THEN assistant to Gordon Elliott, Olly Murphy endeared himself to northern racing fans when, on the panel for the 2016 Jonjo Bright Minerstown Tavern Cheltenham Festival Preview fundraiser, he advised them to back Diamond King in the Coral Cup and the Elliott-trained gelding duly obliged at 12/1.

Many of those punters have since followed with interest Murphy’s own training career at his family’s Warren Chase Stables near Stratford on Avon. And they have had an added reason to do so since mid-August when Downpatrick-born Gerard Tumelty took up the position as an assistant trainer at the Warwickshire yard.

Former jockey Gerard, and his wife Sarah, had previously worked at Apple Tree Stud but missed the buzz around a training establishment and were delighted when positions came up at Warren Chase Stables.

“When he was about 17 and working for Alan King, Olly lived with Sarah and me for about a year and we’ve always kept in touch,” revealed Tumelty.

“When he started off training, he had about a dozen but there will be around a 100 in training this winter which is why he needed to take on another assistant to work with Ed Telfer.

“Sarah works in the second yard where the horses go when they are on the easy list.

“The job suits me down to the ground as I get to go to a lot of meetings and I also get to ride out every day which I love. It’s all go from early morning feeding to checking the horses over at night but Olly is getting the results and, at Carlisle on Monday, he had his 41st winner of the jumps season and his 98th in total since starting in July 2017 – just a couple of weeks before Sarah and I were married!

“He’s hungry and has plenty of nice horses and good staff. It’s great to see a couple of the conditionals in the yard getting chances as I know how hard it is to get going in this game.”

During the summer, Gerard, Olly and others in the yard had a chance to get in a bit of golf but there’s no time for that now which suits the man from Downpatrick as he readily admits he’s a fair-weather golfer.

Nor will he have time to hunt although he hopes Sarah gets a few days during the season on her ex-racehorse, Blazing Bailey.

Gerard’s parents, Patricia and Denis, were over visiting Olly and Sarah about six weeks ago and are due to pop back again shortly.