Think Johnny Murtagh, think top-class jockey. Think Sinndar and High Chaparral and Rip Van Winkle and Yeats. The only problem is in knowing where to start and knowing where

to stop.

You could start with Manntari, National Stakes at the Curragh, 18 September 1993, when the then 23-year-old rode his first Group 1 winner for his boss John Oxx and His Highness the Aga Khan. You could continue with the Oxx years, Ridgewood Pearl and Timarida and Ebadiyla and Winona, and you could finish those early Oxx years with Sinndar, Epsom Derby winner, Irish Derby winner, Arc de Triomphe winner.

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You could continue with the Michael Stoute years, with Petrushka and Greek Dance and Kalanisi and Daliapour, before you moved on to the super-sub years via Rock Of Gibraltar and Black Minnaloushe and High Chaparral.

If you want to stop right there you could, and you would have a hugely successful riding career on your hands. Alternatively, you could keep going, through the heady Aidan O’Brien years, through the seemingly inexhaustible list of top-class races that Murtagh won on top-class horses: St Nicholas Abbey, Fame And Glory, Dylan Thomas, Duke Of Marmalade, Yeats, Mastercraftsman, Henrythenavigator, Starspangledbanner.

If you thought that Murtagh’s riding career would take a terminal downward turn when his association with Ballydoyle ended, you would have been wrong.

On the contrary, the Group 1 winners have continued to flow. In the last three years, quite remarkably, Murtagh has ridden Group 1 winners for 10 different trainers.

First winner

And if you thought that Murtagh was just a top-class rider, well you would have been wrong about that too. Benbecula’s win at Tramore on 1 June this year might have been just another win for a 75-rated horse in just another ordinary race, but the event was fairly extraordinary for the fact that it represented a first victory for Johnny Murtagh, racehorse trainer.

“I always thought that I would continue to work with horses after I stopped riding,” says the Meathman.

“I built the yard here in 2005. I thought initially that I might go into breeding, but in the last few years I was thinking that I might train.”

His decision was made easier when Andrew Tinkler, top racehorse owner and Stobart Group supremo, sent Murtagh five horses to train in late 2011.

“I thought that there would be opportunities for the horses in Ireland,” recalls Murtagh. “I just thought that it would be an interesting project for me maybe for Dundalk during the winter, but then we started to have a bit of success, and things developed quickly.”

Murtagh didn’t have a trainer’s licence at the time, so Tommy Carmody held the licence, and Murtagh acted as his assistant. Success flowed. Hartside and Seventh Sign both racked up quick-fire hat-tricks, while Ursa Major won four, including the Group 3 Gain Horse Feeds Irish St Leger Trial Stakes at the Curragh in August. Then, on 15 September 2012, Royal Diamond won the Gain Irish St Leger.

“That was a great day. We proved that day that we could compete at the highest level. But we have a great team of people here. I always liked being a part of a team. Even when I was stable jockey at John Oxx’s or at Aidan O’Brien’s, I loved being part of a successful team.

TEAM MANAGER

“It is very different as a trainer, though. I was always good with horses and I always thought, even as a rider, that I was able to pick out the right races for horses. But there are loads of things that I wasn’t prepared for. As a jockey, it’s like you’re a player on the team. As the trainer, though, you’re the manager. The buck stops with you.”

The buck starts for Murtagh at six o’clock every day with morning feeds. Then it’s onto the Curragh with his string, three or four or five lots, before lunch. On a race day, it’s off to the races, then home in the evening, evening feeds, check the horses, do up the roster for the following day, bed by 10.15pm. And that’s when he isn’t riding in Britain.

If you thought that Johnny Murtagh had morphed from rider to trainer, you would be wrong again. In truth, he’s still in the chrysalis stage – half-rider, half-trainer, but fully committed to both.

Strange to say, at 43 he is still riding as well as ever, possibly even better than he has ridden all his life. He went to Royal Ascot this year with just four booked rides, managed to bag another seven rides during the week, won on four of them (a remarkable strike rate of 36% at Royal Ascot), was beaten a neck in the Gold Cup on Simenon, and was crowned top rider for the week.

He is the go-to rider – in huge demand on the big stage. After Royal Ascot, Roger Varian booked him to ride Ambivalent in the Pretty Polly Stakes, Alain de Royer-Dupre got him to ride Chicquita for him in the Irish Oaks, and Andreas Wohler asked him to ride Novellist in the King George at Ascot. Murtagh rode all three, all high-class horses in Group 1 races, and won on all three.

“I have always loved winning. I still get a huge kick out of it. I love riding in big races. It makes for a busy life, combining the two, but I love it. And it’s great that Orla and the kids are involved.”

Ask Orla Murtagh what is the difference between being married to a rider and being married to a trainer, and she will tell you you can be more organised being married to a jockey.

“There is something different every day now,” she laughs. “It’s unpredictable. You’re working with animals, it’s more farming, hands-on.

“And there is so much to learn on the administration side. Like for forfeits in Ireland, to leave your horse entered in the race, you don’t do anything, you just don’t take it out. In Britain, though, you have to put the horse into the race. Little things like that, but they are big things if you get them wrong.

“But people have been so helpful. Wetherbys and the Turf Club have been very patient with me, and Jim and Jackie Bolger have been a great help.”

It’s a family thing. Orla runs the office, manages the administration side, feeds the horses, does whatever needs to be done. Caroline (17) rides out, mucks out. Charlie (16) works around the yard, takes an interest in the books, the breeding side of it. Lauren (12) goes out on the gallops, Grace (eight) looks after the fillies, Tom (eight, twin cam) looks after Benbecula.

“The yard is just outside the back door,” says Johnny, “so they can come out whenever they want. And they love it. That’s very important.”

“I think the kids understand a lot more now what Daddy did for the last 20 years,” says Orla.

“They can see at first hand what’s involved, and they appreciate it.”

If you think that Johnny Murtagh is in this for the long haul, destined for the very top as a racehorse trainer, well then you would probably be onto something.