Gavin Cromwell is standing in the jockeys' room at his yard halfway between Navan and Ashbourne. It's the beating heart of the "monster" operation that he has built from scratch.The massive white board on the wall points to how big Cromwell's operation has grown - a colour-coded system designed to pair the jockeys with horses differentiated by age that has delivered ever-growing success. This one-time, full-time, farrier for Gordon Elliott started his life as a part-time trainer here with just eight horses 20 years ago. He lived in a one-bedroom apartment with his wife Kiva above the original stables. He trains close to 160 horses now. Cromwell operates a multi-million euro operation, one that encompasses both national hunt and flat racing and that takes his horses around the world. In December, his filly Snellen became the first Irish trained winner in Bahrain. There will be more and more horses to train and more winners."Listen, we just keep doing what we're doing and wherever that leads us, we'll go," he said. "I'm not setting any targets. There's certainly no boundaries."Now Ireland's third most successful trainer, the Meathman has no intention of easing up in his bid to close in on the big two, Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott. He surpassed for record wins for a season - 72, achieved last year - at the Dublin Racing Festival in early February. This could be his most successful Cheltenham yet. A new 5f woodchip gallop was installed last year as part of a €1m investment in the stable. There are further expansion plans ready to go, including a new barn across from the main yard and another walker. The question is, can you grow too big? "I don't know, can you?" Cromwell replied. "I always remember years ago hearing that Noel Meade had 120 horses and thinking how could one man manage all that, and here I am with a good bit more. "Absolutely you can (do it), it's all about having the right people around you. I had a good chat with Noel about it one day and he was saying, and it's something I never thought of before, 'the mobile phone changed everything'."He said he used to go in the evening and would have to start returning phone calls and messages that came in during the day and he'd be there until half 10 at night phoning owners back. But that's gone now." William Hill recently brought a fleet of British and Irish media to his yard for a peek inside the engine. Fielding question after question about what horses are going to Cheltenham and their chances, Cromwell's answers were short and on point. Later, when the majority of the visitors left, he relaxed a little as he reflected on his rise with a smaller group of local reporters. "Sure I never thought that I'd be a full time trainer," Cromwell said. "I never aspired to be, it just kind of happened, to be honest. It just evolved. "You see, it was a hobby. I was very lucky that I was a full-time farrier and I was training the horses and for years I never took a penny out of it. So I didn't have to pay myself because I had the farrier business and that was the bread and butter. "It wasn't a massive big business that was bankrolling it as such, it just meant that I could survive without this. Gordon started with nothing, as did Willie Mullins. He might have been a Mullins but he still started with a handful of horses. It's very possible. "I was a lot luckier than a lot of small trainers that have to survive out of it and they could be in a position where they're holding onto a horse that they should be really getting rid of because they need that horse to survive. We're lucky that it went well." The driving nature of the man helps. Racing is his life. Cromwell, Kiva and the kids got away for a few days at the end of the year to ski and he admits he would love to do that more. "There's lots of things," he said wistfully. "I was in Australia for a year when I was 18 and I'd love to go back there again, but I'd say the only chance I'd have now is if I've a runner in the Melbourne Cup! But that's the way, that's the ticket I bought." Naturally, he's not ruling out that Melbourne Cup trip one day. The work is all-consuming but, at the same time, this business doesn't feel like work to him."That's my mentality," he acknowledged. "Sometimes you probably should slow down and enjoy those moments but listen, I don't drink, my celebration of something...I don't know what it is really, to be honest with you. "Going out for something to eat is probably the height of it really. So it's all about work, really. It's not really work, you know? I know it's an old cliché but when you're doing something you enjoy it's not work."Cromwell gave up drinking around a decade ago. He admitted in an interview that he was unhappy with who he was becoming while under the influence. He's happier without it and more focused. "Ah, there's no doubt if I didn't make these changes then I wouldn't be where I am now," Cromwell confides now."When you had a winner, you'd always celebrate. It was fantastic to have a winner and it's still fantastic to have one. But now I have to have winners. We're in a position now where there's so many people involved, there's so many owners involved, if you're not having winners there's something wrong and that's the monster we've built."It's something that I've got used to and that tells its own story. It's just fantastic. I wouldn't phrase it that I've surprised myself. I'm delighted that it has grown. The whole thing is going well. It's not just me, it's everything. Alright, I'm in the driving seat, but I can't do it without a lot of people who are involved."That need to have more winners means added stress yet Cromwell talks about the struggles that small trainers have at the other end of the scale, the frustration that he once had himself when results didn't happen and chances were far more limited. "I do appreciate that I'm very lucky that I'm getting the winners because I have been that person who didn't get winners," he said. "Pat (Martin, a trainer of 40 years experience) has joined us now and I've seen the struggle that he has had in the last few years. He's a fantastic trainer and has had great horses and winners over the years but it must be so frustrating to go so long in between winners. That has to be difficult."We're so lucky. If we have a bad day today we have more to run tomorrow, and we have a chance of winning again tomorrow. I'm sure it's going to happen again where you go through a real bad patch and you're not having many winners. But at least we have the ammunition and the chance of having them."I've always taken and tried any horse. Like, Jer's Girl was a prime example. She was a home-bred filly that her owner, Gus Bourke, brought to the sales and brought her home unsold at seven grand and he sent her to me."But that's what most small trainers get is homebreds or very cheaply bought ones but she one her first grade one and her second as well, so...at the moment here we're looking down the barrel of Cheltenham and sure that's definitely the goal and the buzz at the moment." Cheltenham. He's not the first to say it, but he smiles as he describes it as the sport's Olympics. Before we leave the yard, Cromwell is asked how many winners he could have this week. "We'll have our biggest team going there, I think we have a few great chances," he responded. "I'd start with one and hope we get more." 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