Amy Murphy recorded two Group 3 placings at Deauville on Tuesday to secure ‘black type’ for two of her two-year-olds in training, Ipanema Princess and Manhattan Jungle.
No stranger to Deauville, having taken care of horses at the Summer meeting whilst a Pupil Assistant for Tom Dascombe, Murphy was delighted with the performances of both horses on Tuesday.
‘Having previously worked as a Pupil Assistant to Tom Dascombe and an Assistant Trainer Luca Cumani, as well as doing a winter spell in Australia with Gai Waterhouse, Amy joined the training ranks in Autumn 2016 having learnt from some of the very best in the world.’ Now, her Southgate Stables are well established and Murphy has built an excellent reputation for herself.
This year, the Newmarket trainer, made the call to set up a satellite stable in France. The decision has proven to be a good one.
Citing better prize money as an incentive, Murphy has set up on the outskirts of Chantilly and secured a short-term licence to train horses in the country.
Since setting up the operation in France, earlier this year, her fourteen horse yard has won three times and placed a further eight. With a strike rate in the region of 17%, Murphy’s team have generated €48,370 (Source: Racing TV) in earnings with just 18 entries.
At the Chantilly stables, Murphy always has one of her two trainers on hand. From the start, she sent two staff across to run the day-to-day. “The facilities are excellent and the stables are just five minutes from the track”.
It is clear that Murphy is enjoying running her horses in France. She is complimentary about the “beautiful country tracks” which she loves to visit and is working on getting more of her horses a French handicap rating.
Murphy is not averse to sending her GB horses across to run in France either. The logistics are outsourced and with a journey time of just five hours, she seems to relish the opportunity to compete for better prize money.
By comparison, on the flat at home, Murphy’s horses have amassed £167,711 this year (Source: Racing Post). Her three year olds have been doing particularly well and she has a 25% strike rate with them. However, 132 entries have been needed to achieve this return.
With prize-money in the spotlight recently, I wonder how long it will be before even more GB based trainers follow Amy Murphy’s direction.