Martin Brassil
Martin Brassil is a respected Irish trainer whose careful and patient approach to grooming horses for stardom has already won him one Grand National title.
Like many great trainers Martin Brassil first learnt about horses from the saddle, spending ten years working in the stables of the great Mick O’Toole as a jockey. During this time he achieved modest success, winning Ireland’s Classic on Dickens Hill.
Brassil’s career as a jockey came to an end in April 1991 when a fall in a chase resulted in a serious ankle injury and a series of operations. Unwilling to give up his horseracing livelihood, Brassil turned to training and earned his license in 1994.
Success came swiftly to Brassil, with Nordic Thorn standing out in particular as an outstanding National Hunt competitor. Martin Brassil also decided early in his career not to limit his training to National Hunt horses, and turned his hand to training flat race horses, winning the Brownstown Stakes and the Joe McGrath handicap.
During these early years of his career Brassil became known as a trainer who emphasised quality rather than quantity, concentrating his training efforts on a small group of horses at any one time with the intent of extracting their best possible performances.
The
first two years of the millennium saw Martin Brassil,
2008 Grand National trainer, fail to record a single win in a major event.
During this period he was given charge of a horse that was to change his
fortunes – Numbersixvalverde. Although the horse had a miserable start to its
career, winning only a single hurdle race and not one chase, Brassil had faith
in the horses’ ability and felt that Numbersixvalverde would only realise his
potential over longer races.
Numbersixvalverde didn’t take long to reward his trainer’s faith, and in 2005 gifted Brassil one of the biggest prizes in horseracing – the Irish Grand National. This proved to be only a taster of what was to come. In 2006, after a quiet season, Numbersixvalverde was entered into the Grand National at Aintree and won the race at first attempt, earning instant fame for his Grand National trainer.
Numbersixvalverde ran at Aintree again in 2007, but the horse’s previous performances resulted in a heavy handicap and a 6th place finish. Numbersixvalverde will be running the Grand National again in 2008, where he may well establish Martin Brassil’s status as one of the all time great Grand National trainers.
Martin Brassil, 2008 Grand National trainer, could see first place again at this year’s event. For live racehorse betting we recommend William Hill, one of the world's leading bookmakers.
