Jessica Harrington may recently have made history as the most successful female trainer at Cheltenham, with 11 winners to date – not to mention a string of wins at the Irish Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup, Irish Gold Cup and Punchestown Gold Cup – but it’s business as usual at the dual trainer’s yard in Moone, Co Kildare.

“Just carry on training, trying to get the best out of the horses and try to win races!” she says, matter-of-factly.

“That’s really what we’re here to do.”

But Jessica will also be lending her support to the Leopardstown Ladies Evening in aid of Breast Cancer Ireland on 26 May, along with daughters Emma and Kate, who make up the uniquely all-female management team at the yard.

Jessica was born in London but at 18-months-old, her father Brigadier Bryan Fowler – who won a silver medal in the Berlin Olympics in 1936 for polo – relocated the family to Rahinston House in Co Meath.

Needless to say, horses were always part of her life.

“I don’t actually remember learning to ride,” says Jessica. “I just remember always being able to ride.”

A talented eventer, Jessica represented Ireland at the highest level, but her career as a trainer began in the 1980s after marrying bloodstock agent, Johnny Harrington.

“He had basically what they call a permit to train – now they call it a restricted license – and then he was away a lot, so I took over the permit from him,” she explains.

And while she might have been in the minority as a woman, Jessica explains that once she “got lucky enough to get a few winners”, business took off.

“Success breeds success, it’s the only way,” she says.

She name-checks Oh So Grumpy and Dance Beat as early successes, but it’s Moscow Flyer that many people associate with her. However, the recent string of wins has surpassed even that excitement, and seems to have taken even Jessica, now 70, by surprise.

“Going to the Gold Cup was hopeful rather than confident. It’s a very, very hard race to win,” she says of Sizing John’s win at Cheltenham.

“And the same really going to the Irish Grand National with Our Duke. Again, there was so many things – it was only his fourth race over fences, he was only a novice, it’s a big field of handicappers and there was so much in that race that could have gone wrong and he just happened to have a dream run and everything went right.”

With the untimely passing of her husband in 2014, Jessica credits the support of daughters Emma and Kate in the running of the yard – from overseeing the finances to the horses’ work schedule.

“So all I have to do is train racehorses!” she quips.

Looking forward, Jessica tips Alpha Centuri, who won recently at Naas, and Torcedor, who she hopes to run at Ascot, amongst the ones to watch.

In the meantime, however, she is looking forward to supporting the Leopardstown Ladies Evening, which she describes as a cause close to her heart, having lost her sister-in-law to cancer as well as having two friends going through treatment at the moment.

“Anything that we can do to raise awareness and raise money and help anybody is very, very important,” she says.

>> Emma Harrington

For Emma Harrington, the recent success at the yard has been almost “unbelievable”.

“I think it’s going to be another month or two for us all to actually realise what’s happened,” she admits.

But Emma, who was 12 when Jessica started training, has witnessed her mother’s work ethic from the beginning.

“It was a very big deal for a lady to even take out a license to start with,” she recalls.

“Her drive is incredible and her ability and energy for life in general is just phenomenal and she’s always had that drive. She’d never ask anyone in the yard to do something that she wouldn’t do herself. She’s quite happy to work every hour that God sends. She’s not financially motivated.

“She’s very passionate about horses and she would get as much of a kick out of a horse that perhaps isn’t a very talented horse, but she’d manage to get them to a race, as much as she would a horse winning a Grade 1 or a Group 1.”

As office manager, Emma deals with everything from the accounts and HR to the maintenance of the farm. Having started with just six horses, the yard now caters for over 100, with 45 full and part-time staff employed. In the last year, Emma estimates they have invested over €300,000 in facilities, including a new gallops, upgraded outdoor arena and indoor school and a refurbishment of the stables and outdoor paddocks.

“Hoping it will pay off and thankfully this year it has,” she says of their recent success, of which the Cheltenham Gold Cup win was her personal highlight.

“We had never even entered a horse in the Gold Cup, never mind had a runner in it,” she says.

“We were hoping he’d be placed, we thought he could win but you wouldn’t really dare believe that he’s going to win the race – but he just did it so well and Robbie (Power) just gave him such an incredible ride.”

And as for her mother’s energy?

“She’s quite unique in that she rides out still and I think when I say that to people, (they think) ‘oh she rides out a hack or an old retired horse,’ but she actually rides out the racehorses. She’d ride out Rock The World, who won in Cheltenham, every day as well,” says Emma.

“What she does in a day, I do in about three days!”

>> Kate Harrington

“I’ve been riding before I could even walk,” jokes youngest daughter Kate, who is an amateur jockey and assistant trainer at the yard.

While her earliest memory of her mother’s success was of Miss Orchestra winning the Midlands Grand National in 1998, she herself made a memorable debut when she rode Moscow Flyer to victory at a charity race in 2007.

“I don’t know how mum left me up on him – I was only 17 at the time,” she laughs. “I kind of got the bug after that.”

While Kate studied politics and social policy in UCD, she never doubted that her ambitions lay in racing, with her personal highlight winning the Connacht Handicap at the Galway Races – known as Irish racing’s ‘amateur derby’ – in 2015.

After college, she worked briefly at home before a stint with Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle, but returned again over two years ago.

“After my dad passed away, I kind of felt it was time to come back and help mum and Emma and have a go at it,” she says.

As assistant trainer, Kate oversees the work programme for each horse every week that she and her mother plan out on Mondays. She’s also busy riding out herself, which makes wins like Our Duke all the more personal.

“I rode him to win his bumper a year and a half ago,” she explains. “It’s very exciting because I get to ride these horses their first ever time on the racetrack and to see them go on and do great things – it’s been amazing.”

As for their recent success, Kate believes the investment in new facilities has played a huge part, while peers like Aidan O’Brien and Willie Mullins have also spurred them on.

“I think because they raised the bar, we also raised the bar,” she says.

However, she admits she is still in awe of her mother’s energy and enthusiasm.

“My mother is amazing,” she says. “I hope I’m half as good as she is by the time I’m her age!”

Leopardstown Racecourse Goes Pink For Breast Cancer Ireland

On Friday 26 May, Leopardstown Racecourse will host a Ladies Evening in aid of Breast Cancer Ireland, with highlights including tiered Moët & Chandon afternoon tea, live music, celebrity support and a top-end flat card.

Designed to inform and inspire, The Ladies’ Evening will feature words of wisdom and empowering life-advice in a mentoring Q&A session hosted by Gráinne Seoige at 4.30pm. An additional fundraising event, the Race-Forward Event, hosted by comedian Aisling Bea, will include tips for success and inspirational speeches from Gold Cup-winning trainer Jessica Harrington, and guests.

The first race is off at 6pm with gates opening 4pm. Visit www.leopardstown.com