'I don't just want to survive, I want to be happy, and my happiness is horses' - an inspirational quote from an inspirational woman

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Let me introduce you to the inspirational Michelle Mallon, your 2026 Newcomer Award winner at the Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards. 

Mallon was given just a 30 per cent chance of survival a while ago when suffering from a severe bout of internal sepsis. She was told there was a high risk of cardiac arrest during surgery and the priest was even called in to issue the last rites. You should see her now. 

"I want to be happy," Mallon told us. "I don't just want to survive, I want to be happy, and my happiness is horses."

If ever there was a quote to sum up this industry and this particular night, that was it. Their happiness is horses. Say it. Repeat it. Bottle it. Sell it. 

We were back in the Keadeen Hotel on the outskirts of the Curragh to recognise the unrecognised faces of racing. Well, I say unrecognised, but Jack Madden will be very familiar to you. 

He's the one who celebrates a Gordon Elliott winner like he's just won the EuroMillions, while David Porter is another chap you would know from leading Willie Mullins-trained winners back into the winner's enclosure at Cheltenham and Aintree and Punchestown and everywhere. He looked after Quevega back in the day. 

Madden and Porter both picked up awards. You know why? Because their happiness is horses. They care. Their passion was palpable as they told MC Richard Forristal their stories. 

Jack Madden: 'If you can't get excited then you might as well stay at home and drink your tea!'Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Madden said: "People say we get excited when we get winners at Cheltenham, but what people don't realise is that we're gearing towards that day for 12 months. If you can't get excited then you might as well stay at home and drink your tea!"

Madden is Elliott's travelling head lad but had second thoughts about his profession at one stage. "I just wondered should I try something different, so I decided to become a builder – I lasted three months," he laughed. 

Patrick Mullins presented Porter with his award and said: "Closutton would be a very different place without David. He gets pulled from above, pulled from below and even pulled from the side. He's something else."

Aoife Dempsey is something else, too. Recent record-breaker Siobhan Rutledge, who became only the third female Flat rider to lose her claim in Ireland last week, was sitting at my table and said of Ted and Katie Walsh's head girl: "She's an animal to work. She would do the work of ten men. I'm not even joking. She would."

Aoife Dempsey: winner of the overall prize, the Irish Racing Excellence AwardCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

With that in mind, Dempsey was a worthy winner of the overall prize, the Irish Racing Excellence Award, which saw her pick up an extra €5,000 on top of the €4,000 she and all the rest of the award winners received. 

"Ted is like a grandad to me and Katie is like a second mother to me, so is Helen," Dempsey said of the Walsh clan. "You ask any of them a question and they always have the answers. To everything."

David Christie jnr, assistant trainer to his father of the same name, broke new ground by becoming the first Northern Ireland-based winner of an award, and the first from the point-to-point scene, too.

He has played a pivotal role in the extraordinary career of Winged Leader, who has won, wait for it, 41 races. Four of those were in hunter chases on the track, with the other 37 coming between the flags. 

David Christie collects his trophy from Diana CooperCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Christie said of the legendary 12-year-old: "He teaches me new things every day; I can't teach him anything any more. He knows it all."

Stephanie Kennedy from Ballylinch Stud picked up the administration award but wasn't in attendance and had a wishy-washy excuse for her absence. She had a baby eight days earlier.

"As of three hours ago she was still on the fence and thinking of coming," said her sister Louise. "I think the public health nurse had to talk some sense into her, so she's at home with her beautiful newborn baby girl Mara and they're watching us on WhatsApp."

John McConnell's head travelling lad Brian Moloney was also among the winners. 

"This award is for putting up with John," he joked. "I love what I do and I love horses. I just love everything about my job. If anything is broke around the place, they always come to me to fix it. 

Brian Moloney (left) collects his award from the Racing Post's David JenningsCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"I spend that much time around the place that I feel like it's my own house. That's the way I treat it."

Listowel picked up the racecourse award and everyone in attendance was singing their praises for the work they do for stable staff. Where is the €2,500 winnings going? 

"On making improvements to the staff canteen," replied the track's stable yard manager Paddy Madden, who had long-serving chairman Maurice Carroll up beside him on stage. 

Stalls handler John Wixted was the ancillary services award winner, a man who has spent 26 years in his current role and 35 years in the industry. He seems like a smashing chap. 

The Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards winners at the Keadeen HotelCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"Tell me this, John, who's the hardest to manage: the horses or the jockeys," Forristal inquired wittily, to which Wixted replied: "I think that would be a dead-heat! There are a few bottlers out there, you know yourself!"

The room erupted in laughter. It was that sort of night. 

Congratulations to all the winners, you would all put me to shame. 

Read more here:

Dermot Weld has some 'major targets' in mind for Juddmonte's hugely impressive Curragh winner  

Henry de Bromhead retires Captain Guinness - but hopes to send another fan favourite to Royal Ascot 

'It feels like a big deal' - Siobhan Rutledge joins elite band of female Irish Flat jockeys after riding out her claim at Fairyhouse 

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