Growing up around Kilmaley, McMahon knew nothing of horses. It was all about hurling and in 1997, he played on the only Clare team to garner an All-Ireland minor title. A couple of hours later, he watched his cousin Seánie McMahon — one of the greatest players of that era — collect his second at senior level.

He went on to play at U21 level for the Banner, while his brother Diarmuid served at senior for a decade. Together, they contributed to a coveted county title success with Kilmaley in 2004. Brian only hung up the boots after the 2015 semi-final against Clonlara, when the task of negating John Conlon’s influence at centre-back proved beyond him.

To be fair, Conlon was and is one of the finest hurlers in the country and by then McMahon was 36, working at Beckman Coulter in Tulla and training racehorses. If miles on the pitch hadn’t begun to get him, the busy nature of his life would have anyway.

The interest in racing was honed around an active social circle at UCG.

I loved the buzz of it but had no background, had never sat on a horse.

"We were just avid followers of it in college, we’d have two pounds as it was then on a horse here and there and watch it having a few pints,” recalls McMahon.

“When I finished my PhD in UCD I worked for two years. During that time I was going into Donie Hassett’s and riding out. I must have fallen off 50 times the first month and I was only going in weekends and days off!

“Then I decided that I didn’t want to be in the periphery. I wrote off to six trainers in England – (Nicky) Henderson, (Philip) Hobbs, (Paul) Nicholls, (David) Pipe, Jonjo (O’Neill) and Alan King – and Henderson and King got back to me.

“So I rode out in (Henderson’s) Seven Barrows. The fog was so thick you couldn’t see your hands in front of your face; which was lucky, as he couldn’t see how bad I was and I got the job! He wanted to fire me every day for the first fortnight and luckily (head lad) ‘Corky’ Brown took a shine to me and persuaded him to give me some bit of a chance. I winged it for the first month or two. After that, I was flying.”

It was a golden period for the yard as Henderson returned to the summit of British racing.

“You were bringing seven horses to Ascot or Cheltenham on a Saturday, and coming home with two winners, you were half disappointed. It was different gravy. The quality that was there – Binocular, Bobs Worth, Long Run, Punchestowns… Sprinter Sacre was just coming in. It was unbelievable.

“It’s funny, when (future Gold Cup winner) Bobs Worth came first as a five-year-old, he was one of my lots every day until they realised that he was useful and then I got jocked off!”

When he came home after two years, he was looking for an opportunity to train and is now renting a yard from Noel Glynn in Spancil Hill. One of his first horses was Seskinane, bought by his late father Eugene and who won at the grand old age of 12 last April in his mother Anne’s name.

The first people he called after making the decision to get a restricted licence in 2013 were Dave and Alan Morrissey, who have been friends since school. They bought Powersbomb as a store for €8,800 in Tattersalls. He has won four races – a flat race, bumper, hurdle, and chase.

Emboldened by the experience, they returned to Tatts 12 months later and spent just €8,500 on Se Mo Laoch. Racing in the colours of the Coalbrook Racing Syndicate, the now seven-year-old justified favouritism to bag a handicap chase at Punchestown last Sunday, with Derek O’Connor doing the steering.

He’s improving as he’s going. I probably didn’t have him as straight as I should have had him starting off but he’s held his form all summer.

“He lost a race in Sligo last year because he had a corticosteroid in his sample. We’d given him an anti-inflammatory injection, were told it would be a month’s withdrawal, gave it nearer to two and it still turned up. In the end it took nine months to clear. That was savage frustrating. The horse won well, ready to go again and we couldn’t run him.

“Whatever way it must line the joint, it wasn’t being processed. But thankfully, he got going and is going strong again. I don’t think there’s much for him over Christmas and I don’t think he’d want real deep ground so I might give him a break and see if there’s something for him in the spring.”

McMahon has six of his own inmates in the yard — three of those for the track and three more that will be educated or may be sold through the point-to-point sector. He also tends to Glynn’s two point-to-pointers. His day is full.

“I feed the horses and put a couple on the walker in the morning. I’m in for work for seven, and back out for three o’clock or half-three. Eoin Mahon, who’s a very promising point-to-point rider, comes in around two o’clock, gives them their lunch feed and tacks up the first lot.

“As soon as I land we ride out until it’s dark, and sometimes even when it is dark we’re still going, with four lots to do. The gallops are on site and I’ve good facilities there belonging to Noel so it’s handy. With the fading light it’s tough this time of year but come Christmas it will start to pick up again.”

He has learned not to be impatient and isn’t under pressure to sell young horses because the day job is funding his operation. He would prefer to keep the talent because winners are what will propel him to another level, although the bills must always be paid first.

I used be stressed about having winners and trying to get winners but now I don’t get stressed about it at all really. What’s the point?

“I’ve a Champs Elysees three-year-old named Seizieme I think a bit of, though he’ll hardly be good enough to win first-time up over Christmas. Hopefully he will win one sometime though. He came out of Pascal Bary’s in the Juddmonte dispersal. He’s a grand type by a good sire and jumps well so I’d be hopeful.”

Diarmuid is backing the brother too, part of the Crows Bridge Partnership that owns Crow’s Bridge.

That type of support is invaluable.

McMahon building new dreams in Spancil Hill