THE Colm Murphy comeback steps up a notch at Sandown on Friday.
The multiple Grade 1-winning trainer saddles Botani in the Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle –his first runner in the UK since Empire Of Dirt won at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival.
County Wexford-based Murphy handed in his licence in September 2016 for financial reasons.
He spent 18 months working as a stewards’ secretary afterwards, but he returned to the training ranks last summer and has been steadily building his string up.
He told Sun Racing: “Things are going well, we have been busy with a lot of youngsters.
“We have been lucky and had a few winners in point-to-points and we are tipping away nicely.
“We’ve got 30 plus horses in the yard which is a nice number to deal with at the moment.
“We have a lot of nice horses for the future and we will be going to the sales and steadily building things up.”
Botani is a 12-1 chance to add to her trainer’s haul of seven British winners in the six-runner Grade 2.
Murphy, who guided the likes of Brave Inca and Big Zeb to Cheltenham Festival glory, is keeping his fingers crossed that the meeting survives a precautionary 8am inspection.
He continued: “Fingers crossed racing goes ahead at Sandown. It’s a little bit of an unknown with the combination of 2m4f on heavy ground for her.
“But she’s a nice mare we think she will get further and the going shouldn’t be a problem.
“It looks a good opportunity to get a nice bit of black type with her, as breeding to sell is part of our business model.
“Robbie (Power) is having a great season and he rode her when she was fourth at Thurles last month so her knows her well.”
While Murphy is in no rush to increase the size of his string, he is hoping he can unearth a smart prospect to help him recapture the glory days.
Murphy said: “It’s like a drug, when you get a taste of Cheltenham and winning big races there you want more of it.
“We are no different to anyone else. We would love to have a couple of nice horses, and we have some promising ones at the moment, to take us back to the top table.”
