The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Life in the saddle just right for Alexanders
A hobby becomes daily life for former stockbroker, and Nick Alexander has no regrets about the country life
The life of a racehorse trainer and his team is never easy.
But in the middle of a winter snowstorm, trying to get 40 horses worked and worrying about the chances of running three horses at Musselburgh in the afternoon, Nick Alexander must have been wondering why he ever left his comfortable job as a stockbroker.
However, he is relentlessly cheerful and optimistic and has no regrets over his change of career.
He said: “My hobby became obsessive; now I love my work but I have no hobbies! Whatever the weather is doing at home, we always have to expect the racing to be on and set off with the horses, but sometimes we have to turn back when we hear a meeting has been cancelled.”
Nick and his wife Rose moved to Kinneston Farm on the outskirts of Scotlandwell in 1988, where their four children were brought up. He took out his trainers’ license in 2002 but spent the first five years training the family’s horses before training publicly in 2007.
Kinneston was a working farm of 800 acres and the buildings have been adapted to make stables, a tack room, an office and feed and bedding storage.
The Alexanders have also installed three all-weather gallops.
Nick said: “Each gallop has a different surface and is a different length and gradient which means we can adapt our training regime to give the horses the workout they need.”
There are 200 acres of forestry on the farm, 200 acres of grass and 400 acres of arable land which are contracted out to neighbours for cereals, potatoes and vegetables.
Kinneston Racing is a family business with all bar one of Nick and Rose’s children involved in some way, but it is the dedication and commitment of a further 15 full- and part-time staff which has led to the yard’s success in recent years. The yard is a finalist for the Team Challenge Award organised by the National Trainers Federation.
Nick said: “I have a great team of young people here who work so hard, sometimes in appalling weather, but I like to think they are rewarded by being involved in a high-profile sport at top level. Racing offers a good career structure for those who want to work with horses with decent wages, good training and opportunities to ride in races.”
His eldest daughter, Lucy, 27, is one of the best young jockeys in Scotland. She started in the point-to-point field at the age of 16 as Northern Area Novice champion rider and won the Princess Royal Trophy.
Lucy quickly rewrote the record books for female National Hunt jockeys by being the first of her sex to become Champion Conditional Jockey in 2012-13. She has now ridden more than 100 winners and rides out at Kinneston four days a week and has also worked for Aidan O’Brien, Sir Michael Stoute and Kevin Ryan.
Kit, 26, has his own online business, but is an amateur jockey and assists Nick
in race planning and administration.
Clare, 22, has left the yard for now and is gaining experience as pupil assistant at champion trainer Nicky Henderson’s yard at Lambourne. The youngest member of the family, Johnny only has a minimal interest in racing and is studying at Durham University.
Horses and owners make up the rest of the jigsaw at Kinneston and Nick has had some real highlights in his career so far. One of his best days was winning two races at Ayr with two home-bred horses ridden by Kit and Lucy respectively, making it a real family occasion.
Nick’s father Cyril trained his own horses and the whole family were thrilled when the Kinneston-trained Jet Master won the Cyril Alexander Memorial Race at Kelso in 2015 followed in March 2017 by the home-bred Clan Legend, which goes back to Cyril’s breeding lines and has won eight out of his first 14 races.
Training north of the border has its challenges, not least the weather. It involves hours of travelling to meetings in the south and some of the team spend a lot of time on the road, while the rest look after and exercise the horses.
“However the advantage of training in Scotland is that there is less poaching of staff and owners, allowing good relationships to build.
Nick said: “Communication is important and we send all our owners an email every week letting them know how their horses are and the racing plans. I am also responsible for keeping the website, Facebook and Twitter up to date so everyone knows what is going on.”
With three strings of horses going out every day plus the work involved looking after them, administration and race meetings, there is never a dull moment but Nick does not regret his decision to turn his hobby into a business.
I have a great team of young people here who work so hard