Richard Fahey enjoyed a brilliant campaign in 2010 but remains confident the best is yet to come.

Wootton Bassett gave the Malton trainer his first Group One triumph when rounding off his juvenile campaign with victory in France, while the yard secured 181 winners for the calendar year and also broke the £2million prize-money mark for the first time.

Fahey could be forgiven for being happy with his lot, but instead, the driven handler is intent on improvement until his Musley Bank yard becomes one of the greatest training establishments in the land.

"It's going to be tough to match last year but we'll train even more winners this year, I'll guarantee that," said Fahey.

"We have got a bit of a head start as I think we'd had about seven winners this time last year for the all-weather season and we've already got around 32 in the bag this time.

"It's a bold prediction to say we'll have more this year than last year, but I've got to be positive.

"I'm at the bottom of Mount Everest trying to get to the top, but we'll do our best to get there.

"You've got to have positive thoughts. Every year we try to improve on the last one and that's what we've got to do.

"We've done a lot of building work here recently, but I just think you've got to kick and go forward. If you stand still you go backwards in my opinion.

"What we've done is only phase one. We're building a head lad's house this year and next year we're knocking down four American barns that have been here longer than me and starting again.

"What we're trying to do is build the best yard in the north of England, and maybe the best in the country if we can.

"It's a five-year plan and we're a year in front at the moment, but we've got to keep training winners and it has got to work because I owe the banks millions!

"We want to try to create the ‘wow' factor here, so when people drive in, it looks good. When it looks good, it normally is good - that is the perception in my mind, anyway."

Fahey admits training in the north can be a bit of a drawback in terms of attracting the powerful owners, but he believes the tide may be turning at his yard.

"It is tougher in the north, but we're attracting some better owners now. We've got Sir Robert Ogden here, Highclere and Sir Alex Ferguson. We are getting the owners, slowly but surely," Fahey continued.

"The ambition is to get these horses that can compete in the top races. I was at the Curragh the other day and Aidan O'Brien had 24 horses working.

"Every single one of them I'd love to have here, so I'm way behind some of these trainers.

"We have one horse that we hope is good enough to compete at the top, we could just do with another ten like him!"

While Wootton Bassett is undoubtedly the stable's main hope heading into the new Turf campaign, which officially began yesterday at Catterick, Fahey hopes there are plenty of other smart performers waiting to spring into action.

The trainer has his largest ever juvenile team to call upon, while there is also a definite twinkle in his eye when the name Alben Star is mentioned.

"Alben Star is nicknamed 'The Monster' at home, as he's got so much power," Fahey continued.

"He was the only other two-year-old who could work with Wootton Bassett last year. He won his first two races and then pulled muscles when we thought he'd win at York on his last start.

"He'll be a sprinter and we'd be looking to start him off in something like the William Hill at York.

"Our two-year-olds, and maybe the string as a whole, are just a little bit behind as the weather was very cold and it's taken a while for them to come in their coats."