Image © Healy Racing
Dromara-based trainer Caroline McCaldin has made a superb start to the new point-to-point campaign, on the scoresheet with two winners from her first nine runners, a strike rate which reflects both the strength and form of her team at home.
McCaldin's first success of the season came at Portrush on the second weekend of the season, where newcomer Tobyshill ran out a 14-length winner of the five-year-old geldings’ maiden under Oran McGill. The son of Califet, a half-brother to the eight-time winner Mia’s Storm, looked impressive on debut.
"We are thoroughly delighted with him," said McCaldin. "He is a lovely horse, he always was. I only got him on the 1st July, straight out of the field, and he never put a foot wrong. He is a lovely looking horse, really nice."
Tobyshill has since been entered in the Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale, where McCaldin hopes he will attract plenty of interest.
"Jamie Codd has put him into the Cheltenham Sale on the 14th of November for me. We will take him over there, he deserves his chance."
McCaldin recorded her second success when Fort Bastiani justified favouritism in the concluding five-year-old-and-upwards unplaced maiden at Tattersalls on Sunday, again in the hands of McGill.
The French bred son of Kapgarde showed plenty of grit to repel his challengers in the closing stages, confirming his progress since finishing seventh in a competitive Loughanmore contest last spring.
The French bred son of Kapgarde showed plenty of grit to repel his challengers in the closing stages, confirming his progress since finishing seventh in a competitive Loughanmore contest last spring.
"If I can get them sold, I will," McCaldin admitted. "I have now got 30 horses, and the game has changed. We need to sell as much as we can to get the three-year-olds in.
"The last couple of years I have been running them in winners' races and sending them to Doncaster in the spring, but this year we really need to move them on."
"The last couple of years I have been running them in winners' races and sending them to Doncaster in the spring, but this year we really need to move them on."
Based at an 18th century flax mill in Dromara, County Down, Caroline and her husband Alan have steadily built a top-class training facility.
"We live in an old Georgian flax mill, the original one where they shipped all the flax down to Belfast.
"We love it here. We have everything we need, and we love doing what we are doing with the people we are doing it with."
McCaldin has around 30 horses in the yard at present, and is quick to praise her staff.
"Tom McMahon is an integral part of the team, we would be lost without him, he has been with me since 2013. Then there is Trevor Woodside, and Frank, Lauren and Maeve, who are all part of the setup.
“Myself, Alan and Tom work together every day and make all the decisions as a team. I would be lost without either of them."
McCaldin’s husband Alan, in whose silks a number of her horses run, is a huge support, juggling several roles.
"Alan is still doing his physiotherapy clinic a couple of nights a week, but he also runs the farm. He does all the cattle, the silage, the tractor work, the whole lot. He is the backbone of the place."
Regular riders Oran McGill, Dara McGill and Noel McParlan play key roles in the operation, while Brian Dunleavy often comes up to ride work and schooling.
"Noel is a good friend and has been with us a long time, he is a vital part of the team," she said. "He knows the horses inside out and has been a big help over the years.
"Unfortunately, because of his commitments to Philip McBurney, we will not have him as available this season as we would like, especially when we have plenty of four-and-five-year-olds to run.
"We will use Noel when we can, but Oran is the main man at the minute, he is riding very well and gets on great with the horses."
"We will use Noel when we can, but Oran is the main man at the minute, he is riding very well and gets on great with the horses."
A lifelong horsewoman, McCaldin admits she never saw herself doing anything else.
“Training is all I ever wanted to do, I have hunted and evented all my life, and this is just where I was always meant to be."
McCaldin’s roots in racing run deep. Her father Wilson Dennison is one of the sport’s most respected figures and McCaldin will be his sole trainer going forward.
"We are under serious pressure from my father," she quipped. "He is not an easy man to please! It is probably harder training for your own father, but his support is invaluable.”
McCaldin has plenty of facilities at home, but regularly uses the Moira schooling gallops, just 20 minutes from her base.
"It is a great facility and we are very lucky to have it so close. Eoin [Barry] and Maggie [Allen] are great and always so welcoming."
Since saddling her first runners in 2015, McCaldin has registered 42 point-to-point winners and nine under Rules, producing several top-quality horses along the way. The standout remains Hermes Allen, who won a Kirkistown maiden for McCaldin in November 2021 before selling for 350,000 guineas and going on to Grade 1 success for Paul Nicholls.
"He is still the best horse we have had," she said.
"We did have Jim The Wolf, who was a contender, but we never got the best of him, he was a lovely horse who sadly, was fatally injured at Portrush last March."
With the yard starting the 2025/26 season in flying form, McCaldin has a strong team behind her, and her operation continues to grow in stature.
When asked about specific goals for the rest of the campaign, her answer is as straightforward as her approach:
“We just want winners. That’s it - my father wants them sold, and we want winners.”
When asked about specific goals for the rest of the campaign, her answer is as straightforward as her approach:
“We just want winners. That’s it - my father wants them sold, and we want winners.”
