Trainers

Since February 2013, Marcus Tregoning has been based at Whitsbury Manor Stables in Whitsbury, near Fordingbridge, Hampshire. That is, of course, the yard at which David Elsworth trained Desert Orchid, but, while Tregoning holds a combined licence, his emphasis is firmly on Flat racing, with ‘black type’ and heritage handicaps at the top of his agenda. Indeed, he spent 14 years as assistant trainer to William Richard ‘Dick’ Hern, before succeeding ‘The Major’ at Kingwood House Stables in Lambourn in 1998.

Tregoning saddled his first Group 1 winner, Nayef, in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket in October 2001 and has since added seven more to his career total, including Sir Percy in the Derby at Epsom in June 2006. After a lengthy hiatus, his most recent victory at the highest level – and his first since Sir Percy – came courtesy of Mohaather, in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood in July 2020.

Tregoning enjoyed his most successful campaign, numerically and financially, back in 2003, when he saddled 56 winners from 260 runners, at a strike rate of 22%, and amassed £1,3687,277 in total prize money. In recent years, though, he has been nowhere near the same level, with no more than 27 winners in any of the last ten Flat seasons.

 

website: https://marcustregoningracing.co.uk/

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contact / email: info@marcustregoningracing.co.uk

 

Based, since April 1, 2024, at a state of the art training facility at Averham Park Farm, near Newark, Lincolnshire – a lovely area not far from the likes of the market town Stamford –  Kevin Frost holds a combined licence, but it would be fair to say that his emphasis is on Flat racing. A former conditional jockey, he spent 12 years at the National Horseracing College, formerly the Northern Racing College, in Doncaster, ultimately becoming Training Manager. Thereafter, Frost served as assistant trainer to Ian Woods, Alan Swinbank and Ian Williams.

Frost saddled his first runners, in his own right, in 2013. His inaugural Flat season was limited to just four runners, without success, but the 2013/14 National Hunt season did yield two winners from 16 runners, at a strike rate of 13%, and a modest £9,438 in prize money. Under National Hunt Rule, Frost has yet to saddle more than eight winners in a season, which he did in 2018/19. Nevertheless, his biggest single success, so far, came when Surf And Turf sprang a 33/1 surprise in the Grade 3 Red Rum Handicap Chase at Aintree in 2015.

On the Flat, Frost his most successful season, numerically, in 2022, when he saddled 15 winners from 66 runners, at an extraordinary strike rate of 23%, and amassed £104,207 in prize money. Although saddling few winners in 2023, 10 from 122 runners, he upped his prize money total again to £123,361.

 

website: https://www.kevinfrostracing.co.uk/

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contact / email: info@kevinfrostracing.co.uk

Based at Castle Hill Stables in Middleham, North Yorkshire, Ben Haslam has held a combined training licence, in his own right, since February 2010. He is, of course, the son of the late Patrick Haslam, who trained 988 winners in a career spanning five decades and was based, at various stages, in Lambourn, Newmarket and Middleham. A graduate of the Darley Flying Start programme, Haslam worked as assistant trainer to his father, whom he described as ‘a great role model’, for three years before taking over the licence, at the age of 25, on his retirement.

It would be fair to say that big race victories have been few and far between, but Haslam does have two ‘black type’ successes to his name, courtesy of Castle Hill Cassie in the Flying Fillies’ Stakes at Pontefract in August 2018 and Jerrysback in the Summer Cup at Uttoxeter in June 2022. Nowadays with capacity for 60 horses, Haslam enjoyed his most succesful season on the Flat in 2018, when he saddled 25 winners from 181 runners, and under National Hunt Rules in 2020/21, when he saddled 19 winners from 108 runners. At the time of writing, Haslam is enjoying something of a purple patch, having saddled four winners from his last eight runners, including the last three in a row.

website: https://www.benhaslamracing.com/

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Based at Chestnut Tree Stables, on the Hamilton Road in Newmarket, Jack Jones is one of the newer additions to the training roster, having saddled his first winner, Chagall, in a lowly Class 6 handicap at Chelmsord, in November 2022. That said, he served a lengthy apprenticeship, at home and abroad, under the tutelage of the likes of Kim Bailey, Paul Nicholls, David Simcock and Richard Spencer, before starting out on his own.

Jones holds a combined licence and, having saddled just a single winner on the Flat in his inaugural campaign, upped his seasonal tally to 25 winners, from 130 runners, at a highly creditable 19% strike rate, in 2023. That season he amassed £171,307 in total prize money and, in 2024, his nine winners from 79 runners have already yielded £91,280. Over jumps, Jones drew a blank, albeit from just three runners, in 2022/23, but in 2023/24 has already saddled four winners from just 18 runners, at a 22% strike rate, and collected £46,251 in prize money.

Thus far, big race victories have proved elusive, but considering he began his career at the age of 27, making him the youngest trainer in Newmarket, with ‘two very cheap and very average horses’, Jones has made more than satisfactory progress. Very much a dual-purpose trainer, he remains on to keep an eye on.

website: https://www.jackjonesracing.co.uk/

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