By Simon Mapletoft
Ian Williams has made a storming start to the new All-Weather season, going into December at the top of the trainers’ charts as he targets the £1 Million Bonus Scheme and Good Friday riches.
With last season’s top trainers Tony Carroll and James Owen making a surprisingly slow start to the new season, Ian Williams has emerged as a genuine challenger for this winter’s championship following a productive November.
Six winners in eight days took the Alvechurch handler to the top of the charts heading into December with 14 winners at an impressive strike rate of 23 per cent. Not only is he targeting the monthly bounty that Arena Racing’s innovative £1 Million Bonus Scheme has provided but he has a longer-term eye on some of the valuable finals at Newcastle on Good Friday.
“We had a slow start to the year but the form my horses were in back in the autumn has just rolled into the All-Weather season,” says Williams, who ended the British Flat season in style when Beylerbeyi won the Caserewitch.
The five-year-old, who was rated only 60 at the start of the 2024 turf season, elevated his official rating to 99 at Newmarket and could be heading out to Saudia Arabia in the New Year but the £175,000 Easter Plate at Newcastle is very much in his trainer’s mind.
“We have options with him now,” he adds. “He’s not a horse who benefits from being out of training for too long so Saudi or may be even the Sydney Cup are under consideration but getting him qualified for Good Friday is something I will seriously consider.”
Dominion Stables has enviable strength in numbers in the Marathon division, however, with the progressive Sheradann, equine millionaire Enemy and Oneforthegutter all possibles for the 2m championship. Fitri Hay’s Sheradann joins Enemy in the London Stayers’ Series Final at Kempton Park this week after the pair completed a one-two for Williams in a qualifier in October.
“He’s a funny horse but has shown his best form on the All-Weather and finished second in that final last year. He’s higher in the weights but couldn’t be in better form and is another who could fit the bill for Good Friday as well as some valuable races at Chelmsford City,” he says.
“Enemy was only just behind him last time. He’d struggled in the first part of the year but got his old gusto back last time. He’s won over £1 million in prize money so owes us nothing but is a high-class performer on the All-Weather with a turn of foot so he’s another real asset.”
Williams also has winter plans for his reliable Oneforthegutter whose only win on synthetics from a handful of runs was a Class 2 at Southwell two years ago. “When he won a heritage handicap at Newmarket in the summer off 92 I actually thought he was badly handicapped. He’s paid for it since but I’ll look to get him qualified for Good Friday, too.”
Whilst he holds a strong hand in the Marathon division (“I seem to get most of mine to stay”) Williams also has plans for 1m4f specialist Night Breeze. “He came back from his last race at Ascot in August with a fracture, even though he won it. He’s had some time off and has been working well in readiness for a winter campaign. He’s never won on the sand but has run some nice races at Newcastle, Kempton and Chelmsford.”
Enjoying his best ever year at Dominion Stables, a top-class facility nestled in 220 acres of West Midlands countryside, Williams is just as adept with sprinters and has hopes for his ex-French performer Purest Time. He hasn’t won on the All-Weather but showed at Newcastle in August that he’s more than capable of bagging a nice prize.
“Purest Time is only 1lb higher than he was that day and has had a short break. He’s a talented horse who has also run big races for me at Goodwood and York this year. He’s very adaptable so hopefully a nice prize will fall his way.”
Purest Time isn’t the only recruit with French form as Williams is sweet on the prospects of Nizam, winner of a 1m handicap at Deauville in August for Mario Baratti. “He’s a rangy sort who is capable of better and could be a contender for the Mile Final at Newcastle.”
He’s also taken charge of Deauville scorer Le Sid, a lightly raced three-year-old by Le Havre who promises to make his mark in 10f handicaps in the new year. “I’ll be looking at those kinds of races at Chelmsford with him,” he adds.
Successful at every British racecourse, Williams recently saddled his 400th All-weather when Tribal Wisdom, owned by his landlord Patrick Kelly, won a Wolverhampton handicap which secured him fourth place in the October and November Horse of the Month table.
He acknowledges the benefits the £1 Million Bonus Scheme affords to smaller owners and is specifically targeting the monthly pay-outs with a newly formed syndicate called Six For Joy, which includes Wolverhampton specialist Green Team and Newmarket placed Jodhpur Blue, who “could be an ideal Newcastle type.”
“The Bonus Scheme is a very good initiative that gives even lower rated horses the chance to win some big money. Look how well Pat Morris did with Tasever last season, winning the £100,000 Horse of the Year prize.
“The rewards are there for every trainer who is prepared to put the effort into it week in, week out, which is why we came up with the Six For Joy idea. We’ll pool all the prize money together and share it out among the stakeholders at the end of the season.”
Williams has largely relied upon the talents of Billy Loughnane – successful on Beylerbeyi in the Cesarewitch – but more opportunities will fall into the lap of another promising young jockey when the teenage starlet heads out to Dubai with Godolphin in January.
“Ryan Kavanagh is my apprentice and has done very well this year. He’s raised his game, got much stronger and is riding with lots of confidence. He will take up the strain when Billy isn’t around. Ryan’s dad Noel was my conditional jockey a number of years ago and his mum Claire was my secretary, which really ages me, but we go back a long way and I couldn’t be happier to have Ryan as part of our team.
“We’ll also give Dougie Costello rides, too. He almost rode a treble for me the other day, which would have been some achievement, while Eddie Greatrex has done well for us and can do those light weights and that’s really useful.”
Whether Williams can sustain his form long enough to repel the inevitable charge of Carroll and Owen remains to be seen, but with strength in depth from championship contenders to potential bonus winners, Williams is well placed to enjoy a successful and profitable winter.
