The hugely successful Meath man explains why a chat with Noel Meade made him realise how the business of training horses on a large scale was possible
Gavin Cromwell is standing in the jockeys' room at his yard halfway between Navan and Ashbourne. It's the beating heart of the "monster" operation that he has built from scratch.
Now Ireland's third most successful trainer, the Meathman has no intention of easing up in his bid to close in on the big two, Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott. He surpassed for record wins for a season - 72, achieved last year - at the Dublin Racing Festival in early February. This could be his most successful Cheltenham yet.
"He said he used to go in the evening and would have to start returning phone calls and messages that came in during the day and he'd be there until half 10 at night phoning owners back. But that's gone now." "It wasn't a massive big business that was bankrolling it as such, it just meant that I could survive without this. Gordon started with nothing, as did Willie Mullins. He might have been a Mullins but he still started with a handful of horses. It's very possible.
Naturally, he's not ruling out that Melbourne Cup trip one day. The work is all-consuming but, at the same time, this business doesn't feel like work to him. "When you had a winner, you'd always celebrate. It was fantastic to have a winner and it's still fantastic to have one. But now I have to have winners. We're in a position now where there's so many people involved, there's so many owners involved, if you're not having winners there's something wrong and that's the monster we've built.
Cheltenham Gavin Cromwell Willie Mullins Noel Meade Gordon Elliott Horse Racing Cheltenham Racecourse
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