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With a total of 35 horses in training and numerous victories between Ireland and Scotland already, Philip McBurney racing has gotten off to a flyer!
Caherty Stables was born just two years ago, the vision of Philip McBurney, a lifelong racing enthusiast.
“We are based close to the Woodside Road on the outskirts of Ballymena,” confirmed Philip.
“Horse racing has always been a passion for me. But it’s only been over the past couple of years that I have had the opportunity of fulfilling the ambition of setting up a training operation.
“And thankfully, it has been a case of so far: so good.”
Philip and his team are currently training a mixture of national hunt and point-to-point horses. These horses are brought to Caherty Stables from various owners across the country in order to make the most of the new training facilities along with several horses owned by Philip himself.
Caherty Stables are centred on a McBurney-owned family farm that has received a total transformation into a purpose built, state of the art training facility.
“The old cubicle house has been converted into stables. The first step here was to put a new concrete floor on top of the existing slats.
“The inside of the shed was then converted into bespoke stables. An additional stable block was also built, allowing us to cater for a total of 36 horses at any one time.
“The land adjacent to the stabling area has been converted into a four-furlong gallop along with a range of other key facilities to provide training of the highest standard, one of the main features being the outdoor lunging area provided for each horse.”
Precast Concrete Wall Panels, manufactured and erected by Moore Concrete, were used to in the fit out all of the stables.
He added:
“The reason we decided to look at prestressed panels was purely down to efficiency. Panels offered a robust solution that could be quickly installed on site.
However, due to the slo
ped ground, we required various specifications of panels to make it work. Full credit to the Moore Concrete team who came on site to measure each stable, this meant they could manufacture the exact lengths needed.
Once that was done their install team done a brilliant job of putting everything together in a short time period.”
Providing horses with a fresh water walk through is now recognised as a key facility while in training.
In the case of Phili
p McBurney Racing, that particular task was recently completed in less than three weeks, again with the help of Moore Concrete.
“In this instance, the company’s slurry channels were recognised as the perfect fit, they are manufactured at an ideal width to allow the horses to walk through, are easily installed and cleaned and are more than durable enough to withstand the wear of the horses.
Philip McBurney concluded:
“It has been a busy couple of years. But the investment is now starting to pay off.
“The products and service
provided by the team at Moore Concrete have been first class, making the conversion of the farm run smoothly.”
