Cromwell: 'If You're Not Growing You're Dying And I Don't Want To Let This Slip'

If you really do reap what you sow, then Gavin Cromwell is set for a bumper harvest. A cool €1 million has been injected into the trainer's County Meath stable in the past year alone and the green shoots have already been sighted with the runners who were readied on the trainer's new five-furlong hill gallop burning up the track of late.

Important winners they were, too. Diego Ventura (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) has been snapped up by Wathnan Racing after scoring on debut at Naas while Gowran Park winner An Chorr Dubh (Ire) (Coulsty {Ire}) was purchased by American clients for another good six-figure sum.  

Impressive business considering sending out winners on the level has been something of a side hustle for a man better associated with big-race success over jumps.

That narrative is beginning to change. Princess Yaiza (Ire) (Casamento {Ire}) was one of Cromwell's first flag-bearers on the Flat but it's what the stable has done with its two-year-olds in recent seasons that has grabbed people's attention the most.

From just three runners in the juvenile department at Royal Ascot, Cromwell has scooped the 2021 Queen Mary with Quick Suzy (Ire) (Profitable {Ire}) while Snellen (Ire) (Expert Eye {GB}) landed the Chesham Stakes last season. His other runner at the royal meeting, Mighty Eiru (Ire) (Inns Of Court {Ire}), finished runner-up in this year's Queen Mary. So almost a clean sweep.

“The horses on the Flat have been huge for us,” Cromwell says. “We have 20 two-year-olds this year and we're definitely going to go out and buy more than that for next year. Diego Ventura was brilliant. We expected him to nearly go and win at Naas on what he was showing us at home and thankfully he did. 

“Listen, he cost 72 grand at the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale but he has obviously worked out. It was very simple dealing with Richard Brown and the Wathnan Racing team. Roger O'Callaghan [Tally-Ho Stud] recommended the horse to us. He said that he hadn't got the best out of the horse for the breeze and that he wouldn't mind keeping a leg. 

“When a vendor is willing to put his neck on the line on a horse, it can give that bit of confidence, so we ended up splitting the horse up three ways between myself, Roger and John Brennan.”

He added, “I think there'll be loads of improvement in him. That's equally as important for our business. You need those horses to go on and do something for their new owners and thankfully we've a good track record with that. We sold Quick Suzy to Eclipse Thoroughbreds after she won her maiden at the Curragh and she went on to land the Queen Mary. You'd be hoping that the likes of Diego Ventura and An Chorr Dubh go on and do what you think they can.”

Such deals have fuelled the development of Cromwell's yard from a simple 14-acre green field site to one of the most dynamic training facilities in the country. This bustling operation was hardly imaginable when Cromwelll and his wife Kiva lived in a one-bedroom apartment above the original block of eight stables for the best part of a decade when shoeing rather than training winners kept bread on the table. 

“I was probably very lucky that, when I was shoeing, I wasn't relying on training for an income,” he says. “Not only could I live off my farrier business, but I could also put some of that money into getting the yard set up. I was training for a good few years before I actually paid myself a penny out of the training business.

“But I never set out to be a trainer at all. When I built the first eight stables, I was riding in point-to-points just as a bit of fun, and I said I wouldn't mind having a few pointers with a view towards selling them. I thought I had no chance of selling them but I knew that I'd have even less of a chance without a gallop so I bit the bullet and put in a two-and-a-half furlong round gallop. It's the biggest gallop that I could squeeze into the 14 acres. That's all I had for years but we trained Jer's Girl (Ire) (Jeremy {Ire}) and Espoir D'Allen (Fr) (Voix Du Nord {Fr}) off it so it mustn't have been too bad.”

Kevin Ross [left]: has helped source a number of Cromwell's big winners on the Flat | Tattersalls

If Jer's Girl provided a launchpad for the soon-to-be 50-year-old's training career, Espoir D'Allen could be viewed as the horse who confirmed Cromwell's arrival at the top tier of National Hunt racing. However, it took Cromwell a little longer to see it that way.

“When I won the Champion Hurdle with Espoir D'Allen in 2019, I felt it was one that just fell my way,” he shares. “The three big ones on the day-Apple's Jade, Laurina and Buveur D'air-didn't perform and I just felt it was a lucky win. I nearly got more of a kick out of Flooring Porter (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) winning his second Stayers' Hurdle a couple of years back. I suppose he's what you would call a rags-to-riches horse because I bought him myself as a store at the Land Rover Sale for just five grand and I do think we did a brilliant job with him.”

In many ways, Cromwell's meteoric rise flies in the face of the elitist fears for Irish National Hunt racing. Here is a man who has challenged the sport's establishment and his prize for pulling himself up by his bootstraps is that Horse Racing Ireland has proposed that he, along with Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead, will not be allowed enter their horses in a total of 60 races next season. 

The new series, which was designed to level the playing field of jumps racing in Ireland, has caused consternation within the training ranks and, with the situation likely to go legal, Cromwell is understandably keeping schtum. But you can venture that he is not happy.

On the track, things have been chirpier. The stable is well on course to bettering last season's best-ever tally of 21 domestic Flat winners. It has been humming along similarly sweetly over jumps as well. A record 72 National Hunt wins were achieved last year and, with the new campaign in its infancy, there are 25 on the board already. 

Those are healthy numbers. Yet Cromwell can't relax. Like many top sports people, it's that fear of failure that drives him out of the bed before 5am every morning to draw up plans for an army of dual-purpose warriors that he has fought so hard to assemble. 

“I wouldn't even dream of taking a holiday now,” he says. “We've a great system in place but, if something were to happen if I did go away, I'm not sure I could live with myself.”

A fear of failure is not the only thing sustaining this place. There are other motives behind keeping busy. 

“I don't drink,” he shares. “Used to alright. I gave it up seven years ago and, as the fella says, I didn't give it up because I didn't like it. It was just a conscious decision that I made. I actually said I'd go off it for a week and here I am seven years later. I was just getting too busy with the training and the shoeing. I used to always love a few pints in the evenings and, when I was shoeing, you'd always go into the pub on the way home from work. But there were times when you'd overstay your welcome.”

So would you say there has been a direct correlation between kicking the bottle and the upsurge in your success as a trainer? 

“One hundred per cent. Look, there are some fellas who can do the two, and fair play to them, but I couldn't. The training was starting to go well when I was still drinking but, when I started to get really busy, I wasn't able to handle the two. When I gave up the drink, I noticed a major difference. The whole thing jumped a couple of levels. This job is all about making decisions. If things didn't go well, I used to blame myself and the drink. 

“Now, you still might have made the same decision, but you'd just be in the horrors and you'd blame being hungover for doing something stupid. If I make a bad decision these days, it's a conscious decision and I've made it with a clear mind and I've nothing or nobody else to blame. It's a lot easier to get up in the morning and to make those decisions now as well.”

He continued, “Listen, life can be very boring. You have a different circle of friends to what you used to have and you don't get the same phone calls on a Friday evening. I don't miss it but, to be honest, I'd say it's one of the reasons why I keep myself so busy. Say if we have no runners on a Sunday afternoon or something, if I haven't something planned with the kids-Jake [12], Sophie [10] and Cameron [9]–, I find it the longest, most boring day ever. I don't know how some people can work five days a week.”

Luckily for Cromwell, there are no signs of the yard slowing down. In actual fact, things are set to crank up a notch. All of the big-named stars of the jumps are back in full training while plans are afoot for the trainer-along with his new buying team of Kevin and Anna Ross-to hit the yearling sales harder than ever over the coming weeks and months. 

“There is definitely a bit more interest heading into the yearling sales,” he reveals. “And, with the year that we're after having on the Flat, I might be a bit more ballsier in gathering up a few more yearlings on spec. I have been buying them on spec over the past few years. We worry about getting different owners into them after we buy them. There are some owners who will take a leg in half a dozen yearlings and then there are others who might take a leg in one or two. 

“Nearly all of the yearlings are bought with a view towards trading them on and I do explain that to anyone who gets involved. Really, if you want to get involved to go racing and have fun, it's probably the wrong thing for you because, in an ideal world, you will only see the horse run once. And, if you do see the horse run a few times, the plan probably hasn't worked out.”

He added, “To be fair to Kevin and Anna, they have been great since they came on board. The proof of their work is there for everyone to see this year. They bought very well. Any horse who has done anything, they've bought them. Mighty Eriu, Fiery Lucy (GB) (Without Parole {GB}) and An Chorr Dubh were all bought for less than 70 grand combined. It just shows that, when you do the work you can root out the good horses.”

It has taken Cromwell years of back-breaking work to have built what is now a flourishing training business from scratch. And in his case, the old adage of 'if you're not moving forward, you get left behind,' certainly applies given the scale of investment to the yard.

There is a stealthy seriousness to how he conducts business but it shouldn't be confused for coldness. Cromwell is just a man who prefers not to use two words when one will do and, while his arrival at the top tier of Irish racing came many years ago, it has taken much longer for the man himself to agree with such a statement.

“I am comfortable in my own skin but I would never have been a very confident person. When I started training first, the thoughts of talking to owners or even the press used to kill me. I never did any public speaking of any type and even as a kid at school, if there was a play or something, I'd be the fella hiding at the back. I've gained a lot of confidence in recent years.”

He added, “Up until very recently, I was seen by many people just as Gordon Elliott's farrier who trained a few horses on the side. And to be honest, it probably took me a while to let go of the farrier business and dive into the training thing full-time. I still have to think like that because you have to be careful not to let things slip in this business. You are only ever as good as your last winner and I've seen it so many times that, when someone goes through a bad spell, things can go downhill very fast. I don't want to let this slip. This really is a game where, if you're not growing you're dying, so you need to keep the revs up the whole time.”