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Hi all,
Can anyone throw any light on this trainer for me please. I know he has Apex, (which is the only horse that has ever won for him) and a few lesser lights, but I know nothing about him at all. A few internet searches have proved fruitless.
What is his full name/age ?
Where does he train from?
What is his background etc?Many thanks in advance if anyone can help out.
Mike
It is his first season training.
He has four horses that have run
Four winners from 12 runners and APEX is responsible for all of those wins.
Tha’s all I can find after a quick look.
Colin
I’m sure he has been training for a few years, but it may only be this year that he has started concentrating on the flat.
I may be completely wrong but is he the son of C J Hill aka the butcher of Barnstaple? Bought a mare off him a few years ago and she was in a desperate state.
Apologies, Grey Desire is correct.
Hill has had four runners, spread over a number of years, before this season…………..all losers.
He has also trained two winners from eight runners over jumps in the last 5 years.
Colin
Think you’re referring to:
Martin Hill, Totnes, Devon
Don’t know his Flat history but hasn’t had any NH runners since Oct 2005. Prior to this had a small but regular number of runners notably five-times winner Sandoran and the ex-Pipe rogue Kaki Crazy out of whom he managed to extract two wins from two runs.
Also the original trainer of that fine chaser Ei Ei before his move to Michael Chapman.
Given his lack of runners under Rules I’d guess he’s involved on the west country point-to-point circuit. TRF members Graysonscolumn and Happy Jack may be able to clarify.
I may be completely wrong but is he the son of C J Hill aka the butcher of Barnstaple? Bought a mare off him a few years ago and she was in a desperate state.
Oh I remember him. Annoyingly referred to as C John Hill, and he wasn’t even American. C John Hill III would’ve been better. Seem to remember he landed some major gambles at Southwell in the early 90’s with horses like Klairover, Nikki Noo Noo and Golden Klair. Not sure about the "Butcher of Barnstaple" tag, maybe you can enlighten me some more?!
His nickname was ‘butcher’ if memory serves and didn’t another of Devon’s ‘finest’ Tony Newcombe spend his formative years with him?
C John Hill was known as the butcher of Barnstaple because he came from Barnstaple and he was a butcher by profession (shock horror). Martin Hill has had rather more than 4 runners (poor research, seagull!) and it was he who started the much missed Ei Ei on the road to success over jumps when he was partnered by Mark Bradburne in a selling hurdle at Stratford. Martin has been around as a permit holder for yonks but quit the training ranks for a few years before his latest incarnation.
Edit: Just looked up the archives and noticed an interview with Martin after Ei Ei had landed the aforementioned race and he was quoted as saying "I’m a publican and a building merchant. Racing is just a hobby-and an expensive one at that!"
Funny you should mention CJ Hill. Apparently, he couldn’t train ivy up a s**t covered trellis – he didn’t know one end of a horse from another.
All he did was provide the cash. All of his horses were actually trained by the shewd Tony Newcombe.
I say it’s funny because I was nattering about Sakhee’s Secret the other day to a pal. We were recalling the days when Hughie Morrison and Michael Bell were assistant trainers at P Coles’, in the glory days of Insan, Culture Vulture, Magic Ring, Dilum, Fair Cop and, of course, Generous. Wages could be made with the outfit first time out. I believe the Whatcombe team won all the 2-y-o races one year at Ascot around that time.
Paul Cole often blames his relative decline on the death of Fahd Salman, (his principal owner), but I wonder how much was also due to losing the skills of those two.
Rory, it was Seabird not seagull, Ken wouldn’t have been that slipshod with his research, and after all I was using the Racing Post database.
Colin
Max,
I’m sure ‘Butcher’ Hill did know one end of a horse from the other – the problem was that he tended to view the front half as stewing steak and the back half as sirloin !
His best horse during that period when Tony Newcombe was his ‘trainer’ was a stayer called Morgans Choice, who won five races at Bath and had a successful record when ridden by Willie Carson.
AP
Morgan’s Choice was the first horse I ever "tipped" from the pages of the Sun when winning at Chester in the very early days of Ch 4 racing, AP. 1984, I think.
That was the time I first saw Big Mac et al and before you know it, I was on The Road to Glory (or Ruin)
Add the word Allegedly to my post, AP.
Apologies to both Seabird and Seagull it appears ~ I know Ken is very proud of his trainer stats so was surprised that he’d slip up so, but it’s just what I’d expect from Colin
(only kidding mate!)this is his stats for the last 5 years:
Age WINS RUNS % 2nds 3rds 4ths WIN PRIZE TOTAL PRIZE £1 STAKE
2yo 0 0 0 0 0 £0.00 £0.00 +0.00
3yo 0 0 0 0 0 £0.00 £0.00 +0.00
4yo+ 4 22 18 1 2 1 £12,873.75 £15,546.00 +7.20
TOTAL 4 22 18 1 2 1 £12,873.75 £15,546.00 +7.20
BY HORSE (Best RPR for Trainer) OVERALL WIN MONEY TOTAL PRIZE MONEYApex (91) 4-6 67% +23.20 12,873.75 14,621.10
Panjandrum (70) 0-2 -2.00 0.00 622.50
First Friend (67) 0-4 -4.00 0.00 302.40
Drum Dance (38) 0-1 -1.00 0.00 0.00
Musical Gift (43) 0-1 -1.00 0.00 0.00
Bright Fire (50) 0-2 -2.00 0.00 0.00
Little Englander 0-2 -2.00 0.00 0.00
Orion Express (37) 0-2 -2.00 0.00 0.00
Sweep The Board (21) 0-2 -2.00 0.00 0.00
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