HORSE RACING: Roche out to make impact

After arriving at the state-of-the-art yard back in November, the 35-year-old handler has now settled in with his 42-strong string, having signed a five-year lease.

Walking over to one of the two American-style barns, he admits he was taken aback initially by the sheer size of the lavish set-up, which is set in 2,000 acres of Oxfordshire downland owned by Swedish businessman Erik Penser, who lives at Compton Beauchamp, near Wantage.

But then having spent the last three years based in the wide-open spaces of the Curragh – Ireland’s largest training centre – he is quickly adapting to it.

“It was a surprise at first,” he says. “But after being at the Curragh which had everything, including tunnels, it’s nothing new really.

“It is a fabulous place to train horses. Everything you could want is here.”

Roche, who has succeeded Gerard Butler at Churn Stables, is recovering after a bout of the flu – something his wife Sally, who is 20 years his senior, has now caught – but it doesn’t stop her joining us in the barn.

Quietly spoken, Liam introduces his charges one by one as they look out from their airy metal-framed stables.

Dance Gdansk is the first in line – a three-year-old Fasyliev colt – who Liam says should pay his way.

There also seems plenty of untapped potential in the likes of Reward Of Faith, Wacoto King, Duc d’Anjou, Cheval Du Roi, Mr Smiley and Catcher Of Dreams – and Liam clearly has no bigger fan than Sally, who has an interest in 26 of the horses.

“I know he can do it,” she says in her distinct Cornish tones. “It is a great place to train. We could have stayed in Ireland, but our stables were going to be developed on for building.”

And then there is the stable star, Billyford.

A four-time winner – including a €50,000 contest at Dundalk in 2007 – he was found to have a small abscess in his windpipe after disappointing in the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot last year.

“He had a lay-off for four months and now he is absolutely spectacular,” says Sally, who is writing a book about her life.

Back in the office, Liam, who is seeking approval for his licence from the British Horseracing Authority this Saturday, switches on his computer and replays Billyford’s success at Dundalk’s all-weather track last March on the At The Races website.

Held up at the back of the five runners in a one-mile contest, he cruises through under Fran Berry for a very cosy success.

As the commentator calls him home, cries of delight ring out in the background.

“That’s me shouting,” says Sally. She is most probably right.

Having trained around 20 winners in a three-year spell in Ireland where there aren’t so many meetings, Liam believes the greater opportunities English racing provides should enable him to enjoy more success.

“I think the racing over here will suit us better,” he says. “There is more racing and there is scope for placing horses.

“In Ireland you tend to race horses where you can. I think in that respect it should work out OK. We always had it in mind to come over some time.”

With the grass gallops frozen and a new five-furlong uphill Polytrack gallop nearing completion,Billyford and two of his stablemates have been taken for exercise in the big indoor school.

Pat Kennedy leads on Celtic Warrior, who gave Roche his first winner when taking a Leopardstown nursery in November 2005.

“That was a big thing – something you always remember,” says Liam. “I didn’t have too many horses at the time and I thought he would make a nice three-year-old, but he got ill and was not quite right.”

Reward Of Faith is ridden by Derek Byrne, who had his moment of glory as a jockey when partnering Four Trix to victory in the 1990 Scottish Grand National at Ayr.

Billyford, in the hands of Barry Tallant, brings up the rear.

The four-year-old has the notoriety of having run in gold-plated shoes, something Liam, a master farrier, came up with after his charge achieved a lofty rating of 100.

As Liam issues instructions to his work riders, Sally says: “Michael Johnson is his ideal athlete and he had golden spikes, and Liam came in one day and Billyford had done something wonderful.

“He said he can go over seven furlongs or eight or whatever you like and he was tinkering for days, and banging and hooting and he came in with this set of golden shoes.

“Billyford broke the track record at Dundalk with golden shoes and then wore them at Royal Ascot.”

Exciting plans are already in the pipeline for his stable star.

“As soon as a I get my licence he may run at Kempton in a Listed Race over a mile and we’ll see how he gets on,” says Liam.

“I am not sure whether he will get a mile and a quarter, but if he does he could be a horse for the Winter Derby. If not he might just go to Dubai in March for a couple of weeks.”

Billyford is not Roche’s only flagbearer though.

Next in line for the golden shoes may be Badger Or Bust, who won a valuable seven-furlong handicap at the Curragh last year.

“He could be a horse that would get in a Lincoln and if the ground turned up soft at Doncaster, he could be a nice sort for it,” says Liam, whose uncle is Christy Roche, a seven-times champion jockey in Ireland, who famously snatched victory on Secreto from under the nose of El Gran Senor in the 1984 Epsom Derby.

But Liam was never going to follow in his footsteps.

“I rode as an amateur, but to be honest I was absolutely useless. I was a tactical genius, but I kept falling off!” he jokes.

He started off working for top English trainers Guy Harwood and David Elsworth.

He was with Elsworth at the same time as the legendary Desert Orchid – although he admits his memories of those days are somewhat sketchy.

“I was young at the time and probably didn’t take in as much as I should have,” he says.

He then spent seven years with Edward O’Grady at Ballynonty in County Tipperary when the Irish maestro’s stars included Sound Man and Nick Dundee.

It was while he was with O’Grady, he decided he should get a qualification for a profession, and under the instruction of Martin Leahy he became a master farrier working at places such as the Irish National Stud.

“I thought I would get some sort of trade,” he says. “In a way it helps that I understand the mechanics of horses – how they function and their movement.

“I can look at a horse’s leg and not just see hair. I can look beyond that and see how it functions.”

He then started training about half a dozen horses part-time, before taking out a licence.

“We started as a bit of a hobby, and we started well and things grew from there,” he adds.

At the same time, he isn’t setting any targets for this season.

“I don’t want to train horses who have no chance of winning races,” he says.

“I want them to be competitive and for them to stay healthy and we will see how we go from there. I am fairly confident they should be OK.”