'I'm an emotional person but I couldn't cry, couldn't shout - it was just about the worst feeling in the world'
Trainer Philip Rothwell tells Colm Greaves about his recovery after hitting rock-bottom
The reply comes instantly and emphatically when Philip Rothwell’s close-knit team, sharing a warming winter tea break with an industrial-sized delivery of chocolate biscuits, are rudely interrupted and asked to describe their leader using a single word: “Eccentric!”
Nobody is minded to argue with their colleague’s choice concerning Rothwell, who trains 60 jumpers at Fairwood Stables, close to the picturesque village of Tinahely in south County Wicklow under the watchful gaze of a nearby landmark, Lugduff mountain. Lying fifth in the trainers' championship, with 34 winners and more than €400,000 in prize-money banked, he is having the best numerical season of his career.
Wicklow is a strikingly beautiful place on normal days but, when it lies under a dusting of snow and its rolling fields are whitened by frost, it is magical to the eye. From the top of his six-furlong gallop, Rothwell takes in its charm as he explains how his family came to be in this little slice of heaven.
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Published on inInterviews
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Copy- 'It's tough financially and last year I said I might get a job driving a lorry instead - although to be fair I'd probably crash!'
- 'I'm not here to tell people how to train but if you hide something from me, I'm gone, I'm done - and you won't see me again'
- 'I had to fly back from Saudi on the day for the awards before flying back the following day but it really was a great evening'
- 'The lads often give out to me for saying what I say - but if I didn't say what I thought I wouldn't be being true to myself'
- 'All anyone wants is a pat on the back and these awards show you mean something to the yard and the people there. It's brilliant'
- 'It's tough financially and last year I said I might get a job driving a lorry instead - although to be fair I'd probably crash!'
- 'I'm not here to tell people how to train but if you hide something from me, I'm gone, I'm done - and you won't see me again'
- 'I had to fly back from Saudi on the day for the awards before flying back the following day but it really was a great evening'
- 'The lads often give out to me for saying what I say - but if I didn't say what I thought I wouldn't be being true to myself'
- 'All anyone wants is a pat on the back and these awards show you mean something to the yard and the people there. It's brilliant'