IT’S Wednesday afternoon and it’s a good time to be speaking to Olly Murphy. British National Hunt racing is back, his horses are in good form and his beloved Aston Villa somehow look like they could retain their Premier League status, having beaten Arsenal 1-0 the previous night.

Villa were 1/14 to go down last week but if they equal or better Watford’s result tomorrow, and Bournemouth don’t win at Everton, they’ll pull off a mini great escape. That will be huge for the Birmingham club whose first season back in the big time has been a struggle and a sharp contrast to the beginning of Murphy’s training career.

Gordon Elliott’s former assistant took the big step to move back home three years ago and set up his own training operation at his family’s base at Warren Chase, in Warwickshire. Having began with “10 or 12 ordinary horses”, Murphy’s total for the coming jumps season proper is set to swell to 130.

The foundation for this success was laid by a brilliant first season total of 47 winners, despite his low numbers. That earned the backing of some of the biggest owners in the game and he took his opportunity, training 82 winners the following season. He was on track to do at least as well as that total before last season was cut short, leaving him on 67 winners, but more importantly, he trained his first Grade 1 winner, Itchy Feet in the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

There has only been a small scattering of jumps fixtures since racing resumed in Britain but Murphy has already sent out eight winners and also two on the flat. This is relentless early progress and it is showing no sign of halting yet.

Has he exceeded his own expectations?

“Yeah I have completely,” Murphy asserts. “The plan was to come home, tip away and start off slowly. I started out with eight or 10 horses and three years later we’ve 125-130 horses in training and I’m training for some of the biggest owners in Britain and Ireland.

“When I first started, Gordon drilled it into me to be sensible with the horses I had, bring them to the lesser venues, get horses into the right races and get winners on the board and that is what we did.

“I suppose that got our name out there and then the big owners kind of followed and started spending a few more quid on horses. It’s just snowballed really. It wasn’t meant to get this big, this quick but we just have to roll with it.

“I was very lucky that we have a place here at home that I had to come back to. I never underestimate how lucky I am in that aspect because I know how tricky it is to get going as a trainer with the costs of renting a place and so on. I never had that on my shoulders but at the same time it doesn’t make you be able to train a racehorse, or train winners.

“We’ve had our disappointments as well but I’m 28 years old and I’ve a fantastic bunch of horses for the forthcoming season. I’m in a very, very lucky position.”

Pressure

Despite a seamless and impressive transition to training his own horses, Murphy talks about a significant pressure he felt coming back home, a pressure to prove himself to people.

He talks about a negative attitude from onlookers that is present in professional sport. Maybe that is due to the insuppressible impact of social media on his generation. Maybe it’s something else but it’s evident that this pressure is a huge driver for him at this stage of his career.

He explains: “I suppose I came back with plenty of pressure on me having been in Gordon’s for a long time and people thinking was I going to be this guy that spent five years at Gordon Elliott’s and was he paying attention at all. I think a lot of people were waiting for me to come home and fail and I have had that in the back of my mind.

Olly Murphy was assistant to Gordon Elliott for four years \Healy Racing

“The Grade 1 win with Itchy Feet was massive, it meant the world to me. The thing was, I was so used to competing at Grade 1 level, having worked at Gordon’s for so long and again it was that little monkey off my back.

“You’d be thinking of people saying: ‘Oh Olly Murphy has been training for three years, and he hasn’t trained a Grade 1 winner – is he someone who can just train bad horses?’

“It probably shut a lot of people up. There are a lot of people in this game that unfortunately like to see you do badly.”

Does that affect you?

“I have a strong backbone,” Murphy replies. “I wouldn’t be too bothered about what other people think. In professional sport people love to belittle each other and racing is no different in some ways. It’s no different to a young footballer or a 7lb claimer coming through, people want to claim: ‘Oh we’ll see when he has to go and take on the big lads on a Saturday.’

“I was the young man on the block three years ago, the fella who had been at Gordon Elliott’s and it was a case of let’s see how clever this Olly Murphy is now. You’ve got to stick your chest out and prove everyone wrong.

“I worked for a genius in Gordon and I believed in myself when I came back and I believed that I was going to be successful and train a lot of winners because I wasn’t going to change a lot from what I learned at Gordon’s. I just stuck by that and didn’t try and reinvent anything. I tried to keep everything as straightforward as possible and just tried to prove everyone wrong. Things are going good and long may it continue.”

Before and after Gordon, there was and is Olly’s parents, his mother Anabel a very capable trainer in her own right and his father Aiden, one of the most highly respected bloodstock agents in the jumps game.

They’ve clearly had a significant impact in the shaping of their son, both in terms of knowledge and support.

“Mum and dad have been fantastic,” Murphy says. “Mum trained plenty of winners in her own right and has been a backbone to me since I started out for advice and what not.

“Dad has been Dad, he has just had a massive influence in building the place and setting everything up in the right manor and attracting owners. He obviously has a massive say in buying all these horses as well. It’s a proper family business, we’re a proper team.

“I know a lot of people know that Dad hasn’t been very well recently. He is going through chemo for bowel cancer at the moment so he’s been quiet with regard to his role here and buying horses.

“People are asking me on a daily basis how he is and he’s doing good, his treatment has gone well. It’s still a long road to recovery. It’s been a tough three or four months for everyone but he is doing well now.

“He is up and around the yard most days in some way shape or form and he is looking forward to getting back to the sales, maybe in the autumn once everything is finished and hopefully we’re back to square one.”

The Gordon gang at Cheltenham: Aidan 'Mouse' O'Ryan, Gordon Elliott Olly Murphy, Gary O'Brien and Tom Howley watch on \Healy Racing

Moving to Ireland

Murphy’s connection to Gordon Elliott started when he was an amateur rider and he spent a few summers at Cullentra House. When Elliott’s string of horses began to get bigger, he asked Murphy if he wanted a job and that was that. He moved over to Co Meath in 2013 and loved every second of his time there.

It’s probably significant that Murphy joined Cullentra House at a time when Elliott was transitioning into the elite trainer he is today. In the 2012/13 season, Gordon finished second in the Irish trainers’ championship, but he was a mammoth distance away from Willie Mullins, who trained 193 winners to his 54, and over €2.4 million more in prize money. When Murphy left at the end of the 2016/17 season, Elliott was up to 193 winners and only lost out on winning his first trainers’ title due to a monumental Punchestown comeback from Mullins.

Murphy was able to see first-hand a yard transition to the top level and perhaps it is no coincidence he has been able to use that experience to quickly establish his own big yard that will allow him to challenge the top brass this winter.

“I actually still speak to Gordon three or four times a week,” he says “He still offers me advice and will tell me what I’m doing wrong. I’ve always said it but I had the most amazing time over there. He was a tough but fair man to work for and as much or as little I’m going to achieve as a racehorse trainer, a lot of it will go down to Gordon Elliott because he was very, very good to me.

“I loved living in Ireland. I lived in Trim for the majority of my time and I met some great people. I’d still speak to Ian Amond most mornings and I love to go back and visit everyone.

“Ireland was good to me. It is a completely different life to living in England. It is a lot more laid back than England, a lot more easier going. If I was ever not going to be able to train horses or things go Pete Tong, I’d be back on the boat and back into Cullentra as quick as you could say wink and I’d have settled in Ireland for the rest of my life.”

Galway

For that reason a winner in Ireland under his own name is a short term priority for Murphy and that could be on one of the grandest stages next week, the Galway Festival. The 28-year-old is working hard on the logistics of sending both Hunters Call and St Gallen over to Ballybrit.

The former gave him his first signature win in the Racing Welfare Handicap Hurdle in 2017. Watch the race back and you can see Murphy and his staff chasing Hunters Call and Jack Kennedy from after the last, the excitement too much for a 25-year-old just five months into his training career.

Unfortunately he only ran for the first time since that race earlier this month but he won a good race Southwell and the now 10-year-old could make up for lost time now.

“Winning at Ascot that day was special,” Murphy recalls. “It was my first big winner, it was Christmas time and Jack Kennedy came over to ride him. I remember Jack having his first ride on Tagliatelle on the flat when I was Gordon’s and I watched him progress from there. For him to ride me a big winner was great as well, it added to the day.

“Hunters Call is a special horse. He has just had little niggly problems which has made him tricky to train. He’s a very good horse and if he hadn’t had all this trouble he’d have been a seriously good horse, but we’re hoping he is still improving at the age of 10 and we’re very keen to have a go at a big pot with him.”

Hunters Call will go for the Galway Hurdle if the ground is soft or otherwise the longer distance Guinness Handicap Hurdle on Friday.

Then Murphy will start thinking about the winter. He has a big number of young horses again, he may have a few more from the upcoming store sales and he also has Itchy Feet, Brewinup’astorm and Thomas Darby.

Thomas Darby has been one of Murphy's stars \Healy Racing

Longer term he has only the highest hopes.

He concludes: “I’m only 28 years old and hopefully I’m going to be in the game for a long time. I train a big number of horses now and there is no point in lying, you want to be champion trainer.

“I know Rome wasn’t built in a day. I’ve been supported by some big owners and hopefully we’re only going to get bigger and better as an outfit. You only want to be the best, I worked for the best before and that made me hungry and makes me want to be the best.

“It is going to take time but we have to be patient and keep doing things the right way. Hopefully one day Olly Murphy might be champion trainer of National Hunt racing in Britain.”

Itchy Feet gave Olly Murphy his first Grade 1 winner in the Scilly Isles Novice Chase at Sandown last season \Healy Racing

Olly Murphy on …

Best thing he learned from Gordon Elliott: “Keep your horses healthy and run them in the right races. Don’t be going to a big track with a horse that can’t win at a big track. Go and win your race at a country track. There is no point in going racing on a Saturday or Sunday with a horse that can’t win.

“It’s a results driven business and training winners is what attracts new owners. It’s not going and having a fancy meal and a bottle of champagne to watch a 33/1 shot finish eighth of 15. It’s going to Bangor or Perth or Plumpton and training a winner and going home and being as driven to train that horse to win the next day again.”

Prize money levels in Britain: “It is a concern. The lower end in Britain hasn’t been hit as much, but these bigger handicaps and sales races and group races which are taking the cut so it can go back on the bottom. It’s something that we’re going to have to take on the chin for the time being.

“The prize money in Ireland is second to none but a lot of people forget, Ireland only race three days a week and have four or five meetings a week maximum. In Britain, we’re racing every day and we have at least three meetings a day. I’m not saying it’s an excuse, but there is a lot less racing in Ireland and prize money can be distributed more fairly than it can here but that is another matter.”

Upcoming store sales: “Unfortunately Dad won’t be at the big sales in Ireland so we probably won’t be as active as we usually are. There is going to be value around. I think people are going to be wary about buying horses considering they didn’t get to run a lot of their young horses last year so it will be interesting. It’ll certainly be a buyers market though and I’d like to think that we’ll still be able to pick up some nice horses.”