Olly Murphy column: Sales season in full flow plus Aston Villa dilemma!

We’ve had a great start to the new season, particularly at Perth where we have just had six winners last week. It's been a lucky place for us. 

The grounds team up there do a great job of their ground and we usually take large numbers up. Some tracks suit some horses better than others. My horses seem to go well and enjoy themselves there, which is of course a positive. 

I’ve finished fifth in the Trainers’ Championship for the last two seasons now. This time around, you'd love to try and finish up a place or two further up if you can. Unfortunately for me, the four men above me are pretty powerful; the likes of Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson, Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton. It'd be nice, though, to get further to the top this season and we've got a strong team to (hopefully) do it with. 

Some trainers do try and get a good start on the season over the summer, with as many winners as they can get, but personally I don't think it really matters too much. It's nice for you to get a good start and some numbers on the board, taking the pressure off a little bit, but ultimately, from Christmas through to the end of April is where the damage is done. That’s where all the big prize money is. My aim is to be playing at that level and to keep improving every year. 

We have about 25 horses in for the summer, so we’ll be busy enough but not too much, and hopefully can keep the strike rate up over the next few months. I always set myself a target of 20 winners by September, and last year we reached 34 by that point, which was great. I’d love to build on that this year too, giving us a nice platform to spring into the winter season from. 

We have the odd dual-purpose horse, so there may be one or two runners on the Flat as well. 

The Store sales are coming up, where I’ll be buying horses and adding to the string. I tend to be quite bold when I’m there; buying horses without owners and selling them after the sale.  I believe that, to get better and improve your squad, you have to do that. I enjoy sales and am lucky enough to be in the position where we're training a lot of winners, so we can get these horses sold. As long as you're training winners, you can sell horses.

I’m looking forward to the start of the winter season where we should have a good number of horses and plenty of quality amongst them. I could be buying stores from France, Ireland and closer to home at Doncaster.

Our stable stars, the likes of Strong Leader and Thunder Rock, are all off on their holidays now, out in the field and sunshine. They'll all come back in and around the middle of July, at which point we’ll start their work and begin making plans. 

I try and get away for a small holiday myself in about August time. That tends to be a good time to get away because all the horses are back at the yard and in light work, so there’s not too much else going on and I can allow myself a little break. That can’t happen in May or June, because it’s sales season, and July sees all the horses come back to the yard. In September, it’s all systems go with the horses schooling and galloping, so it all gets a lot busier. 

Aside from racing, I’m a huge Aston Villa fan. Their Europa League semi final win was massive! They haven’t been in the final for a number of years, whether they reach one again in my lifetime is questionable. I have a ticket for the game in Istanbul and my flight is booked, the only problem is that it’s Doncaster sales at the same time…! If I can work the logistics out, though, I’ll be there. 

Would I trade a Cheltenham winner for Champions League glory? I have to say, though I love Villa to bits, a Cheltenham winner just has to be the choice for me.