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<i>I took a trip to visit James Ewart’s yard in Langholm last week, the article below hopefully gives a glimpse behind the scenes at the stable of one of Scotland’s up-and-coming young trainers.</i>
<i>James and Briony-Jayne Ewart</i>On the wall of the racing office at James Ewart’s Craig Farm stable, near Langholm in the Scottish Borders, an architect’s drawing is pinned up. It represents James’s vision for the future of the yard and, as he talks through it, you get a clear sense of the ambition, passion and emotion that lie behind what the young trainer describes as “the dream”. That dream involves turning Craig Farm into a training establishment to rival the very best in the country, and he’s already well on the way.
The yard is set in beautiful countryside in the Eskdalemuir valley, some three miles from the Borders town of Langholm. Horses are part of the culture and language of the region and James was drawn to them at an early age. As a youngster he spent time with Nicky Henderson, Jonjo O’Neill and John Leadbetter and was also with Ferdy Murphy for four years. A formative five year spell in France with Guillaume Macaire followed, during which time he was champion amateur rider in France.
2004 was an important year. Returning home from France, James got married and took out his first training licence in the January. Every year since has seen the stable increase both the number of winners and the amount of prize money earned and last season they had 23 winners, with 56% of his runners finishing in the first four. In the process they accumulated over £163,000 in prize money.
When I arrive at the yard, horses are shortly due to arrive back from a schooling session. It’s a crisp, autumnal morning and, as I wait for them to make their way home, I wander out onto the newly laid all-weather gallop. The lightly coloured Tapeta™ surface shines fresh and bright in the languid, late morning sunshine. The gallop comprises a five-furlong oval, and is set to the inside of an existing sand gallop. The two gallops are surrounded by rolling hills on all sides, forming a natural amphitheatre which is reminiscent of Cheltenham in miniature.
A handful of horses appear and make their way towards the collection of buildings, old and new, which house the 40 horses James currently trains. The trainer himself is aboard Let’s Get Serious, a former Nicky Henderson-trained Cheltenham bumper winner recently recruited to the stable. James jumps off and hands the reins to one of the lads, his eyes scanning the legs of each horse as he does so, and brief instructions are given on some details that need attending to. It’s Sunday, some of the staff had attended the previous evening’s point-to-point awards and a few hangovers are consequently being nursed, but it is still business as usual, no let-up, with the new season around the corner and the yard’s first runners imminent.
We retire to the racing office and it is there, as we settle to prepare for the interview, that James discusses the plans outlined on the drawing. There’s no disguising the ambition, and there is a determination present as he talks that leaves you in no doubt that he’s going to do everything in his power to make those dreams of his come true.
As we start to talk it’s obvious that James Ewart doesn’t like to sit still in one place for long. He perches uneasily on the edge of a seat, talks animatedly and, for all that he is giving the interview all his attention, you feel he’s also probably thinking about the million and one things that need to be done. It’s no surprise, when I ask him later in the day what he does for relaxation, that he raises his arms to encompass all around him, and says “this”.
Staff pop in and out with minor queries, each needing dealt with by the trainer and all part of the detail that engulfs his time and leaves little room for anything else. Probably the same scene that you’ll find in any busy yard, but there is a certain intensity with which this particular young trainer goes about his work that sets him apart.
Eskdalemuir is a wet place, one of the wettest areas in the country (it holds the UK record for quantity of rainfall in a 30-minute period), and it had its wettest year on record in 2011. If that wasn’t bad enough, 2012 looks set to be even worse. Not the best news if you are a racehorse trainer and little wonder that James has focused on ensuring his facilities are of a standard that allows uninterrupted work schedules for his horses, despite anything the weather gods may throw at him.
“Our grass gallops, like many, can get very wet and, as is the case with any natural grass surface, can be uneven,” he explains, “and I felt we needed to go for what I considered to be the very best alternative.” That alternative was found in the shape of the Tapeta™ surface, pioneered by one of James’s boyhood heroes, legendary former champion jumps trainer Michael Dickinson. “I chose Tapeta™ because I believe it to be the Rolls-Royce of synthetic training surfaces, it’s consistent and it’s safe, both vital aspects,” he states.
<i>James shows off his new Tapeta™ gallop</i>The official opening of the new gallop, planned for 14th November, will be attended by Dickinson and will inevitably attract attention. “This will only be the fourth gallop of its type in the UK, Godolphin have two and Mark Johnston has the other,” the trainer explains, before talking in glowing terms of the high standard of service he’s received thus far from the supplier and the installation team.
He also talks about his bespoke horse-walker, designed by a team which involved the trainer working closely with the manufacturers. Mary Bromiley, the world-renowned equine physiotherapist, was also consulted, with no stone left unturned in order to ensure the best possible design was arrived at. Describing some traditional horse-walkers as “more like prisons,” James was keen to think differently when designing his own mechanism.
<i>The Ewart’s specially designed horse-walker</i>“Our design is more open and wider, it is less claustrophobic and gives the horses a bit more freedom of movement,” he explains. “When a horse is in a walker it is the only time in his work that he is unattended with no human contact. It is the only chance I get to see them as they really are, moving naturally. It’s possible to pick up lots of things you wouldn’t see otherwise.” Craig Farm’s horse-walker is the biggest of its type in the UK and, as he puts it through its paces, it’s an impressive sight.
While he adopts the most modern of thinking and technology to some aspects of the operation, in other ways James is a traditionalist. As we talk about nutrition his eyes light up (if you ever doubted whether someone could become impassioned on the subject of hay then you need to speak to James Ewart). “We import our hay from France, it’s sunshine in a bale,” he says, inviting me to inhale a lungful of the sweet odour emanating from the neatly stacked bales.
“We also feed a hot mash every day, one of the very few yards still to do that. The horses love it, you can hear then whinnying and chittering when they smell it,” he says, before adding, “If you’d done a day’s work in freezing cold winter temperatures you wouldn’t want a salad when you got home, you’d want a nice hot meal, wouldn’t you?” It’s hard to argue with the logic, and the horses certainly seem to be extremely happy and relaxed as we walk around the boxes.
“We like to do things in a traditional way if they are proven and have worked well down the years,” he explains, “and I’m also a believer in the traditional jumping season – the type of horses we buy wouldn’t be bought with summer jumping in mind.”
<i>The tack-room at Craig Farm</i>When it comes to buying horses James’s years in France have served him well and he uses his many contacts (French champion jump jockey Jacques Ricou was best man at the Ewart’s wedding, for example) to alert him to opportunities. He jumps off the edge of the chair, obviously delighted to be in action after five minutes of sitting still, and brings up a French website and plays a video of a new yard recruit, Rockawango, winning a Listed Hurdle at Auteil. “This was a 65,000 euro race for hurdling debutantes with Group 3 and Listed flat horses running in it.” Rockawango looks the part, making all and winning impressively.
“Imagine how much a horse coming out of Ireland with that profile would cost you?” he asks. “But he wasn’t that expensive, relatively. There is less emotion and passion associated with the price of a horse in France, it’s difficult to get good quality horses out of Ireland without paying exorbitant prices.”
James does buy from Ireland when the price is right, though, using agent Bryan Murphy as a primary source. “Every single one of the horses Bryan has supplied, something like twelve horses, have won a race. That’s a great record.” Lord Wishes, one of the stable’s main hopes for the season ahead, is one of those, James describing him as “probably the best one Bryan’s found for us”.
Yogi Breisner is another equine guru whose help has been enlisted by the stable, in Breisner’s case helping iron out any creases in the jumping technique of various horses in the specially designed schooling ring adjacent to the yard. James explains the rationale behind the positioning of the poles and jumps in the schooling ring; again nothing is left to chance and everything is carefully thought out.
Brian Hughes will continue to be first-choice jockey for the stable in the season ahead. “We’ll use Brian whenever he is available. He comes up and rides work for us once or twice a week, gets to know the horses well and is a logical first choice for us,” James says, his admiration for Hughes evident. “We also have a young lad, Dale Irving, with us. Dale is only 18 years old but claims 10 lbs and we hope to give him a few opportunities as the season progresses.”
Both James and his wife, Briony, are keen to emphasise the role played by the yard’s staff. “We’ve been continually building our team, it’s constantly getting better,” says Briony, “and they are such an important part of the yard. We used to do everything ourselves but that is impossible now and we rely on them a lot.” The quality of staff working at the yard was nationally recognised at the 2012 Goldolphin Stud & Stable awards when Willie Cowe won the prestigious Dedication to Racing award.
The owners in the yard are a diverse group. “In addition to more locally based owners, we have owners who are based in Ireland, France and London, for example,” James explains, “and the yard is relatively easy to get to so our owners can be quite closely involved. We find the more involvement and understanding the owners have, the easier it is.” That the yard is within three hours by horsebox from as many as 22 racecourses also helps reduce travelling time and costs for owners.
The yard has recently set up the Craig Farm Syndicate, an owners’ group aimed at providing a low-cost entry into ownership for people who’ve always wanted to be involved in that side of the game. “I wish we’d done it earlier, we’ve had lots of enquiries and it’s been very popular,” he says.
[i:12s2tfgt]Yard mascot Lucy – you can read her blog at http://www.jamesewartracing.com[/i:12s2tfgt]We finish the interview back at the Tapeta™ gallop. I’m introduced to Lucy, a small black terrier who is the stable’s talisman (she ‘writes’ a weekly blog which is featured on the stable’s website). Lucy says hello and then squares up, successfully, to a huge Irish wolfhound who is trying to bully her. You can’t help but feel that a little of that terrier mentality is present in the trainer as he talks about the inevitable pressures that come from the responsibility of delivering the results which are needed to justify the significant capital investment at Craig Farm.
“I enjoy the pressure,” James reveals, “In life you have choices, you can do nothing, and then you can’t do anything wrong and there’s no pressure. But I believe the only way to do it is to go forward, to keep making things better.” He pauses and adds: “the biggest pressure is when the horses are out there on the racecourse running and you know there’s nothing more you can do at that point.”
He looks out over everything he’s created so far. “All I care about is results,” he says, the determination again apparent in his eyes. “I’d chop off my legs for results.”
As I drive away, I think back to that blueprint on the wall in his office. I’m pretty sure that once that dream is within reach, once everything is almost built and the bigger prizes have started to fall to this most progressive of stables, I’ll go back and it won’t be there. There’ll be an even bigger, bolder dream pinned up in its place.
<i>Article – David Cormack</i>
(If you are interested in joining James’s Craig Farm syndicate just go to their website http://www.jamesewartracing.com for details.)
Corm , great read , must keep a close watch on this outfit , seems like nothing is left to chance
well done sir
Ricky
Superb stuff Corm,you ought to make this a regular feature,perhaps a trip to Jonjo’s can be arranged to see if
Get me out of here
will go for the ‘Pertemps’!
An excellent article David. I was down in the Scottish Borders last week and it really is the most idyllic place to train racehorses.
A big season or two for Mr Ewart – I can’t imagine those facilities come cheap and he will need to see some return on his investment. Good luck to him.
Great article, Corm. It prompted me to have a look at James’ website which is equally impressive. The very best of luck to him for the forthcoming season.
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