IT’S a chilly midweek afternoon on the Curragh. In the cosy sitting room of the old house, annexed to his training yard at Crotanstown Stud, Michael O’Callaghan is watching the racing from Chester. A dog lies at his feet, while a dog-eared catalogue - 2015 Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sales – lies on the coffee table beside him.

Our conversation is halted for the two-year-old race. Glued to the television, Michael nods approvingly as a “nice, gutsy’’ two-year-old gets the job done. Michael knows a bit about gutsy two-year-olds. He has won with a bunch of them. Last year the yard, which Michael runs with the “great support’’ of his father, Michael, and his girlfriend, Siobhan, won 11 races, seven of them with two-year-olds.

RAPID APPLAUSE

One of these two-year-old winners was Rapid Applause. Bought by Michael for £26,000, the colt propelled the trainer into both the spotlight, and group company, simultaneously.

Following his maiden win at Cork, the colt was fourth in the Railway Stakes (Group 2) and third in the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes, before winding up the 2014 season with a gallant second to Capella Sansevero in the Group 3 Round Tower Stakes at The Curragh.

With a bold display of intent, O’Callaghan took the first two-year-old race of the 2015 Irish flat season with State Of Emergency. The Dandy Man colt, bought by Michael as a yearling for €30,000, repeated his Curragh win with and even gutsier performance back there five weeks later.

Michael points through the window across his recently painted yard to where the Ascot hopeful stares lazily over a stable door.

“My friend and bloodstock agent, Michael Donohue brought State Of Emergency to my attention at the Goffs Sportsmans Sale. The minute I saw him I thought he was a ‘must have’. The female pedigree was a bit light, so €30,000 was a decent amount to pay for him. As always, with us, though, what we bought was the individual. He looked the part.’’

O’Callaghan talks about the yard’s impressive history; Jack Rogers’ 11 classic wins from here in the 1930s, and David Ainsworth training Paveh to win both the Irish 2000 Guineas and the Sussex Stakes in the 1970s.

Although he may have a long way to go to emulate Crotanstown’s past residents, I remind Michael that, as we speak, he is currently the leading Irish two-year-old trainer - no mean feat for a 26-year-old entering just his second year as a fully licensed trainer.

He laughs. He knows it won’t be for long. He knows that once the season kicks in proper, the big guns will forge ahead. But a glimpse from the top is still a glimpse from the top, and when this fleeting view fades it will leave him with more than one moment to remember.

JIM BOLGER

“Winning two-in-a-row at the Curragh with State Of Emergency was great but I got as much of a kick out of Jim Bolger going out of his way to come over and say ‘well done,’ after we had beaten his filly as I did from winning the race. I can’t tell you how many times I have watched the documentary about Jim, The Master of Cool. I’ve worn out the DVD.’’

In parallel with the business approach utilised by the master of Coolcullen, most of the Crotanstown string are self-owned. With O’Callaghan, however, all his self-owned horses are for sale.

“Our policy is to buy them, run them, win with them, and sell them. I think Ireland is a great place, right now, for this approach.

“The racing here is the best racing in the world. In a good maiden, the first five are saleable. But, Aidan O’ Brien’s are not for sale, Jim Bolger’s, Dermot Weld’s and John Oxx’s are not for sale. If I can produce horses to run well in Irish maidens, I’m in the international shop window, even if I finish fifth.’’

By this premise, if the placed horses are saleable, then the winners are premium assets. O’Callaghan’s ill-fated Limerick maiden victor, Case Statement (Showcasing), bought by Michael for €30,000, was sold at the inaugural 2014 Goffs London Sale for £180,000 on the eve of Royal Ascot.

Michael’s “best case scenario’’ happened earlier this year when Sheikh Fahad Al Thani bought his Dundalk maiden winners, Aggression and Letters Of Note, to stay in training at the yard.

PRESSUTRE

“Training for Qatar Racing and Pearl Bloodstock is a dream come true,’’ Michael confirms but he will not admit that training for a racing super power brings with it an element of pressure.

“Pressure is for tyres!’’ he grins. “Actually, it’s been great. It’s gotten me noticed. It’s moved me closer to where I want to be – training good horses for good owners.’’

If the battered-up Goresbridge catalogue on the coffee table was the only book O’Callaghan had read so far this year, it would be no surprise. Even though his yearling purchases have been sharp, it is the success of his 2014 Goresbridge Breeze Up acquisitions that really testifies to his eye for two-year-olds that embody both value and potential.

SOLD TO AMERICA

For a total of just €60,000, Michael acquired three fillies and one colt at Goresbridge - the aforementioned Letters Of Note, by Azamour, the Showcasing fillies, Clutching At Straws and Show Me Love, and the Clodovil colt, Knoxville Bullet.

Alongside Letters Of Note’s win and subsequent sale to Sheikh Fahad, Clutching At Straws was sold to America following her maiden victory and two placings, Knoxville Bullet was placed in all three runs to date and Show Me Love finished third first time out.

“When you’re buying ‘breezers,’ you have so much more to go on than with yearlings,’’ he says, as he finally delivers the cup of tea he has been threatening to make since I arrived. “Breezers are over six months further down the line in their education and their level of ability can sometimes be more obvious.’’

SACRIFICE PEDIGREE

As somebody with whom heart rate monitors, GPS tracking, and regular in-house blood analysis are an intrinsic part of his training methods, it is no surprise that O’Callaghan times all the breezes himself. He then makes a short list of around 20 for further inspection.

“The ‘physical’ is huge for me. I know the type of animal I can train to win a race. Ideally, the short list will have horses with good clock, pedigree and physical. But, if I have to, I’ll sacrifice pedigree for physical every time.

“The breeze-up market is really strong this year and I did well to buy two at Doncaster in April. I can see this being Goresbridge’s best sale to date. It’s the breeze-up I’ve been gearing up for all year.”

The breeze-up world is one Michael is familiar with. Having completed the stud management course at the Irish National Stud, followed by a stint at Coolmore, Michael set up Rangefield Bloodstock with his father to breed, pin-hook and buy yearlings to sell at breeze-ups.

“In my last season as a breeze-up consignor, six of the seven colts I sold won on either their first or second starts for the new connections. I was thinking, how much money could I have made if I had trained them myself and sold them on? That’s how the training started for me.’’

O’Callaghan’s eagle eye, however, is not confined to seeking out bargain yearlings and two-year-olds. One such example is his acquisition of a share in the stallion, Showcasing.

“I liked Showcasing as a racehorse and I bought a share as soon as he went to stud. I like his stock, and I’m always looking out for yearlings of his that I can afford. It makes sense on two levels, and I’ve already had a pair of winners by him.’’

While buying to sell is the baseline business strategy at Crotanstown, creating cash flow from training, while building patronage, is also a necessity. With this is mind, Michael acquired four yearlings in 2014 to syndicate under the MDOC Syndicates banner. The yearlings, by Approve, Zoffany, Fast Company and Royal Applause, were fully syndicated within four weeks.

“Syndicates were big in the boom, before they died a death, but they’re coming back now. These syndicates mean that I now have 30 new part-owners in the yard. My long-term plan is to build up a portfolio of owners from Ireland and abroad. I want to train for syndicate members and I want to train for the big owners, too. The aim is the same for both - to win. I have no ambition to be a small trainer. I want to train lots of horses. I want to go to the top.”

With five winners already in the bag this year, Michael O’Callaghan looks certain to continue his upward curve. Who would bet against this risk taker and progressive thinker, in time, adding to the classic statistics of his historic abode?