ITM boss among those raising vital funds for cancer research on Pat Smullen Race Day

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Here, Aisling Crowe speaks to Charles O'Neill about riding in this Saturday's Pat Smullen Cancer Trials Ireland Charity Race – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Charles O'Neill's is a familiar face in the global bloodstock industry, having spent the past decade traversing the world as chief executive of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing (ITM) promoting the Irish racing and breeding sector internationally.

A normal working day at the races for O'Neill would involve hosting and speaking with owners and breeders, enticing them to come to Ireland to purchase the best bloodstock the island has to offer or encouraging trainers to bring their stars to these shores for the country's best races.

On Saturday at the Curragh, however, the Clane, County Kildare native will experience a very different raceday as he is one of 20 riders who will compete in the Pat Smullen Cancer Trials Ireland Charity Race, supported by the Breeze-Up Consignors Association.

The race is the final event on the card of the Pat Smullen Race Day, which is held in memory of the beloved champion jockey who died from pancreatic cancer in September 2020. He was just 43.

O'Neill's motivation for taking up this challenge is deeply personal. Like so many of us, his life has been touched by cancer.

"My main reason for taking part in the race is well documented," he says. "In the space of four weeks I lost my father and my brother to cancer 13 years ago. It was a horrific time in my life and I have been waiting for the opportunity to fund-raise and do something in their memory and this seemed the right fit.”

It is more than three decades since the former financial services executive last sat on a thoroughbred, and that was one of the challenges facing O'Neill when he was accepted into the line-up. Fitness was another.

"The weight was the big thing and I have that sorted now, I've lost more than three stone since I started on this journey and now I'm riding out six mornings a week," he says.

"I started out with Shane Nolan and Martin Brassil, and they gave me the confidence to ride a racehorse and to get going again after so long.

"Since then, I've been riding out for Gavin Cromwell, Gordon Elliott, Ross O'Sullivan, Johnny Murtagh and Jessie Harrington. Every trainer has been so helpful and over the last few months riding out at Ross, Johnny and Jessie's, they have really helped me to up the pace and get used to riding at speed."

Harrington will supply O'Neill's mount for the 20-runner race and he is an experienced hand. Jungle Cove, a seven-year-old Mastercraftsman gelding who won at the Shergar Cup two years ago, will be the ITM CEO's conveyance.

Of his mount he says: "He's an absolute star and a real favourite of Jessie's and he has run in these types of races before so he knows what he's doing and what he's about. He is a brilliant horse to ride."

The identity of the trainer who will be legging O'Neill up on Saturday and imparting her wisdom and knowledge to the novice jockey is even more poignant, given the reasons for O'Neill's participation in the race and Harrington's own cancer diagnosis and treatment.

"I was telling Jessie how 43 years ago I came here to her yard when I was in Pony Club and we had rallies and lessons here with her - I was terrified of her then and I am still terrified of her now," he laughs.

One of the lessons Harrington has taught O'Neill is to live with fear.

"Getting used to the speed and power has been incredible, and learning to not be afraid to be run away with has been so important,” he says. “I've had to learn to let them run away and they will come back, you just have to stay calm and not panic."

Charles O'Neill: 'The most important thing is that we raise as much money as we possibly can'Credit: ITM Alex Cairns

Staying calm and putting up with O'Neill's enthusiastic love of his new morning routine, he says, has been one of the skills his colleagues at ITM and his family have had to develop. 

"The opening line every day when I go to work is where have you been this time?" he laughs.

However, that good-natured joking is part of the enormous support he has been given by friends, colleagues and strangers alike at all stages of the journey, and the sports-mad executive admits to being overwhelmed at all of it, including the warm welcomes he receives early each morning from the stable staff he meets at the different yards.

"The most important thing is that we raise as much money as we possibly can,” he says. “The support I've received from everyone in the industry and around the world has been mind-blowing. It is beyond my wildest dreams."

The money that O'Neill and the 19 other riders, who include Paddy Smullen, son of Pat Smullen and Frances Crowley, are raising will make an enormous difference to the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer in Ireland.

Saturday's events include the Curragh To Curragh Charity Cycle, a 100km route around Kildare with stops at locations that held significance in Smullen's career, including Moyglare and Giltown Studs, and a barbecue in the Oaks restaurant at the Curragh, for which tickets are available here.

All of these elements combine to raise vital funds for Cancer Trials Ireland, which last week announced the appointment of Professor Grainne O'Kane as the inaugural Pat Smullen Chair in Pancreatic Cancer at University College Dublin (UCD).

Supported with €900,000 in funding over five years from Cancer Trials Ireland's Pat Smullen Pancreatic Cancer Fund, the role will allow Professor O'Kane to combine her work at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, which is where Ireland's national surgical centre for the treatment of pancreatic cancer is located, with research at UCD's School of Medicine.

Frances Crowley and Pat SmullenCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The money for the role that comes from the Pat Smullen Pancreatic Cancer Fund will be matched by Ireland's Health Service Executive's (HSE) National Cancer Control Programme.

Crowley says by funding the role, “the aim is to put pancreatic cancer research onto a more stable and promising footing, and I know that’s what Pat wanted to achieve when we set about the Irish Champions Weekend fundraiser in 2019.

“Thanks to the unswerving support of the horseracing community, Pat’s friends, and many others whose lives have been affected by pancreatic cancer, we are able to make this long-term funding commitment.”

According to the Irish Cancer Society, more than 600 people annually in Ireland are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is a biologically complex disease and challenging to treat and study.

It also has one of the highest mortality rates among cancers because of its usually aggressive nature and rapid progression, with the disease often in its late stages before it is detected.

Professor O'Kane paid tribute to the Crowley-Smullen family and the Irish racing and bloodstock industries for their support of efforts and initiatives to develop treatments that will transform the nature of diagnosing and treating pancreatic cancer.

“Frances Crowley and her family, and friends, and the horseracing community in Ireland have done a staggering amount to change this in Ireland," she says. 

"They put pancreatic cancer on the map, and in the past five years raised more than €3 million to research the disease and I am here today, in this role, because of that. I am honoured and humbled to receive this opportunity, and I’m very excited about the future.”

Charles O'Neill (left) has been getting used to racing speed on the gallops and with the help of trainersCredit: ITM Alex Cairns

O'Neill too is humbled by the opportunity he has been given and describes his experiences so far in his quest as "the greatest thrill”.

With the race just over 48 hours away, and yearling sales this week in Doncaster and Baden-Baden, O'Neill is busy combining his day job with the countdown to the off-time.

"I hope to God it goes smoothly and I want to try to enjoy every moment of it," he adds.

You can donate to his fundraising efforts here.

Further information about Cancer Trials Ireland can be found on their website along with the option to donate to their work.

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