David Ord speaks to Paddy Twomey, a trainer who has made a flying start to his career and believes his Sky Bet Ebor favourite Earl of Tyrone "might be ahead of his mark".
When you breed Tagula as a 12-year-old you might suspect you have the Midas Touch.
Throw in a Group One winner in your sixth season with a full licence and the evidence grows.
But Paddy Twomey is no ordinary trainer.
From child prodigy in the breeding industry, trading in yearlings, which led to training and selling breeze-up horses, he has done the lot.
Now, having turned his attentions full time to training in 2018, he has 55 horses at a yard set in the heart of the Golden Vale with the Galtee Mountains as a breathtaking backdrop. The results match the view too.
La Petite Coco, fresh from that Group One Pretty Polly win, is set to board the ferry for the Darley Yorkshire Oaks next week and will be joined by stablemate Earl of Tyrone.
He’s everything his trainer is about, a horse capable of competing in the top-end handicaps with pretensions of adding Group-race glory to his burgeoning CV that includes three wins from four starts for the yard since joining this year. He’s also Sky Bet Ebor favourite.
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“He’s a grand horse, a big one who has filled into his frame this year. He seems to enjoy the training here,” the trainer muses.
And that shows on the racetrack. So when did he sense this was a horse for whom Europe’s most valuable handicap might be on the radar?
“He had a big frame and filled it out and I think he was just a little immature physically as a younger horse. He’s filled that frame out and I was lucky he walked through my gate at a time when he was just reaching his prime.
“We settled him into the routine and he cantered away and didn’t do anything wrong. Then in the spring we started working a few of them and he never stopped, he saw it all out well. Billy Lee and myself both thought then this is a horse who would do alright.
“I ran him the first day in a mile-and-a-quarter handicap at Leopardstown and I thought he’d win. They’re tasty races there in the spring and he was beaten. I was disappointed. But we kind of figured maybe up in trip he’d be better.
“So we took him to Bellewstown and he was 1/5 favourite for a maiden and duly took off up the straight. That day Billy said we should start to plot a proper campaign.”
That campaign has seen victories in the Sky Bet Race To The Ebor contest at the Curragh and a Listed race at Limerick.
It means he heads to York rated 104. It’s a number Twomey is comfortable with.
“I think he’ll be competitive in Group races so I’d be hoping he might be ahead of his mark, I think he’ll continue to improve and in the fulness of time be rated higher.
“I think the track will play to his strengths, he’s a big galloper with a long stride. He’ll love the long straight at York and stays well. He travels well in his races and is pretty straightforward.”
What sort of chance does he have?
“I think he’ll run well.”
It could be a huge week for one of the most upwardly mobile trainers on either side of the Irish Sea.
So what would Paddy Twomey tell the 12-year-old breeder now he’s a Group One winning trainer?
“Well done – now go and win another one.”
The Sky Bet Ebor would do nicely too.
Check out in-depth interviews with Paddy Twomey, Johnny Murtagh, Jessica Harrington and Aidan O’Brien later this week.
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