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Conor Maxwell rode plenty of notable winners as a jockey but his early successes as a trainer have trumped the lot.

The 37-year-old, who has stepped away from jumps riding as he builds his training operation, has enjoyed a quickfire double courtesy of Play It Again Zaam, who emerged victorious in consecutive weeks at Gowran Park and Roscommon.

Maxwell will still ride on the flat this summer and has a first-ever win at Laytown on the bucket list but he is also revelling in turning training into a full-time operation at Broadleas Stables.

Play It Again Zaam enjoying a few days in the paddock after his busy week winning twice @GowanPark1 @RoscommonRaces @rayobrien127 @RobertWhearty #winner pic.twitter.com/dH6q2CFZ9C

— Conor Maxwell (@cdmax7) May 15, 2024

“I’m delighted with how things have gone so far,” he said.

“We had the licensing here but haven’t really had a whole lot to run until I stepped back from the jumping side of things.

“It all fell into place two weeks ago and I got a great kick out of getting the winner, it was a nice feeling.

“I’ve rode plenty of them but I got an ever better kick out of training them. A lot more goes into training a horse than actually riding a horse, so it was nice.

“We’ve had plenty of horses over the years but we’d never trained a winner, it was more breaking and pre-training.

“It’s only this year we’ve focused on the horse and training that way, so it was nice to get the monkey off our back as we say.”

Maxwell rode his first winner as a jockey in 2006 and banked a Dublin Racing Festival success in 2020 on the Paul Gilligan-trained Glamorgan Duke.

A first Grade 2 win on Captain Cj followed soon afterwards and Maxwell rode his final race over timber for the same trainer, Dermot McLoughlin, just two days before his maiden training triumph.

“It was a natural progression,” he said. “I’ve had a good long career and rode plenty of winners for plenty of people. 

“I’ve seen every side of the industry and have focused more on the flat the last few years. 

“The quantity of rides I was getting was getting lower and I just wasn’t as busy race riding. I’m getting a bit older and not taking the falls as well as I used to

“I felt if you’re going to train for people, you can’t be doing any other jobs. I’ve good clients so far and I wouldn’t be doing myself justice if I was spreading myself so thin all the time. 

“You have to focus on one and the training is going to be the future, we’ve got good facilities and now we’re building other ones as well, so it’s nice to get into it.

“Me and Dermot go back a long way and we’ve been good friends for years. I would’ve liked to have gone out on a winner but it wasn’t meant to be. I’ve set a date and I just stood by it.

“He’s been a great ally of mine for years and I’ve learned plenty from him.”#

Maxwell’s in-form Play It Again Zaam is set to head to Tipperary and Limerick in the coming weeks while there are several other exciting prospects set to emerge from the yard over the season – with Kool One another to be namechecked.

“He’s had a nice couple of runs, he’s going to be a nice dual purpose horse later in the year and he’s still maturing,” Maxwell added.

“He’ll be a nice horse come September and you’ll probably see him over hurdles as well.

“We’ve a few young horses there who look like they’ll be good horses later this year, they might just take a few runs to learn their trade. 

“I like the idea of training two or three-year-olds and if they do their jobs, sell them on. That’s the business plan I have in my head.

“But it’s hard to walk away from jumping, I’ve known nothing else for most of my life, so there will be quite a few jumpers as well I'm sure.”