AKIN to a team of nervous yearlings, the first year Darley Flying Start trainees left the breaking yards of Kildangan Stud to embark on their pre-training phase in the exciting and racing driven world of Newmarket.

Living a stone throw away from Europe’s premier sales house, Tattersalls, it wasn’t long before we made Newmarket our home. Although, only here for seven weeks, we have experienced more in this short time than any of us thought possible.

Starting off, we caught the closing day of racing at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile course followed by a day of National Hunt racing at Huntington which was somewhat of a nerve wrecking sight for those of us who were unfamiliar with racehorses jumping fences.

That weekend was topped off with our first jaunt to industry favourite “The Yard” to watch the Breeders’ Cup and see living racing legend American Pharoah blitz his field in the Classic.

In the initial weeks we were made to feel very much part of Darley UK with inspirational talks from Hugh Anderson and Sam Bullard, as well as being greeted with a lunch reception (in case you didn’t know we love food).

This allowed us the opportunity to meet alumni working in Darley as well as some of the management team in Dalham Hall.

This was followed by tours of the training grounds at Newmarket, the Jockey Club rooms, the National Stud and the Horse Racing Museum, which were all followed by tea, coffee and cakes - more food!

DALHAM HALL

Our practical rotations soon commenced which included working in the offices at Dalham Hall, following the yearlings we had worked with in Kildangan to Hamilton Hill pre-training and learning how to ride a racehorse at the British Racing School.

For some of us the latter was the hardest. I can tell you my week at the British Racing School ended up with me falling off and being run away with which provided some very funny commentary for my group.

Asked for the highlight of the rotations, the majority vote lay with the British Racing School and if you watch our latest trainee’s view video you will see why.

We have had some wonderful lectures during our time here, namely from the likes of James Willoughby, Ed Sackville and Adam Driver as well as great support from Martin Mitchell and Liam O’Rourke.

There is one thing that we can definitely say about Newmarket and that is that we have been thoroughly immersed in the English industry.

From the word go, we have been afforded fantastic opportunities to meet industry leaders including an entertaining evening with Sir Mark Prescott at the Jockey Club Rooms as well as having a stable tour at his Heath House Stables.

We have met other training aficionados such as Roger Varian and Hugo Palmer and were granted access to the historical and superlative Godolphin training yards.

SALES

No phase during this course would be complete without a spell at the sales and for this group the foal and mare sales were eagerly awaited.

Newmarket truly comes alive during this busy time and for many of us shadowing agents, including the likes of Richard Brown, Peter and Ross Doyle, Mick Flanagan and Roger O’Callaghan, granted us first-hand experience to learn the intricacies of pinhooking and finding that next Group 1-producing broodmare.

Special mention goes to American trainee Trish Bowman who became the most photographed trainee at Tattersalls during the mare’s sales when she led one of the Darley mares through on Monday.

After the sales we spent a day with the dynamic media duo of Rishi Persad and Racing UK camera man Phill Clark. In between pieces to camera and interview techniques, we enjoyed plenty of witty banter from Rishi whose lead into a funny story was “did Clarky tell you about the time he...”, which led to much expostulation from the renowned cameraman but ultimately led to us finding out the story.

ALUMNI

As an ever evolving and progressing programme, Darley Flying Start held their inaugural Alumni Conference in Cambridge University in December, which the first year trainees attended as organisational support team.

Our roles included film crew, delegate interviewers, reporters, social media team, guest relations and official photographers. The conference was held to further the alumni’s education as well as contributing to the industry by recognising those alumni who have surpassed expectations and become industry leaders.

Gerry Duffy of Kildangan Stud deservedly won the Leadership Excellence Award, with Chantilly-based trainer Francis Graffard taking home Business Excellence Award.

For a group of young trainees, the conference allowed us to connect with the alumni dating back to the inception years as well as giving us the additional motivation to take every opportunity during this course and make the most of it.

GENEROSITY

When you are seated in a room full of former Darley Flying Starters, who are paving the way in the thoroughbred industry, you can’t help but marvel at the generosity and vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed.

In our final weeks during the UK phase we have been fortunate enough to meet the incomparable Frankel, tour the vast estate of Shadwell, The Royal Studs and visit Cheveley Park, the home of Pivotal and popular freshman foal sire Lethal Force.

Our time in England has flown by but one thing is for sure it will be remembered not only for the horses and the studs but also for the people, the generosity and laughter that was present in our own version of the Big Brother house.

Our next stop is the USA and with six Americans on the course the other half will already feel at home in the USA.

For some of us this will be a big change but until January we are heading home to enjoy Christmas with our families and friends, relish the home comforts and prepare for our next phase.

On behalf of myself and all the current first year trainees, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.