'You need a great team for these things to happen' - Ado McGuinness hails staff after landing trainer title at Dundalk

Ado McGuinness has donated his prize-money for landing the Dundalk champion trainer title for the first time to the Injured Jockeys Fund and to Graham Lee, who suffered a severe spinal injury in a fall at the start of a Flat race at Newcastle last month.

McGuinness finished second to Joseph O'Brien in last season's title race with 15 winners, but went one better this season having saddled 20 winners at the all-weather venue. Colin Keane followed up on last season's success with another jockeys' title. Each winner receives €1,500 to donate to a charity of their choice.

It has been an excellent year for the Dublin stable, saddling a career-high 46 domestic winners, and McGuinness is looking forward to a fresh challenge in 2024 as he moves into a new yard.

He said: "It's great to get it and it's my first time winning it. I didn't set out at the start of the year to win it, but it's just the way the season fell. Usually, you would need 23 or 24 winners, but Joseph had a quieter back end of the season than he would usually have. I'm going to give €500 to Graham Lee and €1,000 to the Injured Jockeys' Fund. 

"You need a great team for these things to happen and I'm very lucky to have that. I've two great apprentices [Adam Caffrey and Cian MacRedmond] who work very hard and have done very well. My assistant Stephen Thorne is another huge part of it all. 

"In the new year, we're moving into a new yard built on the greenfield site on the farm, so we're looking forward to that. There's plenty of things happening in the next couple of months, so it's exciting and it's hopefully onwards and upwards."

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