Mary Tyner lands a steaming fruitcake on the kitchen table of her home in Shippool, County Cork.

As she coerces the still-brittle culinary masterpiece out of its formative tray, she catches a glimpse of the rueful smile that flashes across the face of the jockey at the other end of the table.

"Fancy a bit of hot cake, Philip," Mary asks, knowing well that Philip Enright, first-choice rider at her and her husband Robert's yard, will probably have to decline. It's Tuesday morning and the arctic conditions have already drawn the colour from Enright's hands during the early lots on the gallop, but his afternoon engagements at Mallow have priority over any indulgence as grand as a slice of freshly baked cake.

As Enright struggles to contain his disbelief at the lack of consideration for his plight, Mary seizes the opportunity. "Will you not have some," she quips with mock sincerity, "sure what weight are you doing at Cork?"

"Ah, 9st 12lb," Enright replies, his broad smile receding as the reality of the situation hits home. No cake today.

Across the table, Robert hardly lifts his head from the morning's paper, making little effort to conceal a characteristically mischievous grin at his jockey's expense. He'll have a piece of hot cake all right, and he'll savour every crumb of it.

The blithe exchange offers an insight into the relationship that exists between the likeminded and likeable protagonists. All three are distinctly hard-working, high-achieving and low-profile, so the bit of banter at the kitchen table serves to highlight how each one complements the other.

As well as being a devoted mother to six children, Mary is a fundamentally vital component in the day-to-day running of a training establishment that mixes point-pointers with track horses, and she is rarely to be found far from her busy husband's side.

For all Enright's easy smile and the boss's roguish inclinations, both men possess a remarkable track record at getting the job done. The detail in the spread that is so engrossing Robert consists of the weights for the Leopardstown Hurdle on January 10.

Two years ago, when the race traded as the Pierse Hurdle, Tyner and Enright combined to get the job done with Spring The Que. The same horse is again the cause of Tyner's interest in the configuration of the next month's race, the now 11-year-old having won cosily at Mallow two days previous.

"He's got a nice weight at the moment (10st) and if it stays like that I'll let him run," he says of Spring The Que, "but if the weights went up I'm not sure what I'd do. It's not that I'd mind him carrying a bit more weight, it's just that it would let more horses into the handicap below him."

Considerations like this are all part of a meticulous process that has led to Tyner's reputation as a feared plunderer of some of the biggest handicaps of the jumping season. In particular, his precision in the principal Irish handicap of the Christmas period, Leopardstown's Paddy Power Chase, tends to thrust him into the limelight.

In 2000 and 2001, the peak-capped Tyner won it with Call Me Dara - when saddling his first runner in the race - and I Can Imagine, respectively. Four years after that, Camden Tanner found only Black Apalachi too good, while Sound Witness should have been his third winner in the race two years ago. With Shay Barry carrying 3lbs overweight, Sound Witness was robbed on the line and beaten a head. The turkey certainly came home to roost that day.

"We had a bit of luck in the Paddy Power the first year," Tyner admits when asked about his association with the race. "After that, I suppose, we had a bit of a soft spot for it; when we had a suitable horse, it was the race we'd aim for before anything else."

Incredibly, Tyner has unearthed another live prospect for the 2009 renewal, which is worth €106,000 to the winner, next Sunday. Ask The Master ran a promising second at Naas last month, and is a joint-third favourite at 16/1.

Tyner outlines the case for his latest contender: "It was only when we began thinking about the race that things started to fall into place for him. I originally thought that he might have to go up another bit to get into it, but he gets in nicely down at the bottom.

"The ground was very heavy the day he was second at Naas, but he went fine -- just got a bit tired -- so hopefully we'll get some better ground at Leopardstown. The one unknown with him is whether or not he'll stay three miles, but I think he'll be okay as long as the ground is decent."

On Tuesday morning, Ask The Master is on the easy list after doing one of his last serious pieces of work 24 hours before. Nonetheless, it's another hectic day.

Warmed by his wife's domestic offering, Robert supervises five lots of four schooling over an assortment of tyres, barrels, and Easyfix hurdles from the top of an impressive all-weather schooling strip. Mary takes up a position at the halfway point. Philip, glad to be out of the kitchen, steers one of each of the groupings, usually the one in most need of educating.

By and large, the 'schoolers' comprise young horses learning their trade, and the session is not without incident. Directed and advised, as necessary, by Robert and Mary, Philip's patience and skill ensure that each expedition ends happily, even if a couple of guide rails are unhinged along the way.

It is a routine procedure, but the thoroughness of it all is significant, and such diligence is one of the main reasons why Tyner is so revered, both on the track and between the flags. Since he first began riding on the Cork and Waterford circuit as a 16-year-old -- primarily for Mary's father, the now deceased Bandon native Gerald O'Donovan -- Robert has been an ever-present go-getter in the pointing discipline.

Last season he accumulated a whopping 47 winners, 21 more than won the inaugural title the previous year and 20 more than the runner-up, Gordon Elliot. It was an achievement honoured with a nomination at the HRI Awards last week, only for the handler to be stumped by Derek O'Connor, who broke every riding record going in a glorious season of his own.

It is an irony not lost on Tyner, who supplied 35 of O'Connor's final tally of 113, that, in furnishing the Galway jockey with more winners than any one else, he helped to ensure that the gong would not be coming his way. Better, though, to have O'Connor riding for you than against you.

Favourable

Following Call Me Dara's breakthrough win on the track at Leopardstown nine years ago, Tyner has, a bit like the Rebel Flying Columns of the vicinity nearly 90 years ago, earned a reputation for picking his battles. When conditions are favourable, he strikes with rare accuracy, disrupting the best-laid plans of big-name operators who can draw from a bigger and more lavish armoury.

While his public profile has grown, however, the point-to-points remain an integral part of business. Last season's groundbreaking exploits in that sphere brought into focus exactly what Tyner is capable of.

The now deceased Sound Witness was the standard-bearer with five wins and is a fair example of how he recycles horses. Tyner gets the best out of what he has at his disposal, evidenced by last term's colossal 32 individual winners from 66 runners.

"I like to bring the horses on gradually," he explains, "and, when you're down here in west Cork, the pointing is the best thing for them. If the horse is suitable and if the owner doesn't want to sell, we would go on to the track with them then.

"What we did last year though will be very difficult for us to repeat, as we kept horses going to get the numbers up when we knew we were going to win it, and we had a few like Sound Witness who were coming back from the track. It was just that a lot of suitable horses came together at the one time. It was great to do it though, and it meant a lot to win the title after being involved in the game for so long."

Having famously got lost en route to Leopardstown with Call Me Dara in 2000 -- "we were heading for the Wicklow Hills for a bit" -- it would surely mean as much to Tyner if he could close the decade with a third Paddy Power Handicap Chase triumph on Sunday. And there had better be no overweight this time. With Ask The Master set to carry 9st 13lb, that means Philip will have to pass on the Christmas cake too.

Irish Independent