TONY Martin is at the top of a hill at his Arodstown base on December 30th last year. He is awaiting Heartbreak City, who, along with the first lot, has just made his way down to the bottom of a six-furlong carpet fibre gallop.

“He could be anything you know,” the trainer says, “Absolutely anything.”

First lot make their way up in sets of twos and threes. There are good horses in the group – Golden Spear is there, Artful Artist and Pyromaniac as well. But it’s easy to pick out Heartbreak City’s small white star from afar.

The son of Lando is about to turn seven and has just had a fabulous year, a year that has allowed both sides of the world to recognise that small white blaze.

“He has been brilliant and I think we have the key to him now,” Martin reflects. “When he first came here he was jarred up right through his body. It took a while to get him right. Then we had to get him to settle in his races. He is doing it right now. If we can get him jumping, he wouldn’t be far off Champion Hurdle standard.”

The group of horses zoom past. Martin’s head moves in sync with the white star, eyes locked in for seven or eight seconds until the group go off into the distance. Moving well.

Heartbreak City’s 2016 star began to rise at a low key flat meeting at Cork in April and ended with a runner-up finish in arguably the biggest race in the world in November, 10,000 miles away from Arodstown. In between those two races, he became the first horse since Sea Pigeon in 1979 to win the Ebor off an allotted weight of more than 9st 4lb and he also won impressively over hurdles at the Galway Festival.

On this day he was still only six. And Martin was right – he could have been anything.

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At the Curragh on May 7th, Tony Martin is by the Old Vic gallop, awaiting Heartbreak City. He is training him for a run at the Curragh proper next week. There are big plans for the rest of the season. A return to Melbourne is front and centre.

Donagh Meyler is riding the son of Lando and he knows him well. He rode him to win over hurdles at Galway and he rode him when he finished eighth in the Coral.ie Hurdle earlier in the year.

Martin can just about make out Heartbreak City’s white star and then suddenly he can’t. The seven-year-old disappears from sight.

Martin knew it was bad. He ran about a furlong up to them and found his stable star in a bad way. And unfortunately, there was no way back.

“It was desperately sad,” Martin reflects again, this week. “There was nothing we could do. He was always a friendly a horse, a genuine, honest horse – the type of horse that has no problem travelling to the other side of the world. Everyone loved him and everyone wanted to have him when he retired.

“I held his head there and he moved in closer to me looking for comfort. That’s the type of horse he was, he had that type of affection. The poor lad didn’t know what was going on. It’s something like losing a family member, right in front of you. Desperately sad.”

There were a few hard phone calls to make. One to Adrian Shiels in America. Another to Darren Dance, head of Australia Thoroughbred Bloodstock who bought into the horse before his run in the Melbourne Cup. The lads were devastated and there were hard times all round.

STRUGGLE

For Martin, in other ways, it’s been a hard time since. He lost the horses he trained for Gigginstown House Stud last year and that was a big blow. The same thing happened to Sandra Hughes at the same time and that was a huge factor in Hughes’s decision to pull the plug on training earlier this year. Even without the Gigginstown horses, Martin has had a quiet year. His horses haven’t been 100%.

However, just this past fortnight, things are starting to look up.

Acclamatio won at Killarney, on his first run of the season. Phil’s Magic won the valuable Midlands National at Kilbeggan last Friday night, on what was his third start for Martin since joining from Sandra Hughes. Landsman won at Fairyhouse last Sunday.

And in the middle of all that, an old friend, Thomas Edison, made his return at Tipperary.

He is on target for the Galway Hurdle now, the race he provided a memorable win in three years ago.

That was a great day. Thomas Edison was a well-backed favourite for the biggest race on the biggest day of the meeting. He is owned by J.P. McManus and Tony McCoy was riding him. With the expectation that comes with that sort of profile, it was a nervy race to watch but in the end Thomas Edison found the gaps and was much too good. Martin felt relief, not for the pressure, for the horse.

“I thought he had a huge chance,” the trainer says, “but he was just unlucky in a few big races and maybe that was at the back of my mind. I just wanted him to get a fair shot. I was happy for the horse more than anything else.”

Fast forward one year on and Martin had another well-backed favourite for the same race, this time Quick Jack for John Breslin, with Denis O’Regan riding. In contrast to the previous year, Quick Jack got a beautiful run – hugged the rail, sat just behind the van and then had a clear passage open in front of him in the straight. The son of Footstepsinthesand was going so well at this stage O’Regan had to take a pull.

He was still on the bridle going to the last but the horse to come out of the pack to challenge him was last year’s winner, this time with Barry Geraghty on his back.

Geraghty felt the eight-year-old was meeting the last on a long stride – it wasn’t a day for letting him pop it, he said after – but Thomas Edison just couldn’t organise himself in time and he came down.

“It was great to win it with Quick Jack but I can’t say for sure what would have happened. There was definitely only three-quarters of a length in it. I thought Quick Jack had the better chance before the race and he got the best run but Thomas Edison was bang there,” Martin says.

That he has ran so well in two Galway Hurdles gives hope and Martin was happy with his comeback run at Tipperary where he stayed on into fourth.

UNIQUE

Handling Galway’s unique track is key. There are horses Martin will send to Galway and there are horses he won’t. He has enjoyed some great moments at Ballybrit.

Back-to-back Galway Hurdles was a massive achievement and he also trained the winner of Monday’s feature, the Connacht Hotel Handicap, the big race for amateurs riders, two years running with Edeymi and Quick Jack in 2013 and 2014. He won the race as a jockey in 1987, riding a horse called Coolcullen for Jim Bolger.

The 2014 festival was a big one – Martin trained six winners, three of which were in feature races. The 2013 festival was even bigger – Martin’s horses ran 18 times between them and won nine races. Busted Tycoon won a two-mile handicap on the flat on Tuesday, won another two-mile handicap on flat on Saturday and then won a two-mile handicap over hurdles on Sunday. She was the first horse ever to win three times in the same week at Galway.

Last year was quiet until Friday when Heartbreak City took the opening handicap hurdle. Then Golden Spear took the feature-race Guinness Handicap, the race he’d finished second in the year before and the race Martin had trained Artful Artist to win the year before that.

“Galway is a great week,” the trainer says. “There is just something special about the place. It’s like Aintree, it’s like Cheltenham, it’s like the Melbourne Cup – it’s the big stage and it just gives off this special atmosphere.

“It’s like going to the Masters if you’re a golf fan or heading off to a World Cup game if you’re a football fan. There’s just something about it.

“Galway suits us as well. The ground is never too hard which is usually what my horses need and the type of races – a lot of big quality handicaps suit the type of horses I have. It’s a great place to have a winner.”

SIGNIFICANCE

Galway’s significance is important in more ways than one. While the class and stature of the racing might not match Cheltenham and Punchestown, there is a lure towards Ballybrit that even the most powerful figures in racing find hard to ignore.

In 2005 Martin met fellow Meath man John Breslin, a friend of his father’s, at Galway. It was 20 years after a chance meeting between the pair in John F Kennedy Airport, New York when Martin was off to ride horses for American trainer Janet Elliott and Breslin was pursuing an American dream. A lot of water went under the bridge in those 20 years. Martin had established himself as a trainer, Breslin had developed a highly successful scaffolding company called Atlantic Hoisting with his brother John. The company, based in New York, was involved in the building of the Freedom Tower, the September 11th Memorial museum and the UN building.

Breslin adores the Galway races. That day the pair decided to join forces and see where it leads. Ten years later Breslin was back at Galway standing beside Quick Jack and Martin in the winner’s enclosure after the Galway Hurdle on what he labelled as “the biggest day of my life.”

Quick Jack is a dream horse. Galway Hurdle winner, Connacht Hotel Handicap winner, second in a Chester Cup, third in a County Hurdle, third two years in a row in the Cesarewitch, third in a Boylesports.com Hurdle, sixth in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak.

Ted Veale was another to provide great value for Breslin. Bought by Martin for €32,000, he won a County Hurdle, finished third in the Arkle, finished fourth in the Ebor, third in a BoyleSports Hurdle, second in a Herald Champion Novice Hurdle, second in a Racing Post Novice Chase.

He finished third in the Connacht Hotel Handicap on the Monday of the 2015 Galway Festival, then came out again and finished third to Quick Jack in the Galway Hurdle on the Thursday.

These horses are the template for all horses under Martin’s ideology as a trainer.

“Everyone wants that €100,000 Gold Cup contender out of the Derby Sale but we don’t have that sort of money. I’d be looking at a good dual-purpose horse that can improve and improve. If you can find that horse you can get great value. Galway can be the perfect place for them,” Martin says.

Funny how things work out. Martin bought Quick Jack off Maurice Deegan of Newtown Anner Stud and a new relationship developed. One of the first horses Deegan had with Martin was Dark Crusader. She won at Killarney, won at Galway and then won the Melrose Handicap at York’s Ebor meeting.

SUCCESS

The pair have had much more success since with the aforementioned Golden Spear and Artful Artist, who will both have targets back at Galway this week, and Laganore, a filly who has progressed from a 75-rated handicapper to a 105-rated group race performer. Incidentally, she could go to Goodwood for a crack at the Group 1 Nassau Stakes.

They also have Pyromanaic, a talented seven-year-old who finished seventh in the Galway Hurdle last season and is set to go back for another try.

“It’s brilliant to be involved with these sort of owners. Maurice and John are top class. The same for Frank Berry, a brilliant man who along with JP, was always patient with Thomas Edison.

“It’s great to have big winners for owners like them. I’m very grateful to have them involved. I wouldn’t be going down to Galway thinking, if we have a few winners we might attract a few new owners. It’s not as simple as that and even after Melbourne we didn’t see anyone come in because of that. I’d be thinking more about going down to Galway where I’d love to train a winner for these lads who have been loyal to me. That’s what it’s all about.”

There are lots of other loyal owners as well. Like Brendan Mulvanny who heads a syndicate that owns Mydor, like Danny Houlihan who heads the Lyreen syndicate that owns Phil’s Magic, like Donal Houlihan who owns the likes of Our Rachael and Cassell’s Rock and of course like Adrian ‘Red’ Shiels and Niall Reilly, who will always be loyal.

Touch wood, they’ll all have horses at Galway next week.

It’s not been a great year for Tony Martin so far but a good Galway can turnaround anyone’s year. With his track record in the west, you wouldn’t bet against that being the case.

Three to look out for at Galway

Acclamatio

He won nicely down at Killarney and that was his first run of the season. You’d like to think there is more to come from him now and that he can improve again. He’s in the three-year-old handicap on Monday and he’ll probably take his chance on that, although we could wait for a race later in the week, depending what way the ground comes up.

Sweet Company

He has been a little disappointing on his last two runs but he’s working well and we’re looking forward to running him. At this stage we’re looking at the amateur handicap for him on Monday. He has won at Galway before and that is obviously a huge plus.

Gold Struck

I’ve been happy with his last two runs and he seems to be improving now. He stayed on really nicely at Killarney and that should suit him running around Galway. He has a few options towards the end of the week and I’m looking forward to running him.