JOHN McConnell watched the National Hunt Chase with his partner Amy down by the rails, in about as secluded a spot as they could find.

Some trainers are happy to watch races with their owners in the parade ring. Some go to the stands to watch it with everyone. Some need to be more or less alone, and that’s McConnell, at least at Cheltenham.

He watched Mahler Mission travel and jump smoothly for Johnny Barry on the first circuit. The seven-year-old was soon up pressing the leader Bellatrixsa, and it was at the 16th fence that he took it up.

Even to the untrained eye, you could see the horse was travelling well within himself, relaxed but poised, smooth and fluid.

It soon became spectacular to watch. Fence to fence, Mahler Mission was opening up, the commentator knew it, so did the crowd and McConnell allowed himself to think it. Yet at the back of his mind, he was worried. It was a long way home from where Barry was, he felt.

Maybe Barry did go too soon. Maybe Mahler’s Mission’s fall at the second last was a tired one. Maybe he wouldn’t have won anyway. But the truth is we’ll never know and the fact we do have is that he traded at 4/11 on Betfair just before the second last, so a highly liquid Cheltenham Festival market had him at 73% chance of winning.

That is no consolation to McConnell, even now, but at the time the pure disappointment of getting so close to a Cheltenham Festival winner was raw.

“I’d say for those 10 seconds or so after, every possible negative thing I could have thought went through my head,” he says now. “You’re just thinking, it’s not going to happen for me at the Cheltenham Festival.”

Two days later, McConnell stood in the same spot watching Seddon in the Magners Plate. It was a different kind of watch - a faster, busier race but above all else, there was less expectation. Seddon was a 20/1 shot as opposed to 13/2 for Mahler Mission.

McConnell gave him a chance but this was a more competitive race and perhaps combined with his disappointment two days previous, he had a natural temper to his enthusiasm.

Like Mahler Mission, Seddon travelled and jumped well from a prominent positon for Ben Harvey. McConnell watched him take up the running right in front of him, saw him jump the last on the big screen and rode every yard of the run-in with Harvey up the straight.

And there it was. Cheltenham Festival success. A surreal moment.

“It’s just an unbelievable feeling,” McConnell recalls. “Pretty much as good as it can get. A Festival winner, some people never achieve it so to get one was always a huge ambition.

“You take so much from it. It’s just brilliant.”

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Driving into John McConnell’s yard at 3.15 on Monday afternoon, it’s still a mini hive of activity, there are still horses on the walker and still horses heading down to the gallops.

That’s not unusual, the trainer says. It’s busy here all year round, with 100 horses now housed, this is a fully functioning dual-purpose operation.

The last time McConnell did this piece (August 21st) he had 75 horses and was on the crest of a wave, coming off the back of a seasonal best for both codes. That wave has just gone higher again.

Last year, the 34 winners he sent out on the flat was yet another career best. This jumps season, the 39 winners he has between Ireland and Britain so far is easily his best ever return.

This is a progressive outfit and the ambition is sky high; to compete with Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead on a more serious scale, while continuing to gain a foothold in an increasingly more competitive flat scene.

However, as much as McConnell looks forward, the feeling of an impending fear coming from behind is his daily driver.

“I thought I was hungry when I was struggling with 15 horses but I’m far hungrier now than I ever was,” he says. “So it’s a combination of doing the best with what we have and then keep pushing to get new clients and new horses and never resting on your laurels.

“I always remember watching Tony McCoy’s documentary and when he used to give interviews on television, the fear of losing was a big part of what got him to where he was. It’s fear that drives you more than anything else, the idea of slipping from where I’ve got to, you know.

“The big victories are brilliant, and that’s part of the addiction in itself but it comes down to knowing I have made progress and I don’t want to go backwards. There’s always people chasing you. I don’t think anyone sits around and thinks, ‘We’ve made it, we’re doing well here.’ Certainly the people ahead of me don’t anyway.

“It is a lot of pressure and obviously you have owner pressure and all that, but I would say the majority of the pressure I feel comes from myself.

“We have 100 stables and they’re pretty much all full. At the moment I’m not sure if I want to go much higher numbers wise but if we got the infrastructure in place, we probably will.

“I’d like to increase the quality. The jumpers are a lot more high profile than the flat horses so it often looks like I’m more of a jumps trainer but we’re just starting to get going with the flat horses now, I’ve 13 two-year-olds for this season which is more than I’ve ever had, so hopefully we can have a good summer.”

Naas

McConnell is the son of two Dubs who moved to Naas before he was born. They had a mini breeding operation, but it was more or less winding down when he was growing up. The only trainer he ever worked for going up was his neighbour Michael O’Brien.

He knew he was never going to ride on the track, but a yearning to train developed in him, as he learned about the process and how different horses took training. He had no idea how he was going to do it but having qualified as a vet and moved to Monaghan, when he also worked for the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland, he was approached by an owner to train his horse. Naturally, and uniquely, the horses came to him.

This was more than 20 years ago so it hasn’t been an overnight success. Indeed he just about survived the crash which came soon after he moved to the Curragh. The key has been a move to where he is now, this relatively remote part of Meath, in between the Louth and Dublin borders, only two kilometres from Bellewstown, and a trial and error process that has moulded into a proficient methodology.

“I do like the fact the way we’ve done it here,” McConnell explains. “We’ve basically come from outside the racing world. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind if my surname was Carberry or Walsh, I’m sure that might have opened a few more doors for me, but I like that we’ve got to where we are from where we were.

“A lot of my training was trial and error. My first little gallop up in Monaghan was a wood chip two-furlong gallop because that’s all I could afford. It’s gone from there. I did an awful lot of reading when I was in college, I still do now, and I know the physiology of getting horses fit.

“We’ve modified the gallop here over the years. It used to be a quick enough gallop but now it’s very deep. What we do now has been in place for the last four or five years, the basis is there for getting horses fit and obviously we look at different things for schooling and other types of work.

“There is still a trial and error style to it but I’ve a very enquiring mind, I’m always reading books and I suppose you’re learning every day as a trainer. I’m very happy with the system we have right now.

“I have a great team of staff, a young team, that are hungry and very talented. Siobhan (Rutledge) is invaluable. If I wasn’t here for a while, she would know exactly what to do. We’ve four or five people here that have been with me a long time. Ben and Alex (Harvey), Martin (Fox) and Brian (Maloney), and Cillian (son) has come on the scene as well.

“They’ve all got significant roles. They’re all young, motivated, talented and I think I’m very lucky to have come across them.”

Progress

Similar to so many trainers in this country, McConnell is always on the lookout for more staff and it’s likely that need will become more evident if he continues to progress and vital if his team is to take what seems a monumental step up to get to the level of Mullins and Co.

That is the dream and a first Cheltenham winner is clearly significant.

“I think if you don’t have that goal in your head, you’ll never get there and you’ll probably slip down the ladder as well,” McConnell says. “Like you’ve got the likes of Henry, Willie, Gordon and Gavin ahead of you and you definitely want to be taking them on more and more but there’s a big gap between myself and the top just in terms of firepower and money and so on. I’d like to get to that level.

“I’ve a very big supporter in Derek Kierans. He puts a lot of money in and we wouldn’t have horses with the profiles we have without him. But I guess the big lads have 10 of him. It’s up to us to go and get them.

“You’re never going to get owners sitting at home all the time, so I try to get to as many things as I can; going racing, different events, going to sales. You have to put yourself out there and talk to as many people as you can.

“I guess some people aren’t built like that. You have to have a bit of a neck. Training isn’t just about getting horses fit, it’s also about having a bit of brass neck and sticking yourself out there. If you don’t do that, you’ll have no chance. There are probably better trainers than me but maybe they don’t engage in that side of the game.

“With Seddon winning, we got a few phone calls, and hopefully we’ll see a horse or two from it, but I’m not counting on that alone. Plenty of trainers have had big winners and seen little or no business out of it. I think it’s about pushing it and what the big winner does is give you that confidence when you go and chat to a potential owner, you’ve got something to back it up.”

McConnell can talk the talk and walk the walk alright, and may have more to shout about in the coming weeks as he plots out a number of spring and summer targets.

“Seddon will probably go for the two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle on the last day of the Punchestown Festival,” he reveals. “He’s on a lower hurdles mark so that is a nice option and longer term, we’re looking at the American Grand National for him. That could suit him distance and ground wise. It’s expensive to go over but he’s got the money in the bank now. I will have to talk to the Galaxy guys but I don’t think there will be many objections.

“Unfortunately Mahler Mission is probably unlikely for the Irish Grand National. He’s fine out in the field there, it’s just he’s still a bit sore from the fall.

“He could come back for Punchestown but we might have to leave him off for the season now.

“Fennor Cross goes to Aintree for a two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle. Encanto Bruno will probably run in one of the good bumpers at Aintree or Punchestown. Anna Bunina ran well in the County Hurdle on ground that was dead for her, and she will go back to Ayr for the Scottish Champion Hurdle. Hereditary Rule goes for the Topham.

“We’ve got 12 or 13 two-year-olds, the most we’ve ever had. We have a lovely Kessaar filly and Postponed filly that both look very sharp. We’ve got a nice Mastercraftsman colt and a nice Belardo colt. We’ve also a lovely Siyouni filly that we paid a good bit of money for in Goffs.

“We’ve as lovely a set of physicals as we’ve ever had in two-year-olds this year so hopefully that translates into some good ones, you know.”

Little time to dwell on the current good times but McConnell would have it no other way.