RACING/Irish Grand National - interview with trainer Irene Oakes: Brian O'Connor talks to the trainer who could make history at Fairyhouse today by becoming the first Irish woman to officially train an Irish GrandNational winner.

Irene Oakes will try to make a little bit of history at Fairyhouse today with some pretty unpromising material.

Champagne Native is his name and if you can think of a problem, any problem at all, this dark, brooding mass of horseflesh has probably had it.

For instance, his kidneys have been known to be pretty dicky and his breathing isn't exactly Dizzy Gillespie-esque in its power.

As if that isn't enough Champagne Native has also been known to fidget. In fact, when Oakes first welcomed the Grand National prospect to her stables, she was convinced she'd received a basket case.

"That was in July and I'd have called him salvage material. He was terribly nervous, hard to handle and he wasn't a happy camper at all. So we had to start from scratch," she remembers.

That Champagne Native now stands as a perfectly viable outsider for Ireland's most coveted steeplechase is as powerful a reference for his trainer's prowess as she will ever need.

But the intriguing possibility remains that it might not end there and Oakes could end today as the first Irishwoman to train the Grand National winner - although Peggy St John Nolan was the actual trainer of her own horse, 1959 winner Zonda, in an era when women were not allowed hold trainers' licences.

"I don't even want to think about it although everyone else in the yard is getting pretty excited," she admits.

It's not surprising that the situation has caught Oakes slightly on the hop. She is primarily a trainer of flat horses. She can only think of two horses she has run previously over fences in her 10 years training. But her focus has not always been away from fences.

"I spent four years working with Jenny Pitman in the days of Burrough Hill and Garrison Savannah so the original plan was to go jumping but owners these days won't wait for horses to mature," Oakes says.

The focus on the flat paid off last year with a career best 10 winners and an increase in stable strength to over 40. But if there is to be a real big-time strike, it's likely to be the jump game that provides it.

"Could you ever see me winning the Derby?" she asks with the sort of typical level-headed honesty that proves why many horses are sent to her in the first place.

"I seem to have a reputation for being good with horses that have problems. We have moody mares and fillies that don't want to go, but if they have some ability we can usually get it out of them

"Jenny Pitman knew her horses like the back of her hand and she realised how important the mental side is. Not all horses need to be galloped out of their brains. Sometimes I can see some guy crying out for less, maybe a day in the paddock or something," she says.

Remarkably, however, Oakes sometimes experiences a negative response from the more macho elements within her sport to such innate skill.

"I always feel it is more difficult for a woman. It is a male-dominated sport and I don't see much change in the future," she considers.

"I hear these remarks about women being soft on horses. Yes, we treat the horses right and do the best for them, but we're not going around giving them sugar lumps!

"In England it's different now. Venetia Williams and Henrietta Knight have got the opportunities and got the good horses. But it is not the same here."

Knight famously won the Gold Cup with Best Mate 17 days ago and possibly even more famously she managed to watch the horse throughout the race.

Oakes can understand Knight's usual nervousness during a steeplechase and says she will probably spend today's race cowering behind friends and demanding a running commentary.

"I got very emotional after Champagne Native won at Leopardstown because he is such a classy horse around the yard but hadn't shown it on the track for a while.

"It's like the little girl in the TV ad: when he's good, he is very good but when he's bad, he is terrible.

"The biggest problem we've had is that we weren't able to get a good run at him. Something would always go wrong. But we had a straight six weeks, training him hard, going to Leopardstown and it was his last chance," she says.

In such circumstances in the past Champagne Native failed to deliver. As a young horse with Tom Taaffe, he was highly regarded but never quite graduated to where his potential indicated.

"Fair play to Tom, who managed to win five with him, because he really is a vet's dream and a trainer's nightmare. The owners just felt he needed a change.

"The horse looked like going to Cheltenham and all the way to the top at one stage but every time the gun was put to his head he let them down," Oakes says.

This time, however, he is at the right end of the handicap and possibly even more importantly, he has had a trouble-free preparation for the National. Oakes is convinced that if Champagne Native settles in the early part of the race, he can be a player at the crucial part.

If things pan out as she hopes, Oakes might be cowering nervously behind friends but no one will be shouting harder than her father Frank.

"He is definitely more excited about all this than I am," she declares. "Daddy trained loads of winners but he never had a horse good enough to go for the National. You could say it is premature ambition on my part to have a runner!"

However, now that the chance has presented itself, Oakes is determined to make the most of it.

"If he does win, I would imagine Clane will close down. The owners and myself are from there and everyone in the town seems to back the horse. But it would be some achievement for the horse if he did win," she says.

Only an ignoramus would deny the same comment to the trainer.