'A lot of Cork fellas have won at Cheltenham, it would be amazing to join that list'

Maintaining an upward curve in the training ranks in Ireland is a herculean task, but Terence O’Brien’s Woodstock stables has been ambling through the requisite gears in recent seasons and stable star Answer To Kayf could see it scale new heights with a Cheltenham Festival triumph.

The engine was spluttering in the early 2000s. O’Brien, slightly tongue in cheek, concedes that he flirted with prudence when putting training on the long finger and focused on a handful of pointers and the farm. 

Matters snowballed and he found himself back saddling runners at the track for the first time in nearly a decade in early 2008, mere months before Ireland became submerged by economic depression. It was sink or swim.