REBECCA MENZIES “As a kid, I used to go racing a lot with one of his


owners called Walter Gott, who had some good horses such as Addington Boy, and we’d go to places like Carlisle and Haydock. “Given my good A Levels results, I had intended qualifying as a surveyor with grand ideas of going on to build houses, but my mind was made up aſter I’d been at Ferdy’s for a couple of months. “I ended up driving the lorry up and down


the country and also across to Ireland. He had some really good horses, and we would be at Cheltenham most years.” Rebecca embarked on her training career at


Brandsby – the base memorably used by Peter Beaumont of Jodami fame – and then, three years later, she moved to her present well-equipped Mordon yard in the summer of 2016. Located off the A1(M), just a few miles from Sedgefield, runners from Howe Hills Farm are handily placed for their raids to all points of the compass. Menzies, well on target to eclipse last term’s


best jumps tally of 26, admitted: “We’re very lucky where we are with a landlord like John Wade. It’s John’s hobby – he invests, and we invest – and, additionally, we are both very emotionally invested in the place as well. “That enables us to grow, and, in the summer,


we put in 35 extra boxes and a new gallop – it’s great to have such a supportive landlord and great team around me, which has made a difference and helped us take a step up in the last two years. “As far as goals are concerned, all I really want


R


ebecca Menzies has done nothing but improve since becoming Britain’s youngest trainer almost a decade ago.


“It’s actually a wonder this has all happened


as both my parents are allergic to horses!” she laughed. “I worked with Ferdy Murphy all through school and during the holidays and, when I took a gap year to work out what I wanted to do, I joined him full-time.


to do is to do better than the previous year and that seems to be what’s happened and the quality of the horses, along with the strike-rate, has very, very steadily improved as well. It’s a still a good bit off where I want it but it’s definitely going in the right direction. “In the first few years we were buying very cheap


horses from other yards, that might have been well-handicapped, and we’d try to patch them up and attempt to win races with them. “It’s only more recently that we’ve been able to


nurture our own store horses and this year we are reaping the benefit of that policy with the likes of Rafferty’s Return, Ritson and Twoshotsoſtequila. They are performing well in novice hurdles and


RACING TV CLUBMAGAZINE 35


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