in 2019. One Cool Poet became only the second horse to win three races at the same festival and the first to win three races on the Flat. The seven-year-old won the Caulfield Industrial Handicap over a mile and 123 yards on the Tuesday evening, followed up in the Open Gate Pure Brew Handicap over a mile and a half on Thursday and went into the record books when scoring a five-length victory in the McDonogh Capital Investments Handicap over one mile, three furlongs and 180 yards later in the week.