Principal Jockeys:
Niall ‘Slippers’ Madden, Ruby Walsh, Mark Walsh
Notable Wins:
- Pat Taaffe Handicap Chase (Ambobo 2009)
- An Uaimh Chase (Nickname 2007)
- Tied Cottage Chase (Nickname 2007)
- Normans Grove Chase (Nickname 2008 + 2007)
- Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase (Nickname 2006)
- Fortria Chase (Nickname 2006)
- Aintree Grand National (Numbersixvalverde 2006)
- Paddy Fitzpatrick Memorial Novice Chase (Nickname 2006)
- Irish Grand National (Numbersixvalverde 2005)
- Thyestes Chase (Numbersixvalverde 2005)
- Joe McGrath Handicap (Norwegian Blue 1997)
- Brownstown Stakes (Inchacooley 1997)
- Ballybrit Novice Chase (Nordic Thorn 1996)
Martin Brassil has long been known as one of the more inconspicuous characters of Irish racing. He has quietly gone about his business of training racehorses since taking out his licence in 1994, never having more than a dozen horses in his care until relatively recently. If anyone in Irish racing deserved a breakout winner, it was Brassil and that horse has well and truly arrived for him in the shape of double Grand National winner, Numbersixvalverde.
Martin Brassil and 'Slippers' Madden with Ambobo after winning the Pat Taaffe Handicap Chase at the Punchestown Festival.
A Thorough Education
However, the successes that Brassil reaped in more recent years are very much the result of the long years he spent patiently building his knowledge. From 1977 to 1986 he was under the wing of the famously shrewd Mick O'Toole where he understandably learned a great deal. While under the tutelage of O’Toole, he was lucky enough to be responsible for O’Toole’s only Classic winner, the quirky Dickens Hill, who won the Irish 2000 Guineas, the Eclipse and also finished second in two Derby’s.
As all that was going on, he was enjoying success both on the racecourse and in point-to-points as an amateur rider, with him riding around 40 winners on the track and about the same in points. His biggest win in the saddle came in 1979 on a horse called Daletta who won what is now called the Lismullen Hurdle, which was an amateur rider’s race at the time. In addition to this, Brassil once rode a young horse called Silver Buck in a point-to-point. That horse went on to become an immensely popular staying chaser with the highlight of his career perhaps being his win in the 1982 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Injury Leads To A Change
After leaving O’Toole’s, he took the position of head man to Neil McGrath at Brownstown Stud while continuing to race ride. However his career in the saddle was seriously thwarted by a very severe ankle injury he sustained in a hunter chase in April 1991. It was around that time that he begun to ask a few people whether they would support him if he started training and he eventually took out my licence in 1994 with around a half dozen horses.
Early Successes
Brassil did not have to wait long for his first success in the training ranks. Nordic Thorn, who had previously been trained by Jim Bolger, won a maiden hurdle at Killarney on his first start for his new handler in May 1994. That horse proved to be a great servant to Brassil, winning four more races for him during his career, most notably the Grade 3 Ballybrit Novice Chase in October 1996.
However, Brassil is not only a talented trainer of National Hunt horse’s, as he has also shown himself to be a more than capable trainer of Flat horses and one notable day in 1997 proved this beyond all doubt. On August 4th of that year, Brassil saddled Inchacooley in the listed Brownstown Stakes and that filly comfortably accounted for representatives from the John Oxx, Dermot Weld, Aidan O’Brien and Jim Bolger yards. As if that win wasn’t good enough, on the very same day Brassil sent out Norwegian Blue to win the valuable Joe McGrath Handicap. This achievement is all the more remarkable considering that at the time his yard had no more than a dozen inmates.
Hitting The Jackpot
Into the new millennium, Brassil continued in the same vein with his small string. A slightly lean spell in terms of winners was brought to an end in 2002 with the emergence of both Barrack Buster and Numbersixvalverde. The former has no less than eight races for Brassil having broken her duck in August 2003, but it was the latter that really propelled Brassil into the public spotlight.
Numbersixvalverde, who was owned by one of Brassil’s longest standing owners, Bernard Carroll, failed to win in his first six runs in bumpers, but other stars of the National Hunt game such as Moscow Flyer and Asian Maze have shown that this is no handicap to future success. He won his one and only race over hurdles in December 2002, but Brassil was always adamant that he would improve significantly once he went over the larger obstacles.
This was proved to be correct when Numbersixvalverde made his handicap chase debut a winning one when absolutely bolting up off a mark of 106 at Navan in December 2004. Shrewdly, Brassil preserved his chasing mark by running him over hurdles on his next start before having his attentions turned to a significant prize, the Thyestes Chase. This was a big ask for a novice that had only had four starts over fences, but Brassil’s faith in him was vindicated as under Niall ‘Slippers’ Madden, he emerged the short-head victor in an immensely exciting finish with Kymandjen. That win was followed by a highly-credible third to Point Barrow in a Grade 3 novice chase in Navan and his sights were then firmly set on the Irish Grand National six weeks later.
The marathon 3m 5f trip in the Irish Grand National was expected to see Brassil’s stable star show some improvement, and so it proved as he ran out the gutsy ¾l winner from Jack High under an inspired ride from Ruby Walsh. This was the biggest win of Brassil’s career and predictably, it resulted in an influx of new horses into the yard in the months following it. As improbable as it may have seemed at the time, even greater success would come the way of Numbersixvalverde the following season.
A New Star Emerges
Perhaps the most high profile of the new horses that entered Brassil’s yard following his Irish Grand National win was the ex-French trained Nickname. He had already shown a high level of form over hurdles in France, winning nine races including two Grade 1’s. However he had picked up an injury during his final French race and Brassil had to put a lot of hard work and patience into him before he was ready to run again. However the wait had been worth it as he made an immensely impressive chasing debut on his first start for 18 months in Leopardstown. He followed up that effort with an electric win in a Grade 2 Paddy Fitzpatrick Memorial Novice Chase at Leopardstown. At that point he looked to be one of the most promising novice chasers in Ireland, but he disappointed badly in the Irish Arkle when breaking a blood vessel. His two runs later that season were slightly before par, but he would leave that form well behind the following season.
A Dream Come True At Aintree
While Nickname was impressing many with his exploits in novice chases, Numbersixvalverde was slowly building up to his ultimate target for the season, the Aintree Grand National. A highly-satisfactory third in a handicap hurdle in Naas in March completed his preparation for the ultimate test of jumping at Aintree and having been allotted 10-8, many people began to realise that he very much had a serious chance.
On the big day itself, any fears that Numbersixvalverde would fail to handle the unique Aintree Grand National obstacles were soon allayed as he completed the first circuit having made no mistakes of note. ‘Slippers’ Madden began to make steady ground on the second circuit and he was tracking the leaders when jumping Bechers for the second time. At the third last there were only four runners genuinely involved and it was evident that Numbersixvalverde was going as well as any of them. Having jumped the last fluently, he stayed on strongly to account for the gallant Hedgehunter and Clan Royal on the run-in, prompting rapturous scenes of celebration amongst his supporters.
The festivities followed the Brassil team all the way from Aintree to Holyhead and on to Dublin and Kildare with a sizeable collection of friends, family and racing people greeting Brassil and his stable star on the long driveway up to Beech Park. The famous victory in Aintree heralded a new era of fame for Brassil and he hasn’t looked back since.
Nickname Runs Riot
The momentum of the Brassil yard continued into 2006/7 thanks to the exploits of Nickname. Now back to his very best, the son of Lost World embarked on a remarkable run of success, starting off his season in the perfect style by winning the Grade 2 Fortria Chase at Navan in game fashion. A month later he came up short in the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, but that would prove to be his only defeat of the season. After that, he embarked on a five-race winning sequence of which the highlight was his win in the Grade 1 Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet at the Christmas meeting at Leopardstown. His other wins came in three Grade 2 events and one Grade 3 event, making it a hugely-lucrative season for all connected with him. His six wins contributed significantly to a seasonal tally of 12 winners for Brassil, the best total of his career.
Normal Service Resumed
While 2007/8 was not as successful for Brassil as the season that preceded it, he did still enjoy some notable successes. Nickname was restricted to just three starts, gaining his second consecutive win in the Grade 2 Normans Grove Chase at Gowran Park as well as finishing second in his bid for a second consecutive win in the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase at Leopardstown. Ambobo was a notable recruit to the yard in early 2006 and having won a beginners chase in 2006/7, he would go on to land Brassil the biggest prize of his season in 2007/8, the Pat Taaffe Handicap Chase at the Punchestown Festival.
The star performer for Brassil thus far in 2009/10 has been Moville, who has progressed to win two decent prizes over hurdles and the five-year-old looks likely to be capable of better still. Him, along with a number of other promising young horses, look set to ensure that Martin Brassil remains very much in the public eye for many years to come.
Updated February 2010.
