FEATURE JP McMANUS
It is 40 years since legendary owner John Patrick McManus enjoyed the first of his record 69 winners at The Festival™, when Mister Donovan landed what is now the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle in 1982. From Istabraq to Synchronised to Don’t Push It and Minella Times, ‘JP’ sat down with his former jockey and Cheltenham Festival ambassador Barry Geraghty to reflect on his life in racing, gambling and great horses... JP McManus AN OWNER LIKE NO OTHER
B orn on 10 March 1951 in County Limerick, JP McManus does not hail from a racing background. In fact, even after attending the Christian Brothers School on Sexton Street in Limerick, rather than making his way in the world of racing, he first went to work for his father’s plant hire business. Considering how his passion for the sport began, he explains: “I’d say it was gambling that drew me into racing. As a kid I loved to gamble and horses were the means of having a bet. You’d work all week so you could go into the betting office on a Saturday afternoon and have a few bets. I stopped overnight when the tax went up and moved into bookmaking for a while, before mixing the two. I was probably more successful as a punter than as a bookmaker. “I did it for a couple of years and found it tough. I went skint a couple of times and had to go back to my dad and look for my job back. He was never very happy that I went bookmaking in the first place and he’d warned me not to get into debt. He said I could always come back, and then as soon as I got a few quid, I’d be on my bike and back off to the races.” McManus had some major triumphs in the betting rings of the 1970s, and his success when gambling earned him the nickname of ‘The Sundance Kid’ from the legendary sports writer Hugh McIlvanney. This same success enabled him to take the step forward to purchase some racehorses.
To those who know his unmistakeable green and yellow hooped silks, it might come as something of a surprise to learn that it was with a Flat racehorse that things really started to move for him. He recalls: “When I got a few quid and things started to move a bit better, I bought a mare called Cill Dara who won the [Irish] Cesarewitch in 1976. “She was a good mare and won it the following year as well. I had the odd horse after that. In 1978, I got Jack Of Trumps, who turned out to be a very good horse and finished second in two renewals of the King George.” While Jack Of Trumps was his first significant Jump
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