Farmer William Delahunty lands first training winner with 40/1 Tramore shock

William Delahunty’s small yard landed a result bigger than its size when Voice Of Reason won at 40/1 at Tramore, giving the locally based farmer his first-ever winner at the Waterford track. Horse Racing Ireland summed up the mood perfectly: “It’s like Cheltenham to us.”

Delahunty runs a family operation with only two horses in training, and the win cut straight against the scale of modern racing, where big strings and deep benches usually dominate the headlines. Here, the breakthrough came from a yard where the whole family helps ride out Voice Of Reason, a horse described as a “legend” in the celebration that followed.

The result carried extra weight because Voice Of Reason has already been a reliable weapon for Delahunty at Tramore. An Irish Mirror excerpt said the horse was winning for the fourth time for him at the Waterford racecourse on Tuesday night, turning a first training success at the venue into something more than a one-off upset. For a stable this small, that kind of return from a single horse is the difference between hope and proof.

Delahunty’s own assessment of Voice Of Reason matched the horse’s profile on the track. In comments carried by IrishRacing.com/X, he said: “He is a good horse, he loves it. He did keep finding. I was wondering was he after going fast enough. He was headed, but he stays real well. He has some constitution, I’ve never seen him come off his feed.” That combination of stamina and resilience was enough to get the job done when the market had him at 40/1.

For Delahunty, the win was more than a surprise result at Tramore. It was the kind of small-yard breakthrough that keeps racing rooted in the towns and farms around the sport, where one horse can still change the scale of a season in a single run.