Robbie Connolly

The son of trainer Mick Connolly, Robbie won 60 races as an apprentice in Ireland. They included a successful association with a grey colt named Parole, trained by his father.

He won the Unidare Champion Apprentice series in 1974, winning the Phoenix Park leg on Lady L in August and finishing second on Quackser at Naas in June and second again on Parole at the Curragh in September.

Robbie won six races on Parole, the first of them a Naas maiden on 14 June 1975. They won three together in 1976, starting with a seven-furlong Naas handicap, then a one-mile handicap at Thurles, and culminating in their biggest victory in the Thomas McDonogh & Sons Ltd Handicap over a mile at the Galway Festival on 26 July. Robbie had to put up 2lb overweight in that Galway success so weight was evidently already becoming an issue.

In 1977 Robbie rode Parole to win the Unidare Aluglaze Apprentice Handicap at Phoenix Park on 2 July and followed that with victory in the Donnybrook Handicap at Leopardstown on the first day of August.

When Parole won for the only time in 1978, he was ridden by Tommy Murphy, as by then Robbie had given up the unequal battle with the scales and was attending University College, Dublin, where he went on to gain a Commerce degree in 1979.

After joining the accountancy firm of Craig Gardner for four years, he later worked in Newbridge before the lure of racing prompted him to take out a trainer’s licence in 1985, based at the Curragh.

His most important winners as a trainer included Acclamation in the Irish Lincolnshire, Mascara in the Denny’s Gold Medal Handicap Chase at Tralee, and Native Sal in the Birdcatcher Nursery at Naas.

In 1987 he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. He continued to train for the next two years, relinquishing his trainer’s licence soon after sending out Viqueen to win the Carroll Hurdle at Dundalk in May 1989.

Sadly, Robbie Connolly lost his battle against motor neurone disease, dying at his home in Whitesland, Kildare, on 17 April 1990, aged 31. His funeral took place three days later at Whiteland St Brigid’s Church, Kildare. He was survived by his wife Jacinta and three-year-old daughter Vivienne.