RACING: BRIAN O'CONNORtalks to the Antrim-born trainer who is making a success of his career in Britain and who has high hopes for his sole runner at the Cheltenham Festival – Midnight Chase – in next Friday's Gold Cup

IT IS a reality that the lot of the small trainer is getting harder all the time. In Ireland there are echoes of the flat game in how so much talent is now concentrated in so few hands. All of which makes Neil Mulholland even more convinced he is doing the right thing in backing his own judgment. But then his judgment hasn’t let him down yet.

The big battalions might dominate much of the big-race action next week but there remains a romantic tinge to the Gold Cup in Mulholland tackling Long Run Co with his Cheltenham specialist Midnight Chase.

Fifth in the Gold Cup last year, the hugely-progressive chaser tackles the blue-riband again on the back of an impressive Grade Two success at Cheltenham in January that was the fifth time he has won at the course. For a young trainer desperate to make a mark, Midnight Chase has been a godsend. And Mulholland knows it. But taking a shot is not unknown to the 31-year-old from Glenavy in Co Antrim.

At just 12 years of age, a speculative letter to the hottest young trainer in Ireland reaped dividends that even the writer couldn’t have forecast.

“I wrote to Aidan (O’Brien) asking if I could ride out for him on my school holidays and he wrote back saying ‘no problem’. I could hardly believe it. Every chance I got, every school holiday, I was down there. It was all I ever wanted,” he remembers.

Those were the days before O’Brien made the move to Ballydoyle that transformed flat racing in Ireland and beyond. But Mulholland was there for the move and was apprenticed to the training maestro. He rode his first winner, Petasus, for O’Brien at his local course in Down Royal in 1997.

Jumping was always going to be Mulholland’s game however and he moved to England where injury blighted a riding career that nevertheless yielded 125 winners in total. Long before then however, he had decided his future lay in training.

It was a big step for the horse-mad young man whose family dabbled in breeding a few but whose dental supply business was the mainstay. The horse bug bit bad but not bad enough to prevent the new boy from going into such a tough game with his eyes firmly open.

“After you turn 20 you start to wise up, get a bit of wit about you. I knew I was a decent jockey but that only lasts so long. I wanted to train but what chance have you got if you start off in Ireland with Willie Mullins, Jessica Harrington and the others?” he recounts.

Much easier to remain in England, he reckoned. This is Mulholland’s fourth season training. In his first, he had 16 winners. Let a new boy try that in Ireland. The following year yielded 18, then 21 winners. So far this season his tally is 13. And best of all he has a legitimate contender in the race that matters most.

All of this is happening at stables he rents from David Pipe. He also has use of the famous Pond House gallops. It’s a business model that is becoming more and more popular in the UK. It is certainly working for a young, hungry trainer on the up who has learned from everyone.

“Starting with Aidan was great. I suppose the things you see first in life are the things that stick with you the most so my six years with him have meant a lot. And I knew it wasn’t going to happen for me as a jockey.

“I rode out my claim in Ireland but you’ve got to look at the big picture. There are the two or three top jocks in Ireland and you have a couple of good claimers each season that ride out their claims and are forgotten the year after,” says Mulholland.

It’s not just jockeys that can get left stranded in Ireland.

“The prize money is not great over here. But I look at it as little and often is better than nothing at all. You get 20-runner maidens every day of the week in Ireland. Here you get 11-runner maidens where three might be no good and three are getting handicapped so there’s much more chance of prize money,” he states.

So far Midnight Chase has won almost €250,000 in prize money and has blossomed into a real top-notch chaser, a far cry from the horse who won his first maiden hurdle at Perth under a jockey who is now his trainer.

But it is his record around Cheltenham that will make him a potent force on Friday.

“He has run seven times over fences there, won five, finished third and then fifth in the Gold Cup when Dougie (Costello) couldn’t ride him and Tom (Scudamore) just was never able to get him into a rhythm. That has to count for a lot. We’re an underdog in the Gold Cup, but a nice underdog,” Mulholland reckons.

“It’s like an FA Cup final. If you’re going to play well anywhere, it’s best if it’s at Wembley. He loves it at Cheltenham and that’s a big factor. If he finishes third or fourth, then there is serious prize money. But if any of the big boys, for whatever reason, don’t perform, we’ll be taking advantage,” he adds.

He sees echoes of himself in Galway-born jockey Costello.

“He’s looking to the future too, and he’s not a jockey to just get off the horse and forget about it. He’s very dedicated and a real team player. But he’s a really good rider who gets on great with the horse,” he says.

Midnight Chase will be Mulholland’s sole runner at the festival. Compared to the big boys, the Antrim man hardly figures in terms of quantity.

But come next Friday, when quality comes to the top, he hopes to be pitching well above his weight.