Malton trainer Richard Fahey goes mob-handed as Flat racing on turf returns tomorrow with the William Hill Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster. Turf Talk catches up with the leading handler.

AS the next lot fans out towards the bottom of the Musley Bank gallop, Richard Fahey lets out a sigh of relief.

“I was very bored with the all-weather,” says the Malton trainer as he looks forward to new targets, new ambitions and a programme full of big races.

“The money isn’t great and there’s no atmosphere there. They are very uncompetitive races.

“We have probably had more than 100 runners and four of my owners have come to watch them.

“It’s saturation. I know it’s there to do a job for betting but they have got to try and bump it up a bit and put some excitement into it.

“There are trainers who love it, like Kevin Ryan, but it’s not for me. I can’t get excited about it. I am more excited about Doncaster. I call it proper racing.”

Proper racing is back tomorrow, and Fahey is delighted.

The William Hill Lincoln Handicap, Doncaster’s £125,000 Flat season curtain-raiser, blasts from the stalls and Fahey is saddling five runners in a bid to claim the prize.

Extraterrestrial, Albaqaa, Harrison George, Mister Hardy and Prime Exhibit go in the mile-long contest.

“I think Extraterrestrial is probably badly handicapped, but I am going to put apprentice Lee Topliss on him,” Fahey says. “The owner wasn’t so keen, but I talked him into it.

“Harrison George has to get the trip. He could have a few pounds in hand if he gets the trip and, with Albaqaa, I was pleased with his run the other day. I just hope he doesn’t bounce.”

Fahey didn’t think Mister Hardy, who finished sixth in his first start, and Prime Exhibit would make the cut, but both also line up in the 22-runner field.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if one of Fahey’s fab five ends up in the winner’s enclosure.

It’s a place where he has been spending a lot of time in the past 12 months.

There were 165 victories last season, and more than £1 million in prize money for the second consecutive campaign, a tally only bettered by the powerful Mark Johnston and Richard Hannon yards.

They are important wins.

The diggers are busy at Musley Bank. Next week, the first phase in a massive redevelopment of Fahey’s yard starts to bear fruit. The doors will open on an indoor ride and barn, with space for more than 50 horses.

It’s a five-phase scheme and winners pay the bills.

“I’ve just got to keep training winners and keep the ball rolling,” Fahey confirms.

“We have spent a lot of money and we plan to carry on doing that. I think you have got to go forward.

“If you stand still you go backwards and we have to keep going forward. This is all (funded by) Mr and Mrs Fahey.”

They have invested in horses as well.

Fahey’s looking forward to the likes of Anglezarke, third in last year’s King’s Stand Stakes, York winner Valery Borzov, Demolition and a host of talented two-year-olds.

Going one better has always been the Fahey way.

He is optimistic: “I would just like to think we would improve again. Whether that is the amount of winners or prize money, but I like to think we would go again.

“I would be more excited about this year than I was last year.

“It sounds silly, but we have got some nicer horses this year. They are nicer horses that have to run in better races, but we would definitely have runners in all the big handicaps.

“Hopefully, one of the two-year-olds can fly in. We have spent a little bit more money and they are better quality horses – better pedigree and better quality.

“There’s a better size about them as well and we are looking forward to the two-year-olds. I just hope that one of them will end up a Group winner. That’s what we need. We desperately need that.

“I am not saying we have gone as far as we can go but we do need the Group horses. They are actually the easiest horses to train. People say ‘what’s a good training performance?’ It is probably when you win a 0-60 handicap with a little crippled thing that doesn’t want to go to the gallops.

“That’s more of an achievement than probably what Firebet did last year.”

Firebet represents reality for Fahey. The four-year-old last season won at Nottingham, Ayr, Newmarket and Epsom and finished second in the Group 3 Gordon Stakes at Goodwood, before Godolphin made Fahey an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“The reality is that when we go to the sales we are looking for a bit of a freak now,” he explains. “My best horse last year, Firebet, we had to sell him. We got offered so much money. I would love to be training him, but money talks.

“A lot of the better two-year-olds we get are sold. We have sold four or five of them in the last two or three seasons.

“I am afraid that’s the reality of my job.”

Layla’s Dancer, Lord Aeyrn and Ejteyaaz, along with Rose Bottom, are other prospects in a massive string which takes some handling. So it’s lucky Fahey doesn’t have to do it all on his own.

Besides assistant trainer Robin O’Ryan, “everyone knows their job” in the yard.

“We delegate,” Fahey says. “Robin is the main man other than me and we have five different head lads and four assistant head lads. I couldn’t do this on my own. It’s impossible. It’s all about delegating.

“Everything is written in a book. I am not saying I am like Mark Johnston, but we are on similar lines. I know everything. It’s all in front of me. If you are running a big stable you have to be like that.

“I think Mark is a little bit more advanced than me. He’s got it on computer and I have got it on a piece of paper.”

It’s been a long winter, Fahey admits, but there’s no time to rest on your laurels. He trained his 1,000th winner when Just Mandy went in, ironically on the all-weather, last week – the next ambition is to get to 2,000 as quickly as possible.

The Lincoln handicap may be just the next step on the way.