'Things like this don't happen to ordinary Joe Soaps in racing' - syndicate created through X dreaming of Cheltenham after Kilbeggan double

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A syndicate which was created through the racing community on X could now be dreaming of Cheltenham in November after a phenomenal Friday at Kilbeggan where they landed a 170-1 double from their only two horses in training.

Aidan O'Sullivan, known as IrishNHTips on X, started up the We Win Farming syndicate with Jack Broderick through interactions on X last year, with the pair recruiting ten people each to get involved with Smallcraftwarning.

The nine-year-old's success in the 3m1f handicap hurdle at Kilbeggan capped off an incredible double for the owners and trainer John Ryan after Minella Cyclone produced a useful performance in the 2m maiden hurdle. 

Explaining how the ownership group came about, O'Sullivan said: "I got to know Jack Broderick through X and he was on to me for a while to start a syndicate. We took our time choosing one as we wanted to get a nice handicapper that we could have a bit of fun with.

"He [Smallcraftwarning] was a super syndicate horse last year, he hardly ever ran a bad race. He paid his training fees from last June to March. We couldn't get him right this season but he found life again on Friday.

"We probably wouldn't have ended up with John, only Jack's family has a homebred mare in training with John. He's a fantastic trainer and is always available. He's not afraid to run his horses and a syndicate wants days out. Last year, we had 14 days out between May and November with Smallcraftwarning and almost everyone got their chance to see him at the races."

The purchase of Minella Cyclone came about after the syndicate suffered some bad luck with their second purchase.

John Ryan: big Kilbeggan doubleCredit: Caroline Norris (racingpost.com/photos)

O'Sullivan said: "Last summer, John approached me about buying another horse called Call To Order from Tom Keating. He's from the family of Jezki and we thought we had a really nice horse but he died in a freak accident so things were fairly low after that.

"Myself and John spent a couple of months looking for a replacement. I was tentative about going down to John Nallen's as he's a great producer of young horses and I thought they'd be out of our budget. But he's a good friend of John's and was keen to give us a nice horse we could have fun with so we managed to do a deal for Minella Cyclone.

"We never thought we were buying a horse who'd win his maiden hurdle first time out. He's still growing into his frame so if we finished fifth or sixth, we would've been happy."

The syndicate has been buoyed by their support from racegoers, many of whom recognise them from their X profile, and they could now be set for some big days with the Harzand gelding.

O'Sullivan added: "The talk afterwards probably got a bit carried away with talk of Cheltenham in November but we'll start thinking of that in a month's time and we seem to have a real nice horse.

"It would be somewhat of a miracle if a syndicate like ours had a horse to go to Graded races. Most of the original syndicate are people I met through X talking about racing. The amount of random people who came up to us throughout the evening at Kilbeggan and congratulated us was amazing. I couldn't get over it.

"It's so hard to have one winner in Ireland but to have a double on the first day we ever had two runners on a card with just two horses in training, things like that don't happen to ordinary Joe Soaps in racing – it's brilliant."

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