'This programme has taught us the world is our oyster' - Megan O’Leary's Flying Start blog

Our latest Godolphin Flying Start blog comes from Megan O’Leary, from County Westmeath. A graduate of University College Dublin, which included a four-month student exchange at Singapore Management University and a nine-month internship at KPMG, she worked for Woods Edge Farm in Kentucky as well as Joseph O’Brien’s Carriganog Racing in Kilkenny.

As the 12 of us disembarked the plane in Dublin on February 10, and were faced with howling winds and pouring rain, we were welcomed back to Ireland in usual fashion for the final phase of what has been an amazing journey with Godolphin Flying Start.  

Picking up from where my fellow second year trainee Orlaith Nangle left off back in January, we have since completed a three-week study tour of Dubai and returned to Ireland.

Our brief three weeks spent in Dubai were action-packed to say the least, with it being a maiden voyage to the United Arab Emirates for most trainees. We were warmly welcomed by the racing community in Dubai and had the opportunity to visit different training establishments, attend racing and be tourists. 

We attended three nights of racing at the spectacular Meydan facility, which included each trainee completing a rotation on an evening’s racing. This rotation allowed us to spend time with the paddock stewards, official stewards, the starter, and the placing judges. This is a rotation that we also completed in the US, so it was great to draw comparison and contrast between both jurisdictions. We also had a day’s racing at both Jebel Ali and Al Ain.

A firm highlight of this phase and the entire programme for all trainees was having the opportunity to meet His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum during our time in Dubai. It was an honour to meet a world leader who has invested so much into our industry and his passion was evident when he spoke of his love for horses and racing. This was an amazing experience and one that we will never forget.

The Flying Start team enjoying the sun in Dubai

A trip to Dubai is not complete without a day in the desert, dune bashing and camel riding, to which we duly obliged.

Since returning to Ireland, we have been kept busy with our wellies firmly on, visiting stud farms and trainers’ yards, completing a three-week rotation and continuing to work on our final assignment – the business plan. 

We have enjoyed getting back out to stud farms, seeing stallions, and having discussions with stud owners and managers. All trainees have just completed a three-week rotation across six different yards in Kildare, varying from pre-training to breeze-up yards to training establishments. Annabel Adams and I were fortunate enough to complete our rotation with Jessica Harrington Racing, where we had the opportunity to ride out, assist with race planning and gain an understanding of the overall management of the organisation.

As Cheltenham has come and gone as quickly as it always does, we visited Gordon Elliott’s Cullentra House Stables this week to get an insight into his training operation and see some of his stable stars on the gallops.

We are very much so at the point of rounding the bend into the home straight of our Flying Start journey with two fences left to jump – the completion of our business plans and our final externship. 

The business plan journey has been an interesting one which has required a lot of research and interviews, but hopefully we will be well rewarded when pitching our plans to the ‘dragons’ in late April. Our final externship is an opportunity to spend five weeks at on organisation of our choice within Europe throughout the month of May, which all trainees are looking forward to.

It is hard to believe we will be graduating at Kildangan Stud under three months from now and then we will be embarking on the next step of our careers. I’m sure my fellow trainees and I will be spread across the different jurisdictions around the world as this programme has taught us the world is our oyster.

Read more

Harrison Everett's Flying Start blog

Orlaith Nangle's Flying Start blog

Harper McVey's Flying Start blog

Ben Triandafillou's Flying Start blog

Edmond Ryan's Flying Start blog

Sean Cooper's Flying Start blog