The American dream can mean many things. Whether it is simply overcoming adversity or being privileged enough to watch your children grow up, receive good educations and find careers, everyone has an idea of what the phrase looks like. 

For Jimmy Sheridan, the pursuit began on a football (soccer for us yanks) pitch and ultimately led to Maryland's Fair Hill Training Center, where the Irishman purchased Perfect Sky II, the former Maryland base of trainer Shug McGaughey, in April.

Coming to the United States in 1989 on a soccer scholarship to Central Connecticut State University, he played and coached before moving into a 20-year career in New York City with Google and JPMorgan Chase among others. He began racing in 2011 with his college teammate and countryman, Stephen Coxon, starting with flat horses in New York. 

"For a lot of us, having a soccer scholarship was really an opportunity to get out of Ireland and come to America and live the American dream," Sheridan said. "Being able to participate and get involved in such a prestigious industry, there's a lot of validation for us that our hard work paid off, so we tend to enjoy it as best we can."

Sheridan didn't come from a racing family, but he did have a love for racing, even if he wasn't part of the game.

"I grew up in the suburb of Dublin, in a kind of housing estate. There were a few horses there, but I wouldn't call them Thoroughbreds," Sheridan said. "We never really had the means to participate nor the know-how to get into it until maybe you get to the middle part of your life and your career, where you've kind of had a little bit of success professionally, and now all of a sudden you do have some means. While some people might go buy boats, we were at the point where we wanted to get into horses at a very small level."

That journey started with $20,000 claimers in New York. Then, just being involved was enough. 

"Just to be able to participate in the industry was like hitting the jackpot for us because we didn't grow up in it. We just grew up admiring it," Sheridan said. "It kind of grew throughout the years. I have always stayed involved in it." 

The operation gained an important asset, trainer Keri Brion, in 2021 and has expanded with various partnerships and horses since.

Sheridan, Coxon, Brion client Paul Willis and others have teamed up to own a variety of runners including hurdle stakes winner Going Country (Ire) and three unraced 2-year-olds.

"She was a young trainer, she was incredibly hard-working, incredibly ambitious, and she's kind of like a new breed of trainer where she's just a really good communicator," Sheridan said. "As smaller owners coming into the industry, we crave information and communication and a lot of the bigger trainers that we've been involved in, who have been a little bit more in the back nine of their careers, weren't." 

Brion echoed the importance of a balanced relationship and communication between trainers and owners. Her Fair Hill-based stable of steeplechase and flat horses has included jump champion The Mean Queen (Ire) and recent Grade 2-placed flat horse Miztertonic. In her sixth full year as a trainer, she wishes to expand her presence in flat racing while maintaining the jump success. Her Fair Hill base plays a big role in that aim, and she advocated for the purchase Perfect Sky II in November.
 
"We have a group chat on WhatsApp and it had kind of been playing in my own mind," said Brion. "I really didn't want to own a third barn myself, and I'm like, 'If I could get an owner, it would be beneficial to them as well, wouldn't that be great?' " 

Realtor Rosella Hunter helped Brion and Sheridan make that wishful thinking a reality by buying the barn. The move gave Brion more space for horses and created an investment for Sheridan as he rents stalls to the trainer.

The Connecticut resident appreciates the scene at Fair Hill.

"When I was working in corporate America, every time I went down, it was almost like going into a little oasis," Sheridan said. "Going there in the morning, seeing Thoroughbreds all walking through the track, it felt like I was going on vacation every time I went down to see it."
His competitive background, on the pitch and in office spaces and boardrooms, can apply to racing. At Fair Hill, Sheridan believes he has the best of both worlds. 

"I worked in talent acquisition at some of the best companies in the world," Sheridan said. "Surround yourself with high-performing, really smart people. That's the kind of mantra of the best companies in the world, and that's what I felt about the kind of staff. This is not so much a bet on a facility. It's as much a bet on people.

That's the biggest thing I've learned at a place like Google. Bet on really, really ambitious, smart people who are going to work hard and give them somewhere they can be proud of to work."

Sheridan has lofty ambitions, with Brion joking that the ultimate goal is a win in the Kentucky Derby-G1. While that might seem light years away, Sheridan believes anything is possible with work, consistent growth and improvement. He looks at his horses almost like a soccer coach looks at players.

"When you bring in your freshmen soccer players, you kind of look at them not as the finished article, but as what they can be," Sheridan said. "Do you have the structure in place to improve them? That certainly applies to horse racing for the most part, especially if you're not any of the big crews who can go spend a million, two million dollars on an almost finished article. For us lesser-means owners, we have to go buy yearlings and 2-year-olds and look for value in them. The same applies to soccer: not everyone can make the best team immediately, but they can develop into a player who fights for it."

Sheridan also hopes to put his business background to work for the operations at Perfect Sky II, boosting Brion's success and improving the facility in the process.

"Horses aside, I'll consider it a big success if I can actually provide a small, little assist to Keri's operations by way of having a well-run, well-performing facility," Sheridan said. "These aren't barns, right? They're facilities for world-class athletes. I'd actually like to be able to point to a business model in two or three years that makes it attractive for people like me to come in and buy a barn and participate in the industry from a different perspective."

His pursuit of the American dream led to Fair Hill, where he is doing his part by involving others in the future of Perfect Sky II.

"I committed a decent amount of money into making that barn shine as best as possible, and I've been able to work with Amish contracting vendors down there [plus] plumbers, electricians, and all of these people who come in," he said. "The industry brings a lot to the community. It's actually kind of really nice to see how the industry can help small businesses, can get involved and help fuel a local community too. I think that sometimes gets missed."