OWNARACEHORSE - Key Persons
Derek Shaw was a top jumps jockey into the nineties, partnering many of the leading National Hunt horses to victory. He then took on various roles with other trainers before starting training in his own right.
Derek was a salaried trainer for 'Danethorpe Racing' and planned, built and ran a very successful operation for them for many years. He became the top All-Weather trainer and garnered notoriety for dominating the races at Southwell and Wolverhampton for many seasons.
He relocated to Sproxton in Leicestershire in 2012 and has trained hundreds of winners from his new base which boasts an excellent range of private facilities. He continues to send out a huge number of winners, both on the All-Weather and on the turf.
Derek Shaw's Sproxton yard is a private area of over 200 acres and includes stabling for up to seventy horses. He has his own set of All-Weather gallops and turf gallops, a huge area of paddocks and all the facilities you would expect from a leading flat trainer.
As well as lunging pens, walkers and menage's Derek has three separate barns for his horses, enabling him to ensure new horses to the yard can be placed in stables to ensure they are not carrying any viruses before they join the main yard. He and his wife Lyndsey live on the yard, along with their two children.
Ollie Pears has made a significant impact on the training profession. As a former jockey, he was originally apprenticed to Steve Norton, but Ollie had an ongoing battle against weight and injury, retiring in 2002. A jockey on both codes, Ollie totalled 168 winners. He also spent two winters in Dubai with Godolphin, and then decided to start a new career in racehorse training.
At the family farm near Barnsley, Ollie established a pre-training yard, breaking and teaching basics to an average of 70 horses a year for several trainers including Karl Burke, Mick Channon, Howard Johnson, Dandy Nicholls and Kevin Ryan. In 2006, Ollie joined Howard Johnson as assistant trainer. That year, he was in charge of Howard's 22 precocious two-year-olds. Nine of these finished in the winners enclosure.
Ollie then decided that 2007 was the year to start training on his own account. He spent time with Dandy Nicholls in North Yorkshire and Jim Boyle at Epsom and an intensive month with the legendary Michael Dickinson in Maryland, USA, studying different handlers' techniques of assessing, training and placing racehorses.
With the news that James Hetherton was to retire from training after 17 years, Ollie took the opportunity to take over James's yard in Norton, just over the river from Malton. He was granted his full licence and begin his training career in November 2007.
His first winner came before the end of his first month, when 'Own Line' landed a chase race at Wetherby. He went on to record very decent winning strike rates of between 10% and 14% in subsequent years and has had winners up to Listed Class. He is adept with handicappers, having trained multiple winning horses like Jacbequick, Noodles Blue Boy, Powerful Pierre and Al Khan. However he also has enjoyed recent successes at higher grades with horses such as No Leaf Clover, Last Sovereign and Jade. He regularly achieves around a 10% strike rate each season.
Ollie Pears is a trainer who has made his mark as a racehorse trainer over the last few years from his base in Norton, near Malton, North Yorkshire.
His yard is situated in the heart of the Wolds, in an established training centre. The stables are a medium sized operation with up to 30 horses in training at any one time.
The yard is The Old Farm Stables, occupying a well established position with several other trainers in close proximity. Ollie himself was a very decent jockey from the age of sixteen, but was forced to quit the saddle when his battle with the scales became impossible as he grew older.
The yard has some good facilities, including an equine walker, two separate box areas, as well as various paddocks. The horses Ollie trains are both flat and jumpers, however the emphasis is firmly on flat horses. He has had considerable success with young horses, and bringing them up the ranks to be successful older horses. Ownaracehorse has enjoyed many winners with Ollie - and we have particularly had a lot of fun with the young horses in his care.
Situated in the town of Norton, just outside Malton, Ollie has access to various gallops which are shared by the large population of trainers in this area. Amongst them is a seven furlong All-Weather Polytrack gallop which enables Ollie to get exercise into his horses throughout the Winter period if required.
A co-founder of Ownaracehorse, Peter in based in Lincolnshire and is responsible for reporting on many of our racehorses as well as hosting stable visits and also doing some representation work. He has earned his living from the racing industry for over ten years, and is also a student of form and breeding, which aids in the sourcing and placing of our racehorses.
Richard is a very experienced syndicate manager, having managed over 50 horses over the last twelve years. He is one of the founders of the company and is deeply involved in the sourcing and management of our racehorses. He tends to represent us at the Yorkshire and Midlands based racecourses and is in attendance at most of our yard visits.
Tom Gretton has been involved in the jumping side of racing for many years, but tending to concentrate on the Point to Point discipline until a few years ago, when he turned his attention to National Hunt racing under rules. Despite only being a full-time trainer for the last three years he has made a significant impression on the training ranks, especially with his ability to train National Hunt horses and place them exceptionally well in their races. Tom possesses a very decent run-to-win and place strike rate with his jumpers. His average win rate is approaching 10% and his win and place rate is an exceptional 33%.
Tom says "We don't have a huge number of horses - which is the way we like it - not that we don't have aspirations to have more! But we do get to know each of our horses inside out and so we can tailor their training regime and their race placement to suit them as individuals. Both my wife Laura and I are very excited at having Ownaracehorse as owners in the yard, and we are looking forward to meeting the shareholders at our yard and also at the races."
He continued "We have taken on this yard, and slowly built it up so that we can train winners, and in our first full season in 2012 we had great success with 12% winners and some great runs from our horses. 2013 was a bit frustrating, as we had a lot of horses finishing second, but we worked hard and got a few winners as well. But that's just how it can go sometimes, and I'm looking forward to the next few years where we can hopeful make our mark with better horses and some high profile wins as well."
Tom came to our attention last season when training a combination of young horses to do well, and also a number of older, mature horses and being able to either improve them or find races to win. He has the knack of finding really suitable races for his horses and making the most of their ability - which is highly commendable in a young trainer.
We are delighted to have Tom and Laura as trainers for Ownaracehorse and we are looking forward to contributing to their success over the coming seasons. They train from a medium sized yard in Worcestershire, but have access to over 20 racecourses within only a couple of hours travel. Very much a family business, there will be plenty of opportunity to meet Tom at our yard visits, as he has a very hands-on approach to training and speaking with his owners.
Tom Gretton's yard is based in the quiet country village of Inkberrow, close to Alcester, on the border or Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
Tom has stabling facilities for up to twenty horses and his dual purpose yard has a mixture of jumping and flat horses, although 80% of his yard is made up of jumpers. As well as walkers and paddock facilities, James has developed an on-site circular All-Weather gallop for his horses and then access to turf and All-Weather gallops a short walk away from the yard.
His paddocks extend to over 40 acres, allowing both the fillies and geldings, as well as the colts plenty of space to spend time out in the field when not in full training.