About Adrian

Adrian grew up on a farm in Kildare, Ireland with a family that had no involvement in racing, but it didn’t take long for a young Adrian to fall in love with racing and start to get involved with his neighbours' horses.

During his teenage years; Adrian started work with Francis Flood, who had good horses such as To Your Honour, Unas Choice and Finchpalm at the time. While working for Francis, Adrian rode in several point-to-points before moving on to work with the likes of Dermot Weld and Ger O’Leary before joining Oliver Kiernan’s yard as assistant trainer. It was with Oliver Kiernan that Adrian got his first taste of Bloodstock as Adrian was responsible for the buying and selling of the horses; it was a very successful 6 years for the yard with horses such as Whatuthink, Whatever Jacksays and Follow The Plan. 

Adrian then decided he wanted to learn more about Flat racing and this interest took him to Sydney to join John O’Shea’s yard. It was from there Adrian joined one of Australia’s most successful trainers in Chris Waller, known fairly recently as the trainer of Winx. Adrian credits his time with Chris as invaluable; as Adrian says, Chris is a great businessman as well as horseman, so it gave Adrian excellent grounding to begin his training career back in Ireland. 

Adrian began training in Ireland in April 2014 and it didn’t take long for success to follow; in just his 3rd year as a trainer he gained Classic success with Jet Setting in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas, beating one of Aidan O’Brien’s best ever fillies in Minding, who had already won the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket and later went on to win The Oaks at Epsom.

Jet Setting cost just 12,000 Guineas, showing the fantastic eye for a horse Adrian possesses. 

Over the next couple of years Adrian gained other notable successes with The Broghie Man who won the Listed Committed Stakes and Caffe Macchiato who won the Blackwater Handicap, a Premier Handicap run at Navan. 

It was in 2019/2020 Adrian decided it was time to make the switch to England to continue his training career and it didn’t take long to choose Malton as his base. Adrian is more determined than ever to establish himself among the Elite trainers in Europe and he feels he has everything right to achieve his goals. His career in England made the perfect start with Drumconnor Lad winning on an ITV Saturday coverage day and since then, the yard has gone from strength to strength, having many highlights in recent times. 

2022 was Adrian's best year in England at the time, he has since gone on to smash this in 2023 , surpassing 2022's total to make it his most successful year in England. Adrian has had winners all over the country, and has won some nice races, including two Sky Bet Sunday series races this year, and an Ayr Silver Cup! We have also had doubles and trebles, and plenty of success stories. Most recently, in 2023, Ballymount Boy finished 2nd in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood & the G3 Acomb Stakes at York. He has also won the Listed Prospect Stakes at Doncaster, This is a massive achievement and something you have to be excited about!