Early riser Boughey set to stay the distance
Young trainer survives 2.15am starts to launch promising career with a pair of quick winners
Hitting the ground running seems to be one of the keys to launching a successful training career these days – see Archie Watson – and, from a standing start of four horses, Newmarket’s latest recruit, George Boughey, has not been hanging about. He has sent out two winners in his first six weeks with a licence.
The son of a Dorset farmer, Boughey, 27, has taken a barn at Red House on the Hamilton Road and is already up to 11 horses after Three C’s won at Lingfield on Aug 13 to get him off the mark.
A fortnight later, another recent purchase, the eight-year-old Cotton Club, owned by his father – many of the best trainers have started out by persuading relations and godparents to own horses – won by 13 lengths.
Racing rather than farming has
always been a passion for Boughey. At his prep school, the boys had two newspapers delivered: The Daily Telegraph and Racing Post
– and I am disappointed to hear that he opted for the Post.
After Radley, he went to Newcastle University to read business management and agriculture, but spent more time in Newmarket helping out various bloodstock agents – including Luke Lillingston – at the sales.
Noting that he was spending more time with his nose in sales catalogues than he was with either the FT or Farmers Weekly,
Lillingston told him he did not need a degree to train horses, suggested he quit and found him a job with Gai Waterhouse in Australia.
There, his alarm was set for 2.15am each morning, a time which would test the resolve of anyone hell-bent on becoming a trainer.
After a good stint Down Under, Boughey decided his future lay in Britain and returned to Newmarket, where his great friend and fellow trainer George Scott – he owned a share in Scott’s first winner (Scott, who had hoped to reciprocate, has a share in a horse with Boughey, though it has only run once) – persuaded Hugo Palmer he should take on his friend as an assistant.
After a week, Palmer rang Scott and asked why he had twisted his arm to employ someone so green and, quite frankly, so inadequate for the job and told him that Boughey had a week to prove himself.
However, from shaky beginnings, he went on to stay for six years, became a great friend of the trainer and, when Palmer expanded exponentially, it was Boughey who ended up running a satellite yard of 40 horses for him. When Three C’s won, Palmer was the first on the phone to congratulate him.
It is a job to predict who will make it as a trainer and who will not, but the early evidence is that Boughey will go far.
Trainers in Malton host their annual open day on Sunday, with Richard Fahey, Tim and Mick Easterby and Roger Fell among those welcoming visitors from 8.45am.
After lunch “until dark” on the Highfield Gallops, there are various events involving jockeys on horses as well a dog show judged by Jack Berry.
Reigning champion in the “dog most like its racing personality owner” is jockey Paddy Mathers and his Papillon-ish pet.
A week later, Newmarket does the same when it hosts the newly named Henry Cecil Open Weekend.
Some 22 yards will be opening on the Sunday, Sept 22, including Sir Mark Prescott’s Heath House, which has not been accessible to the public since Victorian times. He is conducting the tours himself but the rules include “20 people at a time”, so arrive early to avoid disappointment.
Enable and Stradivarius will be cantering up Warren Hill at 8am-9am.
In the afternoon, there will be a gymkhana for yards, while Ryan Moore is set to defend his showjumping title.
Jamie Spencer, fresh from winning the $1 million Jockey Club Derby at Belmont on David Simcock’s Spanish Mission, has been practising on his daughter’s pony, while 2017 winner Francesca Cumani is hoping she can regain her title.