Relegate gives Murphy swift return
‘Little did I think an opportunity would arise as quick,’ admits trainer
WHEN COLM Murphy handed in his training licence in September, 2016, he thought there was a greater chance of discovering a flying unicorn with its head in his trough than him making a return to Cheltenham’s ‘field of dreams’ less than four years later.
But that’s what will happen (touch wood) on Thursday afternoon, as Cheltenham Champion Bumper winner from 2018, Relegate, lines up in the three-mile Pertemps Final.
‘I never said I wouldn’t go back, I was always very open-minded if the circumstances arose. Little did I think that an opportunity would arise as quick,’ said a reflective Murphy as he took a break from yard duties to mull over the events of the past few years.
‘It was pretty much the same shop here since I handed in the licence. We were pre-training horses instead of running them. A good few of the horses that were here were farmed out to the likes of Willie Mullins, Peter Fahey, Denis Murphy, Colin Bowe…I also did a bit of work for the Turf Club as a steward.
‘That was grand, a different experience, I suppose the best way of putting it is that everybody speeds and it’s just a case of who gets caught! But being a steward definitely gave me a different perspective on racing – you would very much have tunnel vision going racing with your own runners, but when you step back and look at it from the outside in, you do see it very differently.’
It was his friend and business partner, Paul McKeon, who helped spark Murphy’s return to training. The pair had set up a bloodstock company where they bought a lot of youngsters, a lot of breeding mares, and the plan was to either race or sell the progeny – or sell first, then race if not. Relegate was one of the first bought, as a three-year-old at the Derby Sales.
‘I had a chat with Paul about returning to training,’ he said. ‘We started looking at horses that we had sent on and agreed that we would probably have done a few things differently with a few horses, for example you might not have run them on certain days, on certain ground…maybe there were days when they shouldn’t have run at all.
‘By getting back into the game at least now we could do it our way. Then eventually we had a board meeting, and by having all the facilities still here and the know-how ourselves, it made sense to be doing it all in-house.’
Murphy’s last run at Cheltenham, as a trainer, came on Saint Patrick’s Day in 2016, when he felt the luck of the Irish was very much on his side.
‘Empire of Dirt was our last runner there, in 2016. He ran in a Handicap Chase and was very lucky. He had a few mishaps early on and you need a bit of luck around Cheltenham, and Bryan (Cooper) rode him for luck. It worked out that way.
‘We already had our minds made up to finish earlier that year. We thought that if we had a winner at Cheltenham it might be the springboard, the catalyst, to get you going again. Empire of Dirt won, but we didn’t get any more horses.
‘We were half hoping Gigginstown might send us a few nice horses but they didn’t, and there wasn’t much else coming. I was lucky to be in a position to be able to give up. I had a chat with my wife, Louise, and that was it.
‘Training is a 24/7 job and for what we were pulling out of it at the time, you could be doing other jobs – that’s the way I was looking at it.’
While he was out of the game, how did it feel watching Cheltenham, did the glory days come flooding back to the Wexfordman who is still the youngest-ever trainer of both a Champion Hurdle and Queen Mother winner at Prestbury Park?
‘You’d watch it of course, it’s the Olympics of National Hunt horse racing, and you would love to have a runner involved.
‘There were plenty of days as a
trainer when you wouldn’t have a runner, and you need runners on the big days, runners with chances that is. Bar having them, you are as well staying away from these big meetings.
‘Cheltenham is the best place in the world when you are walking straight up after getting into the first three, but it’s probably one of the worst places in the world when you don’t finish in the first three.
‘Brave Inca was a highlight, but I probably got the most satisfaction out of Big Zeb winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
‘Inca was always favourite, and had his added pressure because of that, but Zeb had his knockers and question marks about his jumping and so forth… satisfaction is the word to describe it, when he won over there on the big stage.’
And so to this year’s Cheltenham renewal. Two years ago he went over for the day out, with Paul and Louise, to see how Relegate would fare in the Champion Bumper.
She was phenomenal, the win another ‘fairytale’ to add to his Cheltenham collection. She was in the hands of Willie Mullins then, but has now completed the cross-Leinster trip to her new abode in Killenagh, just outside Ballycanew. She has settled well.
‘She takes her chance in the Pertemps,’ Murphy said, ‘she’s rated 137 over there, 132 here. Carrying 10 7. She’s had a stop start season.
‘She fractured a pedal bone in her foot on the last day that she ran for Willie at Leopardstown. She got over that quickly and was right for the summer.
‘Then she had a lot of little minor issues, muscle problems, temperatures… all stuff you didn’t want, but nothing major. We didn’t get a clean run into her until after Christmas.
‘She has just had the one race, which is far from ideal. She was fourth in Punchestown, in a Pertemps qualifier.
‘She ran a blinder and it was her last chance, if she hadn’t run that day she probably wouldn’t be going to Cheltenham. Ideally we’d have liked to get another run into her before she went but circumstances didn’t allow that. She’s won the Cheltenham Bumper, and she’s a Grade One filly. If we can get her back to the way she won that day she has to have a serious chance.
‘We would have liked her to have had another run but we’re hoping that her class will make up the difference. Ability overcomes a multitude of minor little problems.’
The route to Cheltenham is a familiar one for the Murphy team. As usual, there will be bucketfuls of holy water splashed on her as she leaves the yard.
Murphy returns to Cheltenham a wiser soul. He’s a father now too.
But is the popular trainer back for good?
‘We’ll keep it plain and simple,’ he said with a coy smile. ‘It’s good to be going back and we’ll treat it as another race. We have a lot of youngsters, most of them will go down the point-to-point route and if they are fortunate enough to do the job there, they will probably be sold and if not we’ll go to war with them on the track. We are back to stay for the foreseeable future anyway.’