Visit to our yard in Lavally.
Click to Watch the Video of the Tour.
Great to have members of @irish_shows visit lavally yard this morning to see the stock.
Minella Mate
More memories @Galway_Races following Minella Mate's victory for @hotelminella under @johngleeson123 pictured here with his cousin Jack Gleeson @ArdmoreEquine in 2013 following the Gleeson's Don't Tell No One's victory to being interviewed by his dad Brian in 2023 @RTEracing pic.twitter.com/iqxd9J7sZZ
— Ardmore Equine Nutrition Ltd (@ArdmoreEquine) August 2, 2023
@irishracing
Jun 19 Minella-Mate-game-in-the-bumper
@KilbegganRaces
November 2022 Minella Double
Cheltenham Gold Cup double March 18, 2022
Henry De Bromhead trains the 1-2 in the Gold Cup again as this time A Plus Tard leads home Minella Indo👏👏
— Grant James Thomas (@Grant_Some92) March 18, 2022
Rachael Blackmore gets her Gold Cup victory to supplement her Champion Hurdle success on the opening day of the festival💪💪#CheltenhamFestivalpic.twitter.com/GTAuC7oF7n
Minella Indo is runner up in the Cheltenhan Gold Cup 2022
The Nice Guy finishes first! @WillieMullinsNH is having a day out making it 3/3 on Gold Cup Day. pic.twitter.com/u4alMOcohP
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) March 18, 2022
Minella Cocooner is runner up in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenhan on Gold Cup Day 2022
Grand National-gold Cup double 2021
I look at all the foals the night before the sale, every single one of them, and the good ones just jump into your arms’
Minella Hub maintained his unbeaten Plumpton record
Plumpton Racecourse
Thank you to everyone who came along today!
@PH_horseracing kicked things off with a 40/1 winner, Minella Hub maintained his unbeaten Plumpton record, and it was fantastic to see @joshmoore91 notch a 409/1 double! 🏆😲
John Nallen discussed, selling star horses, future stars ready to run, buying young stock & more.
Minella Cocooner
Grade 1 success for Killeen Glebe!! MINELLA COCOONER lands the Grade 1 Novice Hurdle @LeopardstownRC under @dan2231 for @WillieMullinsNH & David Bonnet 🙌🏼 Sold by Killeen Glebe via @gerryrosslime for €82,000 to @MinellaRacing at @Goffs1866 Land Rover 🌟pic.twitter.com/4FLMKlqYB6
— KilleenGlebe (@KilleenGlebe) February 5, 2022
Horses called Minella
Minella team ready to go for a new season
After the dreamworld of Aintree and Cheltenham and the wonderful Minella horse racing double, matters have calmed down now and the dedicated team responsible for that incredible success story are busy preparing for a new season.
The Minella Racing team at Lavally outside Clonmel are just getting on with the job, doing what they have been doing for over thirty years, working with and looking after horses every day of the week at the now globally renowned yard.
The work routine is exactly the same as it always has been, as staff gather in the early hours of the morning as they prepare for the start of another point to point season, which is crucial to the survival and the success of Minella Racing every year.
Everything is measured by performances at point to point meetings and that is where the work of John Nallen and his team will be judged after years of patience and hard work with the horses that are ready to make their point to point debut. Some adjustments have taken place, Visitors wander around the yard getting an up-close view as Johnny Barry, ‘Corky’ Carroll, Heather Walsh and John Nallen’s two nephews Conor and Sean, go about their business feeding the horses, schooling them and washing them down.
“One huge change since April has been the interest residents at the Minella Hotel have taken concerning what happens at Lavally. About 50% of the hotel residents now come out here to Lavally to have a look at what is going on, they want to see where Minella Indo and Minella Times were reared,” said John Nallen.
John’s focus and that of the team at Lavally is now firmly fixed on the beginning of a new point to point season, the arena where all their hard work is put to the test with the season, starting in the last week of September. “That is the bread and butter of it really, it is all geared to preparing a horse to win at a point to point and then moving them on.That is the way it is, that is the shop window, that is where you sell your goods,” said John Nallen While what happened last March and April was, as John describes it, “fairytale stuff ”, the Minella team have been doing the same work every day of the year for the last thirty years with significant success but nothing compared to the magic that occurred earlier this year.
Aintree Grand National
Gold Cup
Hard work is a given in the industry and a combination of good judgement, knowledge and care for the animals with a bit of good fortune is also required.
“You have to wait until you get form on them, then they will get sold. You put in a batch every year and hope they work out, some years it works out more than others and that is the way it is. “They find different levels and find their new homes. We will be starting off 15 to 20 for the first time in point to point, the level they find dictates the market and where they end up,” said John. John said that the team and himself would have an idea of the level each horse would get to, that you could pick out the really special ones. “You would have an idea, the real ones show their natural ability very early. “We buy them as foals, seven or eight months old. We work on them then rear them, feed them every day of their life, keep them healthy, as two-year-olds, we break them and school them and get them going, keep graduating them up from jumping a small pipe to a fence,” said John. “We work to just get form and get them sold, getting them to the right place is very important. Where they end up is important, where they go to and how they are handled afterwards. The team here adds value to them and try and make a few quid. “People come, they want to see, they want to take a picture, some horse people, some betting people, all kinds, some people don’t know what a horse is but they saw it on television and they want to see it,” said John.
First and foremost it is a family business but one horse is not for sale, and John says that is the most valuable horse they have at Lavally. That horse belongs to his son Jack, who works side by side with his father every day. “Jack knows what is going on with the horses. He would know by you whether you had a fancy on one. Jack has a cob Bell, that is the most valuable horse here, one that will never be sold,” said John. Last year some very special moments were witnessed all over the world, Minella Indo winning the Gold Cup, Minella Times winning the Grand National, The most special moment of the most incredible year for John and his wife Bernadine, however, was watching Jack ride around the track at Lavally with Rachael Blackmore, who visited shortly after her Aintree triumph.
“That was our Grand National really, absolute dream stuff to see Jack going around with Rachael,” said John.
The Inside Tipp Podcast
John Nallen - 24/06/2021
Class of 2021
‘Rough diamonds’
Hotelier who turns ‘rough diamonds’ into Grand National winners raises a toast after ‘double’ success.
Transforming foals into prized pointers: Martin Stevens meets the man who launched Notebook, Minella Indo, Minella Times and more.
The Minella Method
Jan 24, 2020 Racing Post Article - Download .
Meet the headmaster of the school for jumpers.
John Nallen has an eye for a foal that can be turned into a highly valuable racehorse
Sunday Independant, 8 March 2020 article , Download.
THE BIG INTERVIEW: The Man from Minella
The Big Interview The Irish Field, 2019 - Download.
RTE Interview with John.
John Nallen tells Brian Gleeson how he bought this years Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National winners as foals and sold them.
John Nallen's Methods
John Nallen is an accomplished horse trainer who has always named his horses after his family Hotel. John Nallen talks openly about the Minella Racing machine in 2013.
Winter Feeding
In this video John Nallen shows us the winter feeding routine on the farm.John Nallen owner of Hotel Minella has trained race horse's in the Minella name for over 30 years. John takes us behind the scenes at his Minella Racing yard, as he prepares the latest young horses.
Minella Runners at the Cheltenham Festival in 2019
Lavally home of Minella Racing
Schooling the 2019 stock over hurdles on the all weather. Ridden by the Minella Racing team of James, Johnny, Bryan, Eoin.
Minella Trump-4 yr Shantou, Minella Melody-4 yr Flemensfirth mare, Minella Devil-4 yr Flemensfirth, Minella Beat-5 yr Beat Hollow, -3 yr Martalain , -3 yr Jeremy, -3 yr Shirocco, -3 yr Kayf Tara, -3 yr Kayf Tara, -3 yr Fame&Glory, -3 yr Flemensfirth, -3 yr Shirocco , -3 yr Stowaway, -3 yr Shirocco, -3 yr Beat Hollow, -3 yr Flemensfirth, -3 yr Beat Hollow, -3 yr Shirocco, -3 yr Rail Link, -3 yr Shantou, -3 yr Shirocco.
Minella Horses in Training
Class of 2016 going through their paces at John Nallen’s Yard at Lavally.
Class of 2015
These novices are being put through their paces over hurdles by John Nallen of Minella Racing and Minella Hotel Clonmel.
Class of 2014
These novices are being put through their paces over hurdles by John Nallen.
Class of 2013
These novices are being put through their paces over hurdles by John Nallen.
Tour of the gallops
John is delighted to bring visitors on a tour to his gallops & Minella Racing Stables to see the horses put through the there paces.
Contact John (353 86 2052072 - Minellaracing - Find us on facebook
