Rawnaq retained his unbeaten record this season, when winning the Grade 1 American Grand National at Far Hills on Saturday afternoon. Ridden by Ruby Walsh, he was scoring for the second time at the highest level, leaving us with dreams of Cheltenham next March, where he chases a half a million dollar bonus in the World Hurdle.

I was born in Dunhill, Co Waterford, just a couple of miles from Henry de Bromhead’s stables. Although my family had no involvement in racing, like any Irish people, we knew someone who owned a horse.

As kids, my friends and I would follow the local Gaultier Harriers Hunt on foot every Sunday. They were led by the famous huntsman Eddie Crotty, who was also Huntsman of the Galway Blazers for a time.

I only learned how to ride when I was 15 but quickly made up for lost time. The last two summers in school I went down to Captain Donald Swan’s in Cloughjordan, while every weekend during term I rode out for Harry de Bromhead.

In 1989, after finishing my education, I moved to Newmarket where I did a nine week course at the British Racing School. They placed me with Sir Mark Prescott with whom I spent the next four years.

It was a great experience working for the trainer and I learned so much during my years there. In truth, if I never wanted to race ride, I would still be at his yard, as he had so much knowledge to pass on. If you were prepared to learn, he was prepared to teach.

However, I always wanted to ride on the track, so I moved down south and started work as a conditional with Bill Turner. In a four year period I had over 200 rides for Bill, partnering 13 winners in the process. Although he had a small dual purpose yard, he placed his horses very well and always seemed to have an early two-year-old for the Brocklesby at Doncaster.

At the beginning of the 1995/96 season, as I was about to lose my claim due to age, I left race riding and went to work for champion trainer Nicky Henderson. It was while I was still at Seven Barrows, in June 1998, that I first came out to America. The National Hunt season used to finish up in May back then, so I went out to work for US Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard for June and July and returned the following two years for the same period.

AMERICAN MOVE

In 2000, I made the move to the US full-time and resumed my race riding career for the late Tom Voss, adding a further 70 winners over the next seven and a half years. It was a great opportunity to prolong my career out here, as I felt I had nothing to lose. I was always keen to give training a go but was never in a position to do so full-time. Once I retired from riding I exercised horses for a few people in order to pick up a cheque, while starting to train a couple on the side.

It was only in the last four years that I was able to go training horses full-time. I began with just three horses and now have 16 in my care.

Of those, 15 are owned by Irvin Naylor, who is my principal employer. He is perhaps best known in Ireland as the owner of Alfa Beat, who won the 2011 Kerry National for Shark Hanlon. Almost 95% of our horses are former Irish or British trained runners who may just fall short of the very top grade over there.

STABLE STAR

Prior to last year, my stable star was the former Tony Mullins-trained Decoy Daddy, who earned us over $500,000 in prize money and was widely regarded as the best horse never to win a Grade 1 in the US. However, in 2015 he was usurped in the pecking order by Dawalan, who was trained in Britain by Nicky Henderson prior to winning two Grade 1 races for us and ridden by Ross Geraghty.

The first of those Grade 1 wins was last year’s American Grand National, when he proved too strong for Gordon Elliott’s Eshtiaal, with our second runner Rawnaq just behind in third. At the time, I felt the latter was unlucky in running, as he got stuck in traffic at the second last before flying home late on. He was making his US debut in that contest having run in the Galway Hurdle on his previous start.

The horse was recommended to me by Paul Byrne of the Racing Post. Paul drew up a list of the top 25 rated horses in Ireland but felt the first 10/12 wouldn’t be for sale, while the bottom tier may be overpriced for what they had achieved.

Fortunately for us, smack bang in the middle of that list was the Matthew Smith-trained Rawnaq, a horse who fitted our criteria perfectly. He was young enough to have plenty of racing left, had won a Grade 2 chase over fences and was a proven performer.

Smith had done a fantastic job with the horse and sent him over to us in very good order. After last year’s Grand National, the horse had one further run, this time finishing second to Dawalan in the Colonial Cup, before being put away for this season.

DREAMING

On his second 2016 start in May, Rawnaq beat the Willie Mullins-trained pair Shaneshill and Nichols Canyon in the Iroquois Hurdle. That win qualified him for a $500,000 bonus should he go on to win the World Hurdle at Cheltenham. Last Saturday, he made it three from three this season, and two from two at the Grade 1 level when winning the US Grand National.

The latter race is the principle hurdle race of the calendar over here, worth $350,000 to the winner. With his regular jockey Jack Doyle out injured I was lucky to be able to call on the services of Ruby Walsh, who is quite rightly regarded as one of the greatest riders of his generation.

Cheltenham is definitely under serious consideration now although in truth, I realise we are going to be up against it over there. The jumps season in the US only starts in March so I won’t be able to get a run into the horse.

I am also a realist and accept that horses such as Rawnaq who reach the top over here are a notch or two below the very best - many re-invent themselves here having failed to make the grade in Ireland/Britain.

Having said all this, Rawnaq deserves to take his chance and has been placed on both previous visits to the track. I will be delighted should he finish in the first four or five places, with anything else being a bonus. It will be an exciting adventure, one to keep us dreaming through the winter.

Cyril Murphy was in conversation with John O’Riordan