The foundations laid remain firmly in place

Fifty years is a milestone in any sport, but at Charlestown Stud in Mullingar, the passing of five decades is a story written in horses, people, remarkable victories and an enduring passion for the thoroughbred.

This year marks half a century since Dot Love established the operation that would become one of the best-known nurseries for National Hunt horses in Ireland. From an unlikely beginning as a 19-year-old from Denmark, Love went on to become a high-class Event rider, a successful trainer, a renowned pre-trainer and the woman who produced one of the great shocks in Irish racing history.

There were more than 70 National Hunt winners during her career, but none could compare with the day a 50-1 outsider named Liberty Counsel stunned Fairyhouse in the 2013 Irish Grand National.

The 10-year-old mare had been last seen finishing down the field in the Kim Muir Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, so there was little surprise when she was sent off at huge odds for one of the most fiercely competitive races in the Irish calendar.

Yet Liberty Counsel had other ideas.

Settled in the middle of the pack for much of the three-mile-five-furlong journey, she began to make her presence felt with some fine leaps down the back straight. By the time she turned for home, she was firmly in contention.

Conditional jockey Ben Dalton was hard at work as they rounded the final bend and, after jumping the second-last fence, it appeared that Away We Go, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, might have the answer. There was little to choose between the pair at the final obstacle. But Liberty Counsel dug deep, finding reserves of energy when it mattered most to defeat Away We Go by half a length.

Home Farm finished third, with Sweeney Tunes fourth.

For Love, it was the defining moment of a remarkable career and made her the first female trainer to win the Irish Grand National since Jenny Pitman, who had struck with Mudahim in 1997.

“I’m over the moon. She deserved it. The ground didn’t suit at Cheltenham, but she really tried there. She’s a super mare and a very good jumper. Ben gave her a super ride. With a low weight and very good ground we were confident. I would have been happy if she had been fourth,” said the then Charlestown boss.

Dalton, meanwhile, knew that Liberty Counsel had the stamina and jumping ability to keep going when it mattered.

“The going was a big help to her. I thought if she was fifth or sixth it would have been a great run, but she’s improving all the time. I knew she’d stay right to the line: she winged the last and kept finding more,” he said.

It was an extraordinary achievement for a trainer whose route into racing was anything but conventional.

Dot Love arrived in Ireland from Denmark as Dot Nelleman, aged 19, in the middle of the swinging sixties. She came to work as an au pair for fellow Dane Karen Kjaer, who owned a farm and some good Olympic-level eventers which she bred for her son to ride.

Love would ultimately marry local farmer Jim Love, but horses were already at the heart of her life.

Originally from Denmark, her background was in three-day Eventing rather than racing. A high-class horsewoman, not unlike Jessica Harrington, she competed at top level at Burghley and Badminton in the 1980s.

A clerical error prevented her from representing Denmark at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

She had started with point-to-pointers, but in 2001, when point-to-points were cancelled because of foot and mouth, Love applied for a trainer’s licence so that she could run horses in hunter chases.

It was the beginning of another remarkable chapter.

She sent out her first winner in her first week as a trainer when her then assistant, Ciaran Murphy, partnered I’m On The Line to win a bumper at Kilbeggan in June 2001.

At the same time, Love was developing a hugely successful pre-training business, working with store horses for Gigginstown. At one stage she was preparing up to 40 horses a year for Michael O’Leary’s operation before they were distributed among his trainers.

Among the horses to pass through Charlestown Stud was Grand National winner War of Attrition, who returned to Love in retirement and hunted for three seasons. She was also entrusted with Tiger Roll, helping to teach him to jump cross-country obstacles.

The success of Charlestown Stud was not built solely on the racetrack. Love’s horsemanship and eye for a horse helped establish the Mullingar operation as a significant part of the Irish National Hunt scene, and the list of horses to pass through its gates became increasingly impressive.

Then came Liberty Counsel. Love sent the mare to Cheltenham for the Kim Muir in 2013. Her mid-field finish was enough to give the trainer encouragement to let her take her chance in the Irish Grand National the following month.

At 50-1, and carrying the lowest weight ever to win the race, Liberty Counsel produced the performance of her life. Half a length was enough.

The story of Love and Charlestown Stud also has a particularly Irish sense of humour attached to it. When she eventually retired from training in January 2021, she signed off with two winners from her final three runners.

Betty Zane landed the bumper at Cork on Saturday, January 2, under Aaron Murphy, a brother of Ciaran Murphy. The following afternoon at Fairyhouse, Flindt won the lady riders’ handicap hurdle under Sarah Kavanagh. It was her 76th and final winner.

There was something fitting about the final victory. Not only was it ‘her’ race, but it came at the scene of her greatest triumph, the 2013 Irish Grand National with Liberty Counsel.

Both horses were led up by her grandchildren, or ‘little Loves’, Timmy and Matthew, both competent horsemen. A third grandchild, Holly, represented the Irish pony team. It was the perfect way to close the training chapter of a career that had already encompassed Eventing at the highest level, racing success and a thriving pre-training operation.

Love had also long since come to regard herself as Irish.

“Put it this way, if Ireland were playing Denmark I’d support Ireland,” she said.

She was extremely moved when Fairyhouse, in the guise of manager Peter Roe, put on a race to mark her retirement and presented her with a very decent bottle of Champagne. And, naturally, the celebrations were conducted in a suitably Irish fashion.

The Champagne, her family and her assistant gathered in the back of the lorry at a petrol station, with ‘cups’ borrowed from the coffee machine serving as Champagne flutes.

After 20 years as a trainer, Love handed over the licence to her assistant, Ciaran Murphy, five years ago and he continues to train from Charlestown Stud, a hidden gem on the outskirts of Mullingar. The baton had been passed, but the spirit of the place remains very evident.

Fifty years after the story began, Charlestown Stud is still producing horses, still developing talent and still playing its part in Irish racing. The names may change, but the foundations laid by Dot Love remain firmly in place.

And perhaps that is the most fitting legacy of all for a woman who came to Ireland from Denmark as a 19-year-old, built a career from Eventing and point-to-points, produced a 50-1 Irish Grand National winner and eventually handed over the reins at the place she had made her own.

Charlestown Stud is celebrating 50 years this year. Few operations could have a story quite like it.

Profile - Dot love

Country Of Origin: Denmark

Based: Mullingar, County Westmeath

Date of licence: 2001

Relinquished licence: January, 2021

First winner: I'm On The Line (Mr Ciaran Murphy) Kilbeggan, June 25, 2001

Final winner: Flindt (Sarah Kavanagh) Fairyhouse, January 3, 2021

Significant horses: Liberty Counsel, Shadow Eile, Lucky Pat, Dawn Shadow, Newsworthy, Cliff house, Just A Normal Day, Natural Power, I'm On The Line, Flindt.