WE could have been here a year ago, Cheltenham Festival 2024, Kim Muir. Midnight Our Fred needed two more horses to come out in order that he could get a run, but they all stood their ground.

He didn’t get in. In the end, John Flavin wasn’t that bothered.

The rains came at Cheltenham last year, the ground came up soft on the Thursday, and that would have been no good for his horse. And the Kim Muir was won by Inothewayurthinkin, who won the Grade 1 Mildmay Chase at Aintree next time.

John Flavin was fairly relaxed about it all. It could have all been for luck.

That calm demeanour is a big asset for a racehorse trainer. John Flavin waited a month, then took his horse to Cheltenham for the April meeting instead, for a three-and-a-half-mile handicap chase, in which he finished second behind a talented rival in Hymac.

That was Midnight Our Fred’s third run at Cheltenham, and it was the third time that he finished second there. He handles the track all right.

“We were thinking that we would aim for the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown after that,” says John now. “But he needed to go up a few pounds if he was going to get into the race.

“We ran him in the Killarney National in May, the ground was soft enough for him there, but he still ran well to finish third. Then we ran him at Gowran in October, and he was very good.”

Travelled well

Lots of things were against Midnight Our Fred at Gowran. The two-and-a-half-mile trip was probably too short, and the track was probably going the wrong way around.

Even so, he travelled well through his race for Danny Mullins despite jumping to his left, always prominent. He moved to the front over the second last fence, and he careered away to win by 14 lengths.

Midnight Our Fred’s roots run deep with the Flavins. John and his father Pat trained the Finsceal Fior gelding’s dam Midnight Molly, a point-to-point winner, for her owner Florence Lockwood and, when the mare’s first foal was on the ground, he hoped that he would get to train him too.

Midnight Our Fred and Hugh Morgan won the Country Fest Wexford August 13th Handicap Hurdle for owner breeders Florence and Emily Lockwood \ Healy Racing

“We always thought that Midnight Our Fred had plenty of ability,” says John. “He won a three-mile handicap hurdle at Wexford in May 2023, but it was only really when he started jumping fences that he started to come into his own. He’s such a good jumper of fences.”

John worked with his dad as a youngster and he rode out for Paul Roche, before going to Michael Hourigan’s when he was 17.

He moved to England for the start of the 2005/06 season, and he was doing fairly well there, building momentum, riding for Richard Guest, when a fall and an injury at Worcester in April 2006 checked that momentum.

Back home

He was out injured for a year and, while he went back for the 2007/08 season, it was always only a matter of time before he would come back home to Waterford and work with his dad.

You can only defy nature for a finite period of time and, a tall young man, his time as a jockey was always going to be limited.

He took over the trainer’s licence from his dad in 2021, and he had two winners from his first three runners.

In December 2023, he sent out Street Value to win the Porterstown Handicap Chase at Fairyhouse. That was a good weekend.

The previous day, he had sold his Affinsea gelding, First Confession, whom he had trained to win his only point-to-point. Bought for £140,000 by Peter and Ross Doyle at the Goffs UK Coral Gold Cup Sale, First Confession has won two of his four hurdle races for Joe Tizzard, and he holds an entry in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on Friday.

The focus of John Flavin’s attention for the Cheltenham Festival for now, however, is on Midnight Our Fred, who is set to line up in the Kim Muir on Thursday.

Saves for the track

“He seems to be in good old form,” says John. “He wouldn’t set the world alight at home, but I’d prefer it that way. He saves it for the track. He came out of the Leopardstown race very well.”

The Leopardstown race was the Paddy Power Chase, in which he finished second behind Perceval Legallois, in a race that has been working out spectacularly well since.

Midnight Our Fred will be racing off a British handicap rating of 132, 4lb higher than the Irish mark off which he finished second at Leopardstown, and that is more than fair.

“He’ll head over now on Monday,” says John. “My mother will head over with him with the box, just on his own. He’ll ride out on Tuesday and Wednesday, get ready for Thursday. We’ve had the same routine when he’s gone over there before. It’s different this time, there is obviously more interest in Cheltenham in March than there is in Cheltenham in April or in October, but I try to stay as level-headed as I can during the build-up.

“I try to have everything in order, but I try not to think about it too much.”

Busy weekend ahead. Street Value goes in the Leinster National at Naas tomorrow, then schooling races at Boulta on Monday.

Then Cheltenham. John Flavin is fairly relaxed about it all.