There are people, especially in this industry, who can touch those from all walks of life. Roger ‘Roddy’ O’Byrne, who passed away last month, was one of those people, whether as a highly regarded judge of horseflesh, a point-to-point enthusiast who was willing to take a chance on any number of young jockeys coming through or in his place at the helm of his famous downtown Lexington bar McCarthy’s.
The O’Byrne family is one steeped in racing tradition. One brother, Demi, was head vet to Vincent O’Brien and a key member of Coolmore’s buying team. Another, John, filled the same role for JP McManus.
As for Roddy, he could lay claim to an association with not one but two Grand National winners in Miinnehoma, successful in 1994, and Nick Rockett, who landed last year’s edition of the race for Willie Mullins having begun his career with a point-to-point win at Curraghmore in O’Byrne’s colours.
It marked a circle of sorts as it was under a young Mr W P Mullins that Danny Connors, bought by O’Byrne for just 1,500gns as a yearling, won a Leopardstown bumper in 1989 prior to capturing the Coral Golden Hurdle at the 1991 Cheltenham Festival.
O’Byrne also had a hand in the early career of the Queen Mother’s Whitbread Gold Cup winner Special Cargo while more recently, his colours were carried on the Flat by Listed scorer Room Service.
“Roddy was a great horseman and enjoyed life to the full,” says his nephew Timmy O’Byrne, who runs the family’s Lodge Stud in County Waterford. “I bought Nick Rockett several years ago as two-year-old privately during Covid. He got some enjoyment out of the point to pointers, that was his passion, and to see that horse come out of the point field and do what he did made him very proud.
“His life was an adventure from a very young age. He went from Rockwell College to work for Martin McEnery – Red Rum [bred by McEnery] was a foal at the time. He rode his first winner, Frenchman’s Bend, in 1970. When he was pointing, it was still kind of a hobby, and he enjoyed every minute of it.
“A lot of the good jockeys also rode for him. Willie Mullins, Enda Bolger, Jamie Codd, JT McNamara – he liked the good jockeys but he’d always give the young jockey a chance.”
It was through the pointing field that a young Miinnehoma was developed. Bought for 5,800gns as a three-year-old at the 1986 Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale, the Kambalda gelding won a point-to-point at Lisgoold in January 1988 prior to continuing his career with Martin Pipe, who saddled him to win the National.
“I remember when they first sat on Miinnehoma,” says O’Byrne. “He was very difficult. I remember being a child watching Nicky Dee on him when they were breaking him – he was like a bucking bronco. The horse was turning himself inside out but Nicky never moved on him.”
In later years, O’Byrne swapped Ireland for Kentucky and with it a stint at Walmac Farm when it was in its heyday as the home of Nureyev and Alleged.
“He worked for Johnny Jones in Walmac,” says O’Byrne. “One week Johnny brought him out on a cattle drive and Roddy always said it was probably the best ten days of his life, on a horse driving the cattle with all the cowboys. He said it was an unbelievable adventure.”
In Lexington, however, O’Byrne will always be remembered as the man behind McCarthy’s, the popular watering hole that is the go-to place for the international bloodstock community, particularly the Irish diaspora.
“McCarthy’s was set up in the early 1990s with his good friend Peter Kiely,” says O’Byrne. “Everyone from every walk of life goes in there, from college students to industry people. It’s a marvellous place, a home away from home. Roddy was unbelievably proud of McCarthy’s. He’d often talk about all the people working in there. There could have been 15 to 20 people working there and they were all stone mad about him, and him the same about them.”
Indeed, it was standing room only in the bar as Roddy’s funeral mass in Kilnagrange was streamed live one Tuesday morning last month at 7am – a time on occasion when some of the bar’s diehards might still be finishing up.
“He was a wonderful man to read books,” says O’Byrne. “One of his favourites was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, and he named a lot of his horses after characters in it.
“It was a privilege and honour to have known him. I bought Room Service for him as a yearling, and he got a great kick out of that horse – to buy just the one horse and end up with him was marvellous.”
He would have undoubtedly also taken pride in the win of his Lifetime Ambition in a point-to-point last month at Turtulla. Successful just days following O’Byrne’s death, the gelding was incidentally providing his colours with a landmark 100th victory.
“He was a great character,” adds Timmy O’Byrne. “As the priest said at his funeral mass, he was an artful dodger and a bit of a rogue, but he was loved everywhere. He’s touched a lot of lives, young and old, and left a lovely legacy.”
