Middleton Park, the 179-year-old Victorian mansion on the outskirts of Castletown, Co Westmeath, achieved a kind of notoriety in 1984. The legendary gambler and baiter of authority, Barney Curley, tried to flog the place by organising a huge draw for which tickets were sold nationwide and abroad. The draw was made, a winner found and then the authorities decided the whole thing was illegal.
Curley railed about injustice and then upped traps to Britain, putting distance between himself and one of the few major gambles he has ever got wrong.
Before Curley, the property had been the home of the Boyd-Rochfort family, who indulged in the notoriously risky business of trying to breed talented racehorses. The records show they were largely successful. However, in the wonderfully old-fashioned stables area, as big a gamble as has ever taken place at Midleton Park is now taking place.
The seeds of that gamble are obvious as you near the yard. The circular all-weather gallop and the schooling fences are par for any racing enterprise. But it's the controlled freneticism in the yard that hints at the freshness of the challenge.
Martin and Suzanne Lynch are in their second winter training from the Midleton Park stables. After purchasing the yard and a small number of acres with it, they have put everything into making a success of training racehorses. It's something that can concentrate the mind wonderfully.
Currently they have 28 horses and it's not hyperbolic to say that each twitch and tingle from those 28 can cause a glance into an uncertain future. One horse in particular is apt to cause sleepless nights, but with him it's a sleeplessness brought about by wondering how good he might be.
Colonel Yeager, a strapping chestnut with the arrogance of youth and the potential to match, goes into tomorrow's Citroen Supreme Novices' Hurdle with a realistic winning chance. For a fledgling training operation no more can be asked, but this isn't one of those heart-warming onceoffs that ignite the gush factor.
Martin Lynch made an 18-year career as a jockey out of his horsemanship; won the Vincent O'Brien Gold Cup on Nick The Brief in 1990, rode Seskin Bridge to win a Leopardstown Chase and a Thyestes in 1985 and at Cheltenham, a mecca that Irish race fans bow to almost daily except for three days in the year, he tasted success on Elfast in the Mildmay Of Flete in 1992.
"To ride and then train a winner at Cheltenham, that would be great. I don't know what it would result in but I'm sure it wouldn't do any harm," Lynch says with typical realism.
Lynch strikes as one not to get carried away about most things. He has the easy articulacy to be capable of flanneling with the best of his verbose colleagues but chooses not to. Comments such as "Colonel Yeager is going to stamp all over these bums" are as unlikely to come from him as quotes about how Cheltenham really is the promised land. The mind has chosen to concentrate on reality.
"We will go over for the race on Tuesday but I imagine I will be back here watching the Gold Cup on television on Thursday. The horses have to be fed. After all, Cheltenham is work for me. OK there are a lot of people there but there's only so much you can say to the same people and the crowds are huge. Even when I was riding, the only time I left the weighroom was to race and it did nothing for me to be there with no chance," he says.
In the current hysterical Cheltenham climate, Lynch's assertion that there is Punchestown to consider for the Colonel, and a highly promising career over fences too, could be enough to provoke cries of heresy, but this man has very definite ideas of the kind of trainer he wants to be.
"I want to train for people who want to have a horse. I don't mind if the horse is useless as long as the man is enthusiastic and gets enjoyment out of the horse. In some ways I tend to vet the owners as much as the horses. A horse and an owner can be unsuitable for each other. If I feel that I can't work with a such an owner I'll be the first to say that he might try someone else. That's why I don't want a yard of more than about 25 horses. I'm happy if I've enough and I don't any more hassle than I already have," he says.
That approach has so far paid dividends since Lynch returned from Britain, briefly rented a yard in Glencairn in Co Dublin before settling in Westmeath. His six years in the UK had emphasised the need for a trainer to make contacts and in Lynch's non-pushy style, the Ryanair executive Cathal Ryan came on board.
"He had been involved in a syndicate with me and then told me that he wanted me to buy a horse for him. I'd heard that before from people, but Cathal came back and said have you got me a horse yet. So I went out an bought Colonel Yeager. That was just before we moved down here," he says.
Lynch bought the soon-to-be Colonel for £16,000 at Tattersalls. As soon as the bidding stopped, he rushed down to find a fault. "I thought I must have missed something. I rated him a £25,000 horse but I was getting him for 16. He was just such a brilliant athlete," he remembers.
Seven races and five successes later Colonel Yeager goes as part of a superbly strong Irish challenge for the opening race tomorrow. It's been a graduation that has thrilled his trainer but not totally surprised him.
"Before he ever ran I rode him myself in a schooling bumper at Punchestown. It was particularly bad ground but he rode so well that he made it seen like good ground. We finished fifth in it, and while I didn't know about the boys behind me, I knew I'd the beating of the ones in front.
"Ruby (Walsh) then rode him in his first race at Thurles and was very impressed. A lot of this horse's character is this great boyish greenness about him. He just loves life. Boisterous is not the right word to describe him, it's just that he doesn't realise this is hard work yet. It's still a game to him and I've been in no rush to knock that out of him because it is one of his fortes," Lynch considers.
Having such a horse in such a fledgling operation is mostly wonderful but it does bring its headaches. One is that one wrong step can rule Cheltenham out for everybody. No substitutes are allowed in this game. Another is the inherent pressure of training a horse that the racing public knows about and wants to know more about. More than one punter pretending to be a journalist has phoned Lynch. One who called before Colonel Yeager's last race was informed by Lynch that he would be disappointed if the horse wasn't in the first four. Considering there were only four runners, it can't have been a huge help!
"Suzanne will tell you that I've changed since I've started training. I used to love a nice, calm, easy life with the less hassle the better but it's not possible in this job. Being a jockey was different. It paid the bills and I enjoyed it enormously. Riding a winner always gave me pleasure and once you were off the horse the job was over," he smiles.
"I had a great career riding. I can look back on Elfast, stick my chest out and say I say I rode a winner at Cheltenham. I have lots of friends who rode many more horses around there than I did and never did ride a winner. Elfast's trainer John Webber had runners for 30 odd years before having a winner. I know how difficult it is but we are going there with our first runner who has a good chance," he says.
The trainer's rational view of tomorrow's race makes Colonel Yeager's current price of 10 to 1 seem a steal.
"I honestly believe there is nothing between us, Cardinal Hill and Joe Mac. They are all exceptionally good. We had to give Joe Mac 3lb at Leopardstown and the timing of the race was not ideal. The form of that race surprised Charlie Swan who has shown great admiration for our horse since. As for Cardinal Hill, I would expect a similar showing from our horse that Cardinal Hill put up at Fairyhouse.
"If the three ran on their own, I guarantee you they would arrive at the last together. One would win but not by much. So much will depend on who jumps best or who gets the best run down the hill," he smiles, not wanting to let hope outstrip objectivity.
Hope and objectivity. It's the eternal quandary of the gamble. However, this is one gamble that deserves to come off.
