Ger Lyons will turn 60 this year. Life is good and he is appreciating every minute of it. Surrounded by family, loyal staff and high quality, healthy horses, what more could he want. On Sunday he hopes to run Red Letter in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket (ground-permitting). She is one of the favourites but her trainer is showing no signs of pressure. The Irish Field found Ger in top form this week, a happy man but still well able to express strong opinions.

MC: Will you fly your own plane to Newmarket?

GL: I don’t know. It’s too much weather-orientated. And for a big race like that, I like to have my ducks in a row. I can’t be waking up and finding out that the weather is stopping me, and then I’ve no flight booked. Especially when you’ve Colin [Keane] to think of as well.

How is Red Letter?

She’s ready. All the work is done. I’m happy with her. I’m ready to rock as long as the ground is right. It’s all guns blazing from here, thank God.

Did you bring her anywhere for a gallop or can you do everything at home?

We can do everything at home but a couple of weeks ago I brought her to the Curragh and gave her a blast of the straight with [older gelding] Bravais. He won afterwards and proved that it was a nice piece of work. So I’m delighted with that.

She had three races last year, two in maidens and then straight into the Moyglare Stud Stakes where she finished a close fourth. Did her inexperience catch her out?

It wasn’t like that. She had every right to be in the Moyglare. She ran into Lake Victoria on her first run. It was an exceptional maiden. My filly is a big girl and I never intended to give her more than one or two races last season. The Moyglare just presented itself and I was happy with her, even though she was a work in progress.

All the experts said she was unlucky to finish where she did, and there is probably an argument that she could have been a place or two closer, but the Moyglare is always the best form of the year. And if you’ve got a Moyglare filly you’ve got a Guineas filly, a classic horse for the following year, and you’re a lucky boy.

Will she handle Newmarket?

I have loads of concerns about the track but that’s where I have to go. With all the space they have in Newmarket there’s no reason they couldn’t remove the undulations on the Rowley Mile but it is what it is. For me, there has to be juice in the ground. I think the undulations would ride better with some give in the ground, make them less of a hassle. If you’re hitting them on firm ground. It can cause all sorts of problems. Then again, she could handle it perfectly well.

In a perfect world, I’d rather see a proper flat track and see the best horse winning all the time with no excuses, but the bumps are there for everybody to see and for everybody to handle. And if she doesn’t handle them, she doesn’t handle them. She won’t be the first and she won’t be the last.

How would you describe her temperament? Is she easy to train?

Rock solid. She has always been straightforward. Always a lovely girl. I was always looking forward to this year with her, rather than last year. And I’d even say I’d be looking forward to next year even more than this year. But we made a plan very early on that we were going to start from the Guineas and her season would develop from there. And we’ve said all along that she doesn’t need firm in the description, that would be a worry. Every time Colin rode her he’d say “She doesn’t want it as quick as that” or “she doesn’t want firm in it”. So, I mean, there’s no point in having the champion jockey riding for you and not listening to him.

If you don’t run her on tomorrow will you wait for the Irish 1000 Guineas?

She’ll go to the Athasi at the Curragh on Monday. I want to run her now and hopefully it will be on Sunday.

How do you find training for Juddmonte?

Training winners is about getting the right horses. I’ve been lucky enough to be getting the right horses in the last few years, which makes life a lot easier than training horses that have no engine. Training these horses is a pleasure.

Judmonte is the most professional outfit on the planet. It’s a huge compliment to me and the team to be invited to train for them. And it’s just been a pleasure from day one, getting good horse after good horse.

The thing with Juddmonte is that the dream is always alive. You just don’t know what’s under the bonnet. It could be anything. You’re like a child at Christmas. You don’t know what Santa’s left you, but you know he’s left you something good. Yes, Juddmonte get their share of ordinary horses too but you just always know that you’re going to fall on a good one soon.

Is there added pressure with that? You seem very chilled for someone training one of the favourites for the 1000 Guineas.

I do get jitters, but I’m past the stage of worrying about something I can’t control. Do you know what I mean? This filly is doing everything right. If something happens between now and Sunday I didn’t do it on purpose and neither did she. We’ll handle it. That’s what we have to do.

And the beautiful thing about Juddmonte is that I’ll ring Barry [Mahon] and he’ll say ‘Oh, well, that’s life’, and we’ll move on. It’s the same with Colin. He might come back after a race and say ‘It didn’t happen’ and on we go, there’s always the next race.

I’m not saying it doesn’t matter – it does – but I don’t get as worked up as I did when we were building a business and we had ordinary horses. Listen, I’m turning 60 this summer, so maybe it’s age.

I won’t say I won’t be nervous but I will be ready. And whatever happens on Sunday I know I still have to get up on Monday morning and do a day’s work.

What would winning a British classic mean to you personally?

It would be fantastic. Winning at the Breeders’ Cup [Magnum Force, Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar last November] was a feeling like I’ve never felt before in racing. It was just the ultimate feeling.

It would hard to replicate that buzz, because it’s a proper show over there, and it felt like an achievement. Winning a British classic would be brilliant but would it be career-defining? No, it would just mean that a lot of the media and ‘experts’ would realise that maybe Ger Lyons can train a bit. You don’t seem to count unless you’re winning races in England. That’s the way a lot of the media handle it. It’s not the be all and end all for me but I’d like to win them.

This season has started well for the yard. Eight winners already and lots of promising placed runs too. Are you happy with how it’s going?

I wouldn’t read too much into our results so far because my season doesn’t start until after Punchestown. The pre-season is actually the most important part of my year, and that includes everything right up to Punchestown, whether it’s training them or running them.

If they can run I get them out so I can have the run under my belt, so that when Punchestown is over I can point and send.

What I’m seeing at home is good. The horses are healthy, and that’s all I can do, and that’s all I want to do. I haven’t ran that much but we’re doing good and they’re running as expected.

People are surprised to hear I haven’t had a winner at Navan in three years. We had three placed horses there last Saturday and I came away from the place cock-a-hoop. Another man might be kicking the cat or eating his fingernails. The two-year-old [Harmani] ran exactly as we expected (second to the favourite), Sparkling Sea was back to something like her best [close third to Whistlejacket and Ides Of March] and Poetic Sound gave Kyprios half a fright, just losing second place on the line.

All those runs were bonuses, and that’s something I’m very much aware of. I’ve been very guilty over the years of taking a lot for granted. I’d see other trainers making a big fuss about having their first treble, or whatever, and I’d say ‘oh, I’ve done that too’. You should be happy about it but I never made a big deal of it. I just assumed it was my job to train winners. It’s only when you stand back and look at it, you go ‘What you’re doing is better than most’. I think that’s where I am in my life.

You have spoken out a number of times about prize money. Specifically, the fact that stakes-placed horses often earn less than the winners of low-grade handicaps. The Curragh and Leopardstown have improved their stakes race purses this year. Would you give them any credit for that?

Every step forward is worth acknowledging but don’t forget we’re still behind where we were 10 years ago. Our prize money is deplorable. It was just PR-speak that convinced people that we were better than Britain. There was a three-year-old listed race over six furlongs at Chelmsford on Tuesday worth £80,000. Cork has a similar race next Tuesday worth €30,000.

I seem to be ahead of the rest on this issue. I’ve been saying it for years. Horse rated 0-60 should not be getting paid (above the minimum). It’s as simple as that. I don’t give a damn how many of them are in the country. They shouldn’t be getting paid.

In my opinion, those horses shouldn’t even be racing at the Curragh and I know that sounds terribly snobby.

If you want to keep a horse like that in training, on you go. But it’s just betting fodder and there should be a limit on the prize fund you are running for. End of story. We don’t have the money to waste on ordinary horses. The second and third in listed races should be earning more than the lowest grade. Always. It shouldn’t be up for discussion. And the very fact that I have to mention it is an embarrassment.

Yearling prices and breeze-up prices have gone through the roof. Your daughter Kerri represents you at all the sales. Where is the value to be had?

There’s no value. Let me put it in perspective for you. All the breeze-up lads struggled to buy yearlings last year, which resulted in a large proportion of breeze-up horses this year being the equivalent of Book 3 horses.

Now you’ve seen the nonsense that went on at the breeze-ups. I will bet that at the end of this season a lot of those top lots are going to seem very expensive.

That’s not me being negative. The breeze-up guys are to be commended. They have made a market out of nothing. But just go back to where those horses were sourced. Some of them have no pedigrees. The biggest blacktype on the page was the lot number!

Now I will tell you what’s really conflicting about this. If I have a two-year-old run well or even win a maiden somebody will ring up and they’ll say ‘We’ll offer you 250 for it’. When I say ‘no’ they’ll say, ‘Well, we’ll have to see it run again’. And I’ll go ‘You didn’t need to see the breezers run more than two furlongs and you’re giving half a million for them, you f***ing idiots.’

Again, I’m not being negative. You’ll say those buyers are keeping the sport going and that’s 100%. But at the end of the day do your homework. Come back to me at the end of the year and tell me there was 12 horses rated 100-plus that came out of one of this year’s breeze-up sales and I’ll admit I was wrong.

There will be exceptions to the rule but the problem is that the winner’s enclosure has taken a back seat to the sales ring. And until that is rectified the game is in trouble. The Holy Grail has to be the winner’s enclosure, not the sales ring.

Hopefully you’re in the Newmarket winner’s enclosure on Sunday.

I’m looking forward to it and the season ahead. We have a lovely bunch of horses and I know there’ll be a good day there somewhere. If we can get another feeling like I had in the Breeders’ Cup, I can’t tell you that would do me. It was a lovely family occasion and I still sort of feel a lovely glow from it. And, do you know something, I’d hope to feel it again.

BABOUCHE (GB)

3yo f by Kodiac

Won her first three starts last season, including the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes.

The ground came up soft for her in the Cheveley Park Stakes (finished fourth) and she didn’t turn up. She was probably the first horse beaten but she stayed at it.

She’s done really well over the winter. I’ve had her away for a gallop and she’s turned the corner.

She’s one of the hardest horses in the yard to get fit because she does things so easily.

The Group 3 Lacken Stakes at Naas is where we’re going, or the Polonia Stakes at Cork, depending on the ground. We’re working back from the Commonwealth Cup at Ascot.

BRAVAIS (GB)

5yo g by Frankel

A Juddmonte horse who came from André Fabre. He wasn’t showing me anything like his rating at home and he ran deplorably on his first run for us but he had been a long time off the track.

Then he worked brilliantly and he went and won a conditions race over seven and a half furlongs at Tipperary.

We’re finding our feet with him. He’s hopefully in the same bracket as Power Under Me and Mutasarref, a fun horse for races like the Concorde Stakes back at Tipperary.

CHANTEZ (IRE)

3yo f by Wootton Bassett

She won a good listed race at Leopardstown during the Irish Champions Festival.

I really wanted to take her to Del Mar last November but she got a stone bruise and couldn’t travel.

She didn’t grow much over the winter.

She’s a light filly and is starting to do well now.

If she doesn’t run in the 1000 Guineas this weekend she will probably go to Leopardstown the following week.

LADY IMAN (IRE)

2yo f by Starman

She’s just been so straightforward. She came into the yard and said ‘Boss, I’m good’.

I haven’t had her off the bridle yet but I know she’s good and I don’t need to keep seeing it at home.

She was impressive first time out at Dundalk at the end of March and has done nothing here since.

The First Flier Stakes at the Curragh on Monday is next before, hopefully, the Group 3 Fillies’ Sprint at Naas two weeks later.

MAGNUM FORCE (IRE)

3yo c by Mehmas.

You could argue he was unlucky at York and Doncaster last year but he wasn’t unlucky at Del Mar when he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint and I’ll never forget him for that.

I get a glow even thinking about it. A beautiful horse, he was made for Del Mar.

He took to the place like a duck to water and please God he will end up back there this year.

We’re working back from the Breeders’ Cup. He has to have fast ground and we will keep him to five furlongs for as long as possible.

He’s in the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot and I’d love to bring him to York for the Nunthorpe.

I absolutely love York and I’d love to have a yard-full going over there.

MY MATE ALFIE (IRE)

4yo g by Dark Angel

An amazing horse. He won’t break sweat at home and if you put him on the racetrack without blinkers he won’t show up. He won two listed races and a Group 3 last year, all over six furlongs.

Carrying a penalty at Naas on Monday night, he finished a close second over five furlongs.

That was just to blow the cobwebs off.

He’s not a five-furlong horse. I’ve always had him as a seven-furlong horse but he’s rocking and rolling over six.

He’s in the Greenlands Stakes and he will be given Group 1 entries as well. I’m not saying he’s good enough to win them but you won’t win them if you don’t run.

MUTASARREF (GB)

7yo g by Dark Angel

He’s won nine races for us and seems as good as ever this season.

If you could design a horse for his owner Eleanora Kennedy, you couldn’t invent a better one.

He rocks up every time and will keep going for the same races until he tells us he can’t.

He’s a dream to have in the yard, a cash cow who keeps collecting money and winning races.

NAOMI LAPAGLIA (GB)

5yo m by Awtaad

Listed placed for Richard Spencer last year and bought in December by Eleanora Kennedy, the luckiest owner I’ve ever come across. Eleanora wants horses that will bring her to the big meetings.

This filly finished third in a Group 3 at the Curragh on her first start for us and will be entered for Royal Ascot.

POETIC SOUND (IRE)

4yo g by Poet’s Word

A gorgeous hose owned and bred by John Keaney who had Yavana’s Pace with Mark Johnston.

He was lazy on his first run this season so we put a sheepskin noseband on him last Saturday and for a millisecond he gave Kyprios a fright.

He was a bit unlucky to have his pocket picked for second.

We won the Ebor a few years ago and it would be lovely if he could be that sort of horse.

The bonus with this horse is that his sire stands at Boardsmill Stud for William Flood, who is an awesome pal of mine. He looks to have another good sire on his hands.

STORM PIECE (GB)

3yo c by Night Of Thunder

He has run well on all four of his starts without winning.

He could be one for a Royal Ascot handicap.