On the trail of an unpredictable star

A young Irish trainer has the chance to put his name on the map in no uncertain fashion today — but it won’t have been by conventional means. Alan Fleming spoke to Declan Colley

ALAN FLEMING’S career has not exactly followed a predictable path, but that is of little consequence to the 32-year-old from Blessington in Co. Wicklow as he gears up for today’s opening Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham with the fancied Starluck.

It might be that his mum drove him to Ted Walsh’s yard every day when he was thirteen (he hitched the fourteen miles home every evening) and that he subsequently worked with the likes of Martin Brassil and Tony Martin. It might also be that he gained further valuable experience from Arthur Moore and Oliver McKiernan before taking out his own licence.

But it was the chance sighting of an advert in the Racing Post that was to change his life completely. Struggling with poor horses and few resources, he was getting fed up with the game, before fate took hold.

The ad in question offered a post as a private trainer at Andrew Wates’ stable near Dorking in Surrey and Fleming applied for it and got the job. Wates’ facilities are not only state-of-the-art, but his resources are plentiful and the combination has allowed Fleming to demonstrate his abilities.

Wates, of course, owned Rough Quest, which brought his distinctive blue and green colours to victory in the 1996 Grand National and now, with Fleming in charge of his Henfold House Stables, there is considerable evidence that more big-time success is on the way.

He had, he says, wanted to come to England for the last two years but it was hard to find a yard with the right facilities.

“This job came up in the paper and it’s a lovely, relaxed place. It was a ready-to-go job and the important thing was that I think along the same lines as Mr Wates about the horses. We’ve some nice types here, so there’s a lot to look forward to. I hadn’t expected anything much but when I saw the place I knew it was special. Mr. Wates is an absolute gentleman to train for and he’s a great guy to have on-side.

“I was training for a couple of years on my own but it was very quiet in Ireland. There are not many opportunities for young trainers. You need very good horses and big owners behind you, and we had neither.

“In saying that I had backing from guys like Mark and Mick Kilkenny, Johnny and Niall Glennon, Gerry Lambe, Brendan Cauley and Jack Reid and they were very good owners for me, but we just hadn’t got the horses. Those guys backed me every step of the way and tried to help as much as they could, but we just didn’t get the horses.”

He says he is of the belief that if you want to make it as a trainer you have to go to England and while that might sound stupid on the back of considerable evidence that there are numerous young trainers operating successfully in Ireland, but he maintains that is only because they got a great kick-start.

“If you miss that kick-start – like I did – then you are banging your head off a brick wall,” he says.

The ex-Kevin Prendergast-trained Starluck is the star of the show at Henfold House and his three unbeaten performances this season have put him bang in the frame for the Triumph Hurdle.

“He’s a good horse,” says Fleming, “and a horse like him is what you need. We've only had him a couple of months, so while we are hopeful about his future, we don’t really know yet what he can do, even though he has impressed every time he has run.”

Starluck had some very decent form on the flat and that has translated well into his hurdling career, no more so than at Kempton at Christmas where he bolted in ahead of a classy field.

If the progression he has show thus far continues apace – and Fleming was very impressed with his final piece of work at Newbury last week – then he really could be something special.

FLEMING himself, although not from a racing background, has been around horses since he since he was seven, being involved with hunting and pony clubs.

“I rode a good few winners for Ted as a point-to-pointer, and then I worked with Martin Brassil and Tony Martin. Brendan Sheridan, who was Ted’s jockey, was another who was always there to teach me. They would all put you right and keep you on the straight and narrow.

“I had a good time of things with Oliver as well, what with Winning Dream coming home third in the (Irish) National for Tony McCoy and Healy’s Pub was a good one who won six or seven for us.

“Star Performance was another, who was just touched off by Spot Thedifference in the cross-country race at Cheltenham. Then I moved out on my own with a few horses before coming here.”

Fleming only moved to England last August and has been finding his feet since, but the purchase of Starluck out of the Prendergast yard has been an obvious shot in the arm. He says that, in reality, the current season has been a learning curve. “But with Starluck we’ve obviously got a good one. He’s out of a good mare (Sarifa) who you’d imagine would produce jumpers because there is a good staying line on the dam’s side. It was Arthur Moore and his son-in-law Kevin Ross that found him and we went over and looked at him before we bought him.

“We had been looking for a juvenile we could kick on with and we were lucky actually to have found one. You could buy a hundred horses before you’d get one like him, so we were absolutely steeped.

“It has been a dream start and we have been lucky, but you take what you can get in this business. It would be nice to be able to repay the faith that has been shown in me and if the horse runs a good race then we can’t ask for any more.”