YOU will have found it hard to escape the name of Ben Haslam over the last year.

TV cameras have followed the Middleham trainer around pretty much ever since he took over the reins from his father Pat at Castle Hill stables.

At 25, he was the youngest handler in the country. It was a tag which brought out the Sky Sports crews, repeatedly, and ensured a healthy dose of newspaper coverage throughout his first campaign.

Haslam backed up the hype.

Ten winners came over the Flat in 2010 along with five on the National Hunt circuit. Seven, over both codes, have flowed from his picturesque base beside Middleham Castle this season and the young man looks set fair to follow the success of his father.

But you’ll not hear him talking about his age. It’s time to leave that behind.

“Exactly”, he said when asked that question.

“Every year is a new year. We just want to keep improving the stock. Obviously, that goes without saying. We need to move on. We want plenty of winners – 15 or 20 a year but now it’s time to start looking for better winners.”

It has not been an easy time to start to earn your spurs.

With the economy still struggling, owners are yet to start throwing their money around again on things as “frivolous” as racehorses, while the problems with prize money are well documented.

“You have to look past that,” Haslam added about prize pools.

“Winners are the most important thing. Our first year has been very interesting. We’ve been relatively successful – we had 15 winners and plenty of seconds and thirds as well. We went to some nice race meetings and the horses acquitted themselves well.

“It has been challenging as well, especially with the way the economy is at the moment. Everyone has had to tighten their belts so it has been harder to get people into racing and buying horses.

“The onus is on syndicates and making it as cheap as possible but, obviously, that doesn’t always go hand in hand with big successes. You get the odd one but sometimes you need to buy quality stock to get quality results.

“We’ve been slightly limited in that way but we are doing our best.”

He continued: “You have to come up with an angle or a reason why. People aren’t throwing money at racehorses and you have to make it as attractive as possible and it is not easy.

“You can make it as cheap as you like for an owner but if you are not having winners, or you don’t look successful, they can go somewhere else very quickly.

“It’s a fine balance between pricing it right and being attractive enough.”

His yard was attractive enough to tempt JP McManus, the multi-millionaire Irishman whose green and gold hooped silks are renowned throughout racing, to place a couple of horses with Haslam and he knows just how important high-profile owners can be to a fledgling career as a trainer.

“We had a winner for him last year and we have been banging on the door with another,” Haslam said. “He’s a very generous man to have on board and he’s very supportive.

“People like JP or Middleham Park Racing, we have a couple of two-year-old fillies for him, they are a big force in racing now as well. To train for them is obviously fantastic.

“We have got a very good client base of other people and they are equally as important.”

With Executive’s Hall and Valantino Oyster having bolted in, by 12 lengths and five lengths respectively, in the last week, everything seems to be going to plan for Haslam. Long may it continue.