Racing/AIG Europe Champion Hurdle: Brian O'Connor talks to jockey Barry Cash about his partnership with Brave Inca

Brave Inca's trainer Colm Murphy is some kind of sport, and no one knows that better than the horse's jockey Barry Cash. After all not everyone would employ someone who'd once done them out of a job.

"When Barry first arrived at Aidan O'Brien's, I was the number one stable amateur," Murphy remembers. "But then Barry came and took over. I guess you could say he took my job!"

The way Cash tells it, he was doing Murphy a favour all those years ago when the current master of Ballydoyle was starting to demolish most of the National Hunt records in the book.

"Colm was a lot more valuable to Aidan in the office rather than going around the likes of Tramore and Clonmel. I remember him being on the phone to owners even more than Aidan," he says.

Race-riding, however, was always going to be Cash's mistress. Not that it has always been a kind one. In the last decade there have been about 200 winners.

It's a total that allows Cash a comfortable living doing what he loves but at 30 years of age, he doesn't balk at the phrase journeyman professional.

"That's what I am. At Christmas you'll find me at the country tracks rather than the likes of Leopardstown. It's been like that for some years and it's fine," he says.

Before Brave Inca won last year's Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham, Cash's only previous festival experience had been finishing last in the Kim Muir as an amateur.

There are so many other talented riders dismissed with the "journeymen" tag who have never come within shouting distance of a break for Cash to ever feel resentful. Because he is after getting a major one with Brave Inca. Crucially, however, it is a break he has grabbed with both hands.

That Supreme success came after one of the best finishes seen at Cheltenham in recent years. Just over an hour later Conor O'Dwyer got ample compensation for losing out to his friend by winning the Champion Hurdle. But it didn't mean more.

Now Brave Inca is on the Champion trail himself. A good performance in tomorrow's AIG and the road to Cheltenham will seem smooth. Cash, however, is taking nothing for granted.

"Winning a Champion Hurdle is a jockey's dream but it's not going to change things. That's run on a Tuesday and on the Wednesday I'll probably find myself going to the start for a Beginners Chase," he says.

Such thoughts don't concern some of Cash's more high-profile colleagues and Brave Inca's climb through the novice ranks last season had many of them on the phone to Murphy. But there was never a question of replacing his friend.

"Barry is a true horseman. When he gets down off one he will have something to tell you. Brave Inca's jumping wasn't as fluent as you'd like at first but Barry brought him along the right way, without hustling him. And then he proved if the horse is good enough, so is he," Murphy declares.

Six years ago, that horsemanship persuaded the James Bowe team to use Cash when the remarkable Limestone Lad began a short chasing career. It wasn't the jockey's fault that the notoriously headstrong Limestone Lad decided early he could do without the big obstacles.

Since then there have been some significant handicap victories for Arthur Moore, including the Leopardstown Chase on Marcus Du Berlais two weeks ago. But Brave Inca gives another tantalising glimpse of the big time.

"Colm is training him for the one race at Cheltenham. It's the way Aidan did it with Istabraq, not having him 100 per cent until the one day. There's no point winning three or four races on the way and then being empty when you get there," says Cash, who has developed a healthy respect for his partner's ability to take life easy.

"When you ride work on him it's impossible to tell how good he is because he is so lazy. He is so clever he just doesn't do a tap," he says.

It's that tendency to indolence that may not be fully overcome until the hurly-burly of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

"Small fields don't suit him. On his first start this season he must have raced for a mile and a half on his own and he needs others around to make him competitive.

It was the same at Fairyhouse when he had to chase Solerina on his own. He was never going to do that.

It was the same down the back at Christmas until he got to the second last when he got competitive with the others around him," Cash argues.

Despite another small field tomorrow, there is no little confidence that that Christmas form with Macs Joy can be overcome.

"He's not 100 per cent yet but he's not far off it," Cash says. "I'm not afraid to take on Macs Joy again. The wider track will help me. It is very tight on the inside and I thought my horse ran a great race the last day."

If Brave Inca does indeed come out on top, don't expect any fashionable flying dismounts from his jockey. This is one team where substance counts for a helluva lot more than any trend.