Martin Brassil has long been known as one of the more inconspicuous characters of Irish racing. He has quietly gone about his business of training racehorses since taking out his licence in 1994, never having more than a dozen horses in his care until relatively recently. If anyone in Irish racing deserved a breakout winner, it was Brassil and that horse has well and truly arrived for him in the shape of double Grand National winner, Numbersixvalverde.

But the successes that Brassil is now reaping are very much the result of the long years he spent patiently building his knowledge. From 1977 to 1986 he was under the wing of the famously shrewd Mick O'Toole where he understandably learned a great deal. While under the tutelage of O’Toole, he was lucky enough to be responsible for O’Toole’s only Classic winner, the quirky Dickens Hill, who won the Irish 2000 Guineas, the Eclipse and also finished second in two Derby’s.

All the time he was riding winners both under rules and between the flags as an amateur. Brassil comments: “In total I rode around 40 winners under rules and about the same in point-to-points. My biggest win under rules was probably in 1979 on a horse called Daletta who won what is now called the Lismullen Hurdle which was an amateur rider’s race at the time”. In addition to this, Brassil once rode a young horse called Silver Buck in a point-to-point. That horse went on to become an immensely popular staying chaser with the highlight of his career perhaps being his win in the 1982 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner.

After leaving O’Toole’s, he took the position of head man to Neil McGrath at Brownstown Stud while continuing to race ride. However his career in the saddle was seriously thwarted by a very severe ankle injury he sustained in a hunter chase in April 1991. “My ankle was completely shattered and I had a number of operations before it was some bit right. It was around this time that I begun to ask a few people whether they would support me if I started training and I eventually took out my licence in 1994 with around a half dozen horses”.

Brassil did not have to wait long for his first success in the training ranks. Nordic Thorn, who had previously been trained by Jim Bolger, won a Killarney maiden hurdle on his first start for his new handler in May 1994. That horse proved to be a great servant to Brassil, winning four more races for him during his career, most notably the Grade 3 Ballybrit Novice Chase in October 1996.

However, Brassil is not only a talented trainer of National Hunt horse’s, he has also shown himself to be a more than capable flat trainer and one notable day in 1997 proved this beyond all doubt. On August 4th of that year, Brassil saddled Inchacooley in the Listed Brownstown Stakes and that filly comfortably accounted for representatives from the John Oxx, Dermot Weld, Aidan O’Brien and Jim Bolger yards. As if that win wasn’t good enough, on the very same day Brassil sent out Norwegian Blue to win the valuable Joe McGrath Handicap. This achievement is all the more remarkable considering that at the time his yard had no more than a dozen inmates.

Into the new millennium, Brassil continued in the same vein with his small string. A slightly lean spell in terms of winners was brought to an end in 2002 with the emergence of both Barrack Buster and Numbersixvalverde. The former has won no less than eight races to date having broken her duck in August 2003 but it is the latter that really propelled Brassil into the public spotlight.

Numbersixvalverde, who is owned by one of Brassil’s longest standing owners, Bernard Carroll, failed to win in his first six runs in bumpers but other stars of the National Hunt game such as Moscow Flyer and Asian Maze have shown that this is no handicap to future success. He won his one and only race over hurdles in December 2002 but Brassil was always adamant that he would improve significantly once he went over the larger obstacles. “The reason he never really showed how good he was over hurdles was that the races weren’t long enough for him. We knew he would get the chance to bring his stamina into play over fences and we had done a lot of work on his jumping at home”.

This was proved to be correct when Numbersixvalverde made his handicap chase debut a winning one when absolutely bolting up off a mark of 106 at Navan in December 2004. Shrewdly, Brassil preserved his chasing mark by running him over hurdles on his next start before having his attentions turned to a significant prize, the Thyestes Chase. This was a big ask for a novice that had only had four starts over fences, but Brassil’s faith in him was vindicated as under Niall ‘Slippers’ Madden, he emerged the short head victor in an immensely exciting finish with Kymandjen. That win was followed by a highly credible third in a Grade 3 novice chase in Navan behind Point Barrow and his sights were then firmly set on the Irish Grand National six weeks later.

The marathon 3m 5f trip in the Irish Grand National was expected to see Brassil’s stable star show some improvement, and so it proved as he ran out the gutsy 3/4l winner from Jack High under an inspired ride from Ruby Walsh. This was the biggest win of Brassil’s career and predictably, it resulted in an influx of new horses into the yard in the months following it. As improbable as it may have seemed at the time, even greater success would come the way of Numbersixvalverde the following season.

Perhaps the most high profile of the new horses that entered Brassil’s yard following his Irish Grand National win was the ex-French trained Nickname. He had already shown a high level of form over hurdles in France, winning nine races including two Grade 1’s. However he had picked up an injury during his final French race and as Brassil explains, he had to be patient with him to get him back to his best: “He had problems with his hind legs and it took a lot of work to get him right. We had him for about six months before he was ready to run”. However the wait had been worth it as he made an immensely impressive chasing debut on his first start for 18 months in Leopardstown. He followed up that effort with an electric win in a Grade 2 novice chase in Leopardstown. At that point he looked to be one of the most promising novice chasers in Ireland but he disappointed badly in the Irish Arkle when breaking a blood vessel. His two runs later that season were slightly before par but he looked better than ever when reappearing in the Fortria Chase in Navan earlier this month. His next start is likely to be in the John Durkan Chase and following that race, Brassil will review the possibility of stepping him up to three miles.

While Nickname was impressing many with his exploits over fences, Numbersixvalverde was slowly building up to his ultimate target for the season, the Aintree Grand National. A highly satisfactory third in a handicap hurdle in Naas in March completed his preparation for the ultimate test of jumping in Aintree and having been allotted 10-8, many people began to realise that he very much had a serious chance.

On the big day itself, any fears that Numbersixvalverde would fail to handle the unique Aintree Grand National obstacles were soon allayed as he completed the first circuit having made no mistakes of note. ‘Slippers’ Madden began to make steady ground on the second circuit and he was tracking the leaders when jumping Bechers for the second time. At the third last there were only four runners genuinely involved and it was evident that Numbersixvalverde was going as well as any of them. Having jumped the last fluently, he stayed on strongly to account for the gallant Hedgehunter and Clan Royal on the run-in, prompting rapturous scenes of celebration amongst his supporters.

The festivities followed the Brassil team all the way from Aintree to Holyhead and on to Dublin and Kildare with a sizeable collection of friends, family and racing people greeting Brassil and his stable star on the long driveway up to Beech Park.

The famous victory in Aintree heralded a new era of fame for Brassil and he hasn’t looked back since. New Year's Eve will mark his 30th year in Kildare and with 25 promising sorts in his care, very few would spite him the further successes that is sure to enjoy in the years to come.