Intense approach has worked perfectly so far for Tom Gibney

Few outside of the racing bubble have heard of Tom Gibney, the man responsible for Randox Grand National favourite Intense Raffles.

He is, of course, much better known in Ireland, partly due to the fact he has already trained two Irish Grand National winners in his relatively short career to date.

But racegoers fond of their statistics will be aware that as of yet, Gibney – who ended his riding career in 2005 and took out his training licence a year later – has not had a winner in the UK.

He has not had that many runners in fairness – just 23 – and anyone who might be having second thoughts just needs to watch the replays of Lion Na Bearnai winning at Fairyhouse in 2012 or Intense Raffles last year.

Owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede do not suffer fools, the migration of most of their horses to Ireland, and significantly Willie Mullins, tells you that. They sent the grey son of Martaline to Gibney, their first horse with him, and were immediately rewarded.

Now they are searching for the biggest prize of them all and their softly-spoken trainer – who rode Marching Marquis to be second in the Kim Muir at the Cheltenham Festival in 2000 – could not be happier with how the season has gone so far, without Intense Raffles winning.

Maybe he will prove well-named for the task, too, as the first ever National in 1839 was won by a horse called Lottery.

“It’s so far, so good with him. We think he’s got a good chance given his last run anyway,” said Gibney, who trains just outside the town of Trim in County Meath.

“Last year everything went perfectly and he ended up winning us the Irish National.

“I was mad to go to Punchestown after the Irish National and, in fairness, Anthony (Bromley, racing manager) and Simon and Isaac were the ones that were very keen on the English National and they made the plan between the Irish National and Punchestown that they’d try to conserve his mark for Aintree the following year.”

He went on: “We had to think about it a bit after that, as you don’t want to end up too high in the weights for Aintree, so he had a couple of runs over hurdles, which we were happy with.

“After that we could go to the Bobbyjo and he ran a cracker, he was only beaten just three-quarters of a length by Nick Rockett and we’re better off at the weights at Aintree.”

Despite not having many runners in Britain, Gibney, 51, has been represented in the National twice before, by Lion Na Bearnai, who pulled up in 2014 and by Velvet Elvis two years ago. The latter was quietly fancied, but in the end it was a day Gibney would rather forget.

“To be honest, I’m still mystified to this day about what happened,” he said.

“We really fancied him, thought he had a great chance, we really did, yet he was the first horse beaten.

“Whether it was all the carry on beforehand, the one-hour build-up, I don’t know, but for him, he got a bit worked up. We think that might have been it, but we don’t really know.”

While his best results have come with long-distance chasers, Gibney does not see himself as a one-trick trainer.

He said: “I don’t know why we seem to excel with the staying chasers. It is probably the type of horse we get sent.

“When we’ve bumper horses, we can win with them, and on the Flat, but we’ve been lucky enough to get sent some staying chasers and we’ve done the business.

“This lad is only seven, but he had plenty of experience in France before he even joined us and he beat Iroko at Auteuil a few years ago, so it’s pretty amazing that the pair of them are battling it out for favouritism, it’s funny how things sometimes work out.

“He (Iroko) looks a serious contender, but many of them are.”

Many will be saying in the build-up how different a race the National is these days. But Gibney believes Intense Raffles would have been suited to an old-style Red Rum-type National, as well as today’s version.

“The National has changed now, a smaller field, the fences are smaller too, but I wouldn’t have had any qualms taking this lad the way it used to be, he’s a safe jumper,” said Gibney.

“All his form is on soft, but everyone tells me they won’t let it get quicker than good to soft anyway.

“I’ve not had that many runners in the UK, but I’ve yet to have a winner, so he’d be the first, which would be something special if he can manage it.”

Two trainers who certainly have had winners in the UK, though, are fellow County Meath natives Gavin Cromwell, who has just trained his first Gold Cup winner, and Gordon Elliott, a three-time National winner and whose first win, with Silver Birch in 2007, came before he had sent out a winner in Ireland.

“It’s great if you can compete against these fellas, you have to raise your game and bring the best of what you have to be able to compete with them,” said Gibney.

“I wouldn’t want to train 200 horses, no way. If I could fill the yard with quality horses, that would be fantastic. We want to go to big race meetings and win good races, for sure.

“There’s lots of fellas in our position. You could have 45 horses six months ago and drop down to 20, it really does fluctuate a bit like that. Between 30 and 40 would be the norm.”