'It’s a hobby now' - Joanna Morgan explains her return to the training ranks

Joanna Morgan will saddle her first runner in more than seven years when Persian Queen lines up in the Donaghmore Handicap at Navan (5.21) on Saturday, but the former female jockey insists she isn't making a full-blown return to training.

Morgan retired from training in 2015 to concentrate solely on her bloodstock operation, citing long hours and an inability to make it pay, partly due to being saddled with bad debts.

Instead, she concentrated on a trading venture with her daughter Katie McGivern, with the subsequent four-time Group 2 winner Sir Dancealot among her acquisitions.

Now the former Royal Ascot-winning trainer will bid for her first domestic success since Cailin Mor won at Fairyhouse in September, 2014.

“I bit the bullet and am absolutely only ever training two, maybe three horses, of my own,” said Morgan.

“I’m not really making a comeback. I am training 100 per cent for myself and I am training nothing that I don’t own a half of. I have two horses at present and that’s the way I like it. It’s a hobby now. I had enough of that hardship. I'm just going to train a couple and enjoy myself.”

Sir Dancealot: the Group 2 winner was one of the acquisitions made by Joanna MorganCredit: Alan Crowhurst

McGivern trained Persian Queen, alongside Liath Dubh, for a short spell last autumn from her base in Wexford. However, due to her being too busy preparing for breeze-up sales, her mother, who operates out of Portlerster Stud in County Meath, stepped in.

“Katie is so tied up in the breeze-ups at the moment, that’s why I took the licence out. She was up to her eyes prepping for breeze-ups,” she said.

“Had she been closer, I’d have been able to just go to her and give her a hand, but she’s just a bit far away. That’s the basis of it really.”

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