'It breaks my heart, but I believe something good will come out of it' - Johnny Murtagh on Irish racing academy bombshell

Johnny Murtagh said the demise of the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (Race), where 21 out of 31 staff were made redundant this week, breaks his heart but he thinks something good will come from the dramatic restructuring.

The legendary rider turned trainer was keen to stress he would never have forged a career in racing but for Race and hopes the academy can return to its former glory days and start reproducing top talent like himself, Shane Foley, Seamie Heffernan, Chris Hayes and British champion jump jockey Brian Hughes. 

Murtagh said: "It breaks my heart. Did we lose sight of what was going on in the first place? When the people in racing got together they wanted a safe environment for young people to have a chance. If there was no Race there would be no Johnny Murtagh. 

"I didn't ride a horse until I was 15. My mother got in contact with Race because some fella said to her to send me there. Some fella gave her the number, she rang up and I ended up in Race. Did we lose what it was supposed to be here for?

"In recent years there have been no jockeys coming out of it but that's probably because of the pony racing, but we should be going to the pony racing lads and saying, 'Look your son is talented and we have a safe environment for him. We will polish him up with all the stuff he needs, the media training, the stewards' room and all that. You should want to go to Race. We should have speakers down there – AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh, all those fellas. 

"We should have speakers like AP McCoy," says Johnny MurtaghCredit: Edward Whitaker

He continued: "We need to get back to protecting young people and giving them a safe environment. It's bad at the moment, but maybe it's going to be a good thing in the end. It needs a whole new revamp. New people in there from the top down. It needs big names. People who went through the system. We need to build it back up again to what it was supposed to be. It's disappointing to see so many jobs lost but I believe something good will come out of it."

 A lack of investment in the facilities at the historic education centre ultimately led to the residential areas being closed for safety reasons last month, which in turn accelerated the need for a dramatic restructure. It is believed there is an ambition at board level in Race that Horse Racing Ireland, which is expected to contribute to the revamped set-up via Equuip – its education and training department – might step in to rescue the situation long-term, but it’s unclear at this stage whether that will be viable. 

One of those who lost her job on Tuesday is Kathleen Quinlan, who was the education coordinator at Race. She said the situation has been handled really poorly. 

"There wasn't any guidance of redeployment or social welfare, typical things that would be accompanying redundancy. It wasn't volunteered and it's only afterwards when you walk out the door and realise all these things. It was a shock when we heard the amount of people going. I didn't think it would be as substantial as it was."

Quinlan added: "In the mornings the students would be in the barn doing their riding training and stable management and looking after a horse. Then in the afternoon, for three hours four days a week, they were with us doing eight modules. 

"A lot of them had done their junior cert and this was bringing on their education. The modules covered everything, including IT, communications, business, workplace safety as well as other stuff. They were getting a Level 4 award for it afterwards. 

"For me it was actually quite humbling because people would come to me and say they didn't like school, but then they would be able to write a 1,000 word essay on how to look after a racehorse. It was giving them a second chance of education and a better insight into their own abilities. It was building back up their confidence. It's so sad to see all that gone."

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'It was handled so poorly' - massive job losses at Irish racing academy as 21 out of 31 staff are made redundant 

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