It is less than a year since Carl Llewellyn took out a trainer’s licence and produced an implausibly dramatic start by winning the Scottish Grand National on a horse he rode himself. Talk about setting yourself a tough act to follow.

Llewellyn, though, has not wasted the impetus. His first season has brought eye-catching results from a previously fading Lambourn stable and he will seek a first Cheltenham winner in his new role with a likeable team of six next week, headed by a horse to threaten Ireland’s stranglehold on the Champion Bumper.

Just to pep up the romance of the possibility, Llewellyn, 41, will also ride the unbeaten Den Of Iniquity. The last of his seven winning Festival mounts came in 2004 on Fundamentalist and adding to the tally would be one of the stories of the racing year.

“I think he has a great chance but I’m not sure how to assess the form,” he said. “The horses behind him in his two wins haven’t done much but his second win was in a faster time than his first, and on worse ground.

“To ride another Cheltenham winner would be fantastic but I’ve already been so lucky. In my first ten days with a licence last April, I had four seconds and then Run For Paddy won at Ayr. If someone had predicted it, I’d have said things like that just don’t happen.”

Most first-season trainers count themselves fortunate to have one horse good enough to run at Cheltenham but two things are worth emphasising about Llewellyn’s challenge. None of his sextet are unfancied. And he did not start with any special advantage bar the unwavering support of his yard’s owner, Malcolm Denmark.

Denmark’s investment in Weathercock House had begun to look questionable as the formidable reputation it achieved under Jenny Pitman’s supervision diminished alarmingly in the latter years of her son Mark’s training career.

When Pitman Jr decided to go and live in Spain, Denmark approached Llewellyn to take over. “It was a massive punt for him to take me on,” Llewellyn reflects. “We hardly knew each other — I’d ridden for him once and that was it. But I regard him as a friend as much as a landlord now. We’re on the same wavelength.”

As a full-time jockey for more than two decades, Llewellyn was one of those who enjoyed racing socially as well as professionally. Not any more. “I hardly go out now — in fact I’d pay to stay in. I’m up at 5.30am every day but I always seem to be rushing to fit everything in. Jockeys don’t have to plan much and can switch off after they’ve ridden but, as a trainer, you have to give everything so much more thought.”

Having boosted the stable strength from 45 to 70 inside a year, retaining every owner he inherited and adding several more, he has plotted and planned his Festival squad for weeks past and now expects to have two runners in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

“I was toying with running Dempsey in the Imperial Cup at Sandown as he’s much better handicapped over hurdles,” he said. “But I’ve had long chats with his owner, Tracy Brown, and I’m leaning towards the Queen Mother.

“We’ll also run Mister McGoldrick, who has only been with us for a few weeks. He was third in the race last year and you couldn’t rule him out.”

Too Forward, an impressive winner at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, runs in the Ryanair Chase. Llewellyn said: “He’s been trained for this race and we’ve deliberately not run him again — he needs to be so fresh he’s two weeks from going mad.”

After a recent win at Kempton, Limited Edition’s target is the Jewson Novices’ Handicap Chase but the most interesting of the yard’s runners could be Roll Along if he makes the cut in the Coral Cup. “I ride him out myself at home, because he’s a handful,” Llewellyn said. “He disappointed in his last run but we found he had some neck muscles tight and knotted, so he’s had a lot of physio and we now use draw reins on him every day to get his head in a better position.”

Novice trainer he may be, but Llewellyn is already demonstrating an attention to detail that should ensure his remarkable start is maintained.