Brassil coming to grips with being locked in the uncomfortable glare of the media spotlight
Martin Brassil is a man perhaps characterised most by his modesty and his demeanour as his yard is descended upon by a herd of racing hacks from the UK and Ireland is one of mild sembarrassment.
He’s not a man who’s ever sought the limelight, but with the likes of media stars Rishi Persad, Cornelius Lysaght and Jonathan Powell, among others, on hand for the annual stable tour of the winning trainer of the John Smith’s Grand National, the 50-year-old Clareman is locked in the uncomfortable glare of the media spotlight.
It is something he’s had to get used to though, because since his stable star Numbersixvalverde won the Thyestes chase in January 2005 and followed that up by winning the Irish National before going on to win the biggest National Hunt race in the world last term, Brassil has become public property.
Not alone has he underlined a singular training talent, but he has begun to attract the attentions of owners at the serious end of the racing game, not least property magnate Sean Mulryan, for whom he now trains Nickname, one of the most exciting chasing prospects to have emerged thus far this season.
But today is all about ‘Numbersix’ and the massed ranks of the British and Irish racing media are keen to hear about the well-being of Bernie and Deirdre Carroll’s ‘low mileage’ ten-year-old and his prospects of winning back-to-back Nationals.
The horse, “a terribly placid fella” according to jockey Niall ‘Slippers’ Madden, is led out of his box in the beautifully appointed Dunmurray Hall yard swathed in his ‘John Smith’s Grand National Winner’ blanket, completely untroubled by the dozens of people – hacks and connections – awaiting his presence.
“Nothing seems to faze him,” Brassil allows. “It was worse the day after he won the National. It was pandemonium here, but he didn’t take a tack of notice.”
The horse is led out his by groom Vladimir and is totally calm as he is required to pose for the snappers. He nonchalantly chomps on the branch of one of the young trees that dot the yard, literally taking it all in his stride.
Brassil is taking it in his stride too; he’s been around the block in this business, but being the central figure in the limelight is something of a new experience.
“I’m 30 years working on the Curragh now. I’m originally from Newmarket-on-Fergus in Clare, but I’m here a long time now. I came up in 1976 to work with Mick O’Toole and I spent ten years with him. I looked after his only classic winner, Dickins Hill. I had spent a year with Mick Neville where my brother John rode, but I wanted to come up to the Curragh because this is where it was at, really.”
Dunmurray Hall, the yard from which Brassil now trains, was actually designed and built by Irene Oakes and is now rented by the Clareman. Oakes subsequently got married and went to live in France and Brassil is only too glad to have the use of the place.
There are 25 horses in the yard, with Numbersixvalverde being the star and Nickname the star in the making, but the trainer says the latter was a top class beast before he ever got him.
“He won plenty of races in France and won over €600,000 there. He was the highest rated three year old of his year. Herve Barjot, who is Sean Mulryan’s racing manager, came to see me after I won the Irish Grand National with a view to me taking a few horses and he told me about this horse.
“In actual fact they had problems with him because they found he was lame after the French Champion Hurdle and they couldn’t get him sound. So they sent him to me to see if I could do anything with him.”
Having had his last race in France at Auteil in June 2004 – in which he finished an uncharacteristically one-paced fourth behind Willie Mullins’ Rule Supreme, he was transferred to Ireland and thanks to a good deal of patience and large amounts of TLC, he eventually made his racecourse return at Leopardstown at the end of December ‘05 when he won a beginners chase from Mullins’ Our Ben.
That was the start of a campaign last term which saw him win once more and finish second twice and establish the fact that he acts best on soft to heavy ground in races run at a decent pace over two to two-and-a-half miles.
However, it was at Navan earlier this month when, under a well-judged ride from Slippers Madden he jumped his way to the forefront of the racing public’s consciousness with an excellent three-quarter length victory over the very experienced Central House. “It worked out fine,” Brassil says, “they ran a good gallop and Niall just dropped him in and let him do his thing.”
That marked him down as a Grade One contender and that’s the route Brassil will now be following with him.
“Any Grade One or graded race is what we’ll be looking at. We might consider the Champion Chase if we got soft ground; the Ryanair Chase over two-and-a-half miles might be an option also, but everything will depend on the ground,” the trainer says. “He won over two-and-a-half miles in heavy ground at Navan and that’s equivalent to two-and-a-half anywhere else.”
Speaking of the horse’s rehabilitation, Brassil says that physio was the key to getting Nickname back to racecourse fitness. “You’ll find that there are areas on some horses that need regular physio and you find that it cannot be done just once a week, it has to be done every day. We did that and thankfully we got him back.”
Niall Madden rode him at Navan, although Conor O’Dwyer is his usual pilot, but ‘Slippers’ reckons that the Navan victory was a portent of good things to come. “He just popped away and he did it well. Martin knows where he stands with the horse now and he knows he’s a Grade One animal. He’s as good over two as he is over two-and-a-half miles, once he can get his toe into the ground and has pace in the race. He’s actually a very uncomplicated horse, he never gets too keen and he jumps brilliant.
“In the race at Navan I found that he wasn’t doing much when I put him to the front because he’d been enjoying himself in behind. But Central House was never going to get to him. Conor usually rides him, but was booked for Fota Island that day, so I only hope Fota Island runs every time Nickname does.”
Whatever about Nickname’s potential, Numbersixvalverde is the unquestioned star of the show at Dunmurray Hall and, according to Brassil, he’s in great shape at the minute.
“He’s had a long rest and the ultimate aim is to get him back to Aintree. You’ll see him first in a three mile hurdle at Leopardstown at Christmas and I might enter him then for the Hennessy there in February, but we’ll see how he goes. He will possibly have three runs before he goes back to Aintree.
“He is a fresh ten-year-old and has not got a lot of mileage up on the clock. He was almost six before he ran at all. In fact he was just a week shy of being six when he ran first. He’s been a very sound horse to train.”
Asked about the National victory, Brassil confesses that he still has to pinch himself to confirm the truth of the victory.
“I was shocked really and it’s only now it is sinking in,” he says. “In your wildest dreams you’d never think you’d win a race like that. I never dreamt I’d even have a runner in it, to be honest. I was very lucky the horse progressed along the lines he did. When he won the Thyestes in January 2005, he qualified for Aintree and he was suddenly in a racing band we’d never even thought about. But, at that stage we weren’t thinking of the Grand National, even though he has a lot of stamina and the race was actually there to suit him.
“Slippers gives him a lot of confidence in running and he allows him travel in his racing and we saw that in the Thyestes, but even after he won that, my immediate reaction was that the next place he’d run was the Irish National.
“He went and won that under a great ride from Ruby (Walsh) and it was only after that we even thought about Aintree. Winning there was a huge buzz, but I still can’t quite believe it happened.” Well it did happen and the media scrum at Dunmurray Hall is ample confirmation of the fact. And, at the rate things are going, it is something Martin Brassil might have to get used to.
