RACING NEWS:FRANCES CROWLEY has not ruled out a return to training on a small scale following her announcement that she is to to quit after 10 years in the role.
Crowley, who made Irish racing history three years ago by becoming the first licensed female trainer to send out an Irish Classic winner when Saoire took the 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh, plans to have her final runners in the next month.
"It was a hard decision, but I have been thinking about it for a while. It's sad in a lot of ways but I am looking to a kind of fresh start and a different way of life," she said.
"I've been training for 10 years and I just left I needed a change.
"At the end of the season I shall be finished but in the future, who knows? I might run one or two horses under private licence but I don't know."
Crowley, mother of two and married to Ireland's Flat champion jockey Pat Smullen, started training at Piltown, Co Kilkenny, alongside her father Joe in 1998.
She has been at her present base at Clifton Lodge on the Curragh for the last five years.
"We have our own farm and we have a couple of mares and foals. I think I probably will take it easy for a month or two and see what we're doing," she added.
"I'm dispersing the horses at the moment but there are a few horses I own myself and I need to race on. I could have one or two runners for the next month or so.
"I don't actually have a last runner as such.
"I will be kept busy and who knows what will happen in the future? At the moment I just want a break from the training."
Although Crowley has saddled around 350 winners, she has only had the one success this year, supplied by Cheyenne Star. The five-year-old mare, who is bound for the paddocks, may bid for back-to-back victories in the Castlemartin Stud EBF Garnet Stakes at Naas on Sunday.
"The ground is currently soft, which doesn't really suit her, but as she is being retired and going to stud, perhaps the owner might let her run," Crowley continued.
"I've been really lucky. She's been a great servant and I'm very fond of her."
Saoire and Cheyenne Star are among the horses to have given her success on the Flat, while her big-race winners over jumps include Sackville, Moscow Express, Promalee and Nil Desperandum.
"I've been really lucky both with the horses and with some great owners I've enjoyed training for," she added. "They've all asked me to keep in touch. I have a young family and I'll be looking forward to spending more time with them but I'll be keeping busy and I won't be getting the pipe and slippers out just yet."
Meanwhile, Dessie Hughes reports dual Champion Hurdle hero Hardy Eustace to be at the top of his game as he nears a return to action. There was talk of retirement in some quarters after the 11-year-old finished down the field in the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March - but Hughes has been more than happy with his recent work.
The veteran's sole victory last season came in last November's Coral Ascot Hurdle, a race Hughes is again targeting with Hardy Eustace. "Hardy Eustace is very well and I am very happy with him just at the moment," said the trainer.
"We will probably give him a spin on the Flat somewhere in the middle of this month and then head back to Ascot again for the race we won last year. There is a race at Fairyhouse we are looking at, but we will just have to see."
Hughes is hopeful Oulart can record his second success over fences in the Munster National at Limerick on Sunday. The nine-year-old won the Pertemps Final at the 2005 Cheltenham Festival, but it took him more than three years to get his head in front again when taking a handicap chase at Kilbeggan on his penultimate start.
Oulart showed he is in a rich vein of form when chasing home Ponmeoath in the Kerry National last month.
"Oulart ran a blinder at Listowel last time and he seems to be really good this year again," said the Co Kildare handler.
