Joe Donnelly: who is the low-key owner behind Gold Cup hero Al Boum Photo?

No doubt Joe and Marie Donnelly have found a space for a photograph of last year's Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo on the walls of the French home where they have lived since leaving Ireland around 15 years ago.

If that is the case, it is likely that Al Boum Photo is keeping distinguished company, perhaps alongside a Picasso or a Matisse, or the work of some celebrated artist whom most of us have never heard of. That's because the Cork-born former bookmaker and his wife are internationally signficant collectors of modern art.

By the time Donnelly sold his bookmaking interests in 2002 he was already a wealthy man, having invested shrewdly in property and art. The timing of his exit from bookmaking, before the sweeping technological changes which transformed the Irish betting landscape, was impeccable. So, too, his relocation to France and a focus on European property interests, a strategy that saved him from the impact of Ireland's property crash.

For some years Donnelly was a forgotten man of the Irish racing scene. Apart from a single winner in the 2004-05 season the couple's black and yellow colours were conspicuous by their absence from Irish courses until around four years ago.

His interest apparently rekindled through his friendship with the late Mick O'Toole, Donnelly has assembled an elite team that includes the Willie Mullins-trained Al Boum Photo, who is set to defend his crown in Friday's Magners-sponsored Gold Cup, Tuesday's Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Shishkin and the likes of Melon, Asterion Forlonge and The Big Getaway.

Shishkin with Nico de Boinville and Nicky Henderson after the horse's Supreme Novices' Hurdle triumphCredit: Edward Whitaker

It all amounts to quite a return to the limelight for a man who has been happy to keep a low profile and maintain a cherished privacy for the past two decades.

In the 1990s Donnelly was an influential force in Irish racing as chairman of the Irish National Bookmakers' Association and a two-time board member of the Irish Horseracing Authority, the precursor of Horse Racing Ireland.

Widely admired for representing his colleagues diligently and effectively, he adopted an essentially low-key style, his quiet diplomacy informed by intelligence and an excellent grasp of financial matters.

However, he could be forceful too. He acted vigorously and decisively in a dispute at Leopardstown in 1995 which arose out of the introduction of on-course betting shops and their conditions of operation.

Gaining universal support for strike action from INBA members, Donnelly won a vital concession when the shops were prevented from accepting single-bets at the home meeting.

During the 1980s, Donnelly, the son of a Cork bookmaker, was a major presence in a vibrant Irish ring in which northern-based bookmakers Sean Graham and Des Fox were among the leading layers along with the long-established David Power.

Donnelly was never a form student, and never took a view on a race. In the terminology of the ring, he would bet people rather than horses; and he always stood the favourite.

He was a bookmaker first and foremost, taking genuine pride in the profession. However, he hit the jackpot when he adapted his shrewd and calculating instincts to the worlds of property and art collection.

Moving to Dublin in 1984, the Donnellys became heavily involved in the cultural and artistic life of the capital and in charitable activities. Marie was a founding member of the Irish Hospice Foundation in 1986, joined its board in 1989 and became chairwoman in 1997.

Her management of an imaginative fund-raising exercise, The Whoseday Project, enlisting famous Irish writers including poet Seamus Heaney and celebrated artists such as Louis Le Brocquy, raised more than £2 million.

The couple created a novel home, carved out of the side of a hillside with magnificent sea views in the affluent Dublin suburb of Killiney. An imposing minimalist structure, it was devised as a gallery for their extensive art collection.

Unlike many leading Irish collectors, the Donnellys favoured international artists, including the daring work of modern master Willem de Kooning, controversial American artist Julian Schnabel and the provocative German artist Georg Baselitz, as well as many emerging members of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement.

The couple have served on the International Council of the Tate Gallery and on the international board of New York's Museum of Modern Art. They are regarded as deeply serious collectors whose purchases are inspired by an educated understanding of the theories and techniques of 20th century art and design.

Donnelly has always liked things to be done properly. When he chaired the INBA he ensured its annual dinner was a lavish affair, hosted at the Michelin-starred Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, invariably attended by the government minister responsible for racing and by the chairpersons of the racing and greyhound authorities.

His choice of trainers since renewing his involvement in racing – Mullins and Henderson – is a typical example of a 'nothing but the best' strategy. It is serving him well.

Al Boum Photo, who had run once as a juvenile hurdler in France, in 2015, came to prominence when winning a Grade 2 novice hurdle at the Easter meeting at Fairyhouse in 2017. Winner of the Grade 1 Ryanair Novice Chase at the same venue in 2018, he won last season's Gold Cup on the back of a just a single-prep race, the Savills Chase at Tramore on New Year's Day.

Al Boum Photo (Paul Townend) wins last season's Gold CupCredit: Edward Whitaker

Mullins has followed the same pattern this season, repeating last year's success in what is now a Grade 3 event at the County Waterford track, as the eight-year-old bids to become the first back-to-back winner since Best Mate landed the middle-leg of his hat-trick in 2003.

O'Toole, who acted as Donnelly's on-course representative and unofficial racing manager, relished the role in the final years of his colourful life in racing and was thrilled by the early promise shown by Al Boum Photo and Melon.

One could easily imagine how the former trainer, who died in August 2018, would have had an opinion on how best to employ resources this week. As an inveterate punter he might have advised against a clash between Asterion Forlonge and Shishkin in the Supreme. Tellingly, Donnelly, a hands-off owner according to Mullins, has left the decision-making to the trainers.

Absent from the Irish racing scene since early in the century, Joe Donnelly has returned with a vengeance.

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