06.02.10 - A Commanding Start to 2010

We've had a tremendous start to 2010 with 7 winners and a 50% strike rate for placed horses.

Grey Command has won his last 3 starts from the front, all at Wolverhampton. He appears to relish the polytrack surface at Dunstall Park.

Steel Stockholder was back to winning form also at Wolverhampton in a class 4, 0-80 handicap over 7 Furlongs.

Lujiana has seen the winners enclosure twice already this year at Southwell over 5 furlongs and Fulford posted a win at the same course after running a promising 3rd on his previous run a week earlier.

It's already been a very exciting time for the yard and we are looking forward to building on this success for the season ahead.

Brittain eyeing a return to the 'good old days'


MEL BRITTAIN, one of the leading trainers in the 1980s, is making plans for a big comeback, writes Roy Briggs.

Brittain has taken on a new assistant trainer, Paul Eccles, who trained from Lambourn between 1995 and 2000 and sent out 50 winners before joining Mark Johnston as a yard manager.

Brittain, with a career total of 361 winners, has been quiet on the racing front in recent years having concentrated almost exclusively on his multi-million pound steel business.

"The goal is to to fill all 72 boxes in the main yard ready for next year, so that we can get back to the good old days," said Brittain.

"The steel trade has been so hectic over the last few years that racing had to take a back seat, but now I'm determined to rebuild the operation, and with Paul's help I'm sure we can do it."

Brittain owns one of the biggest training centres in the North of England at Warthill, near York, with two yards boasting almost 200 boxes on a 180-acre site complete with grass and all weather gallops.

He rents out parts of the complex to John Parkes, Noel Wilson and Declan Carroll, but the last named's lease expires at the end of this month and Wilson is also set to leave.

At his peak Brittain had a string of 80 horses, including more than 30 two-year-olds, but he has been down to only 16 horses, mainly home-bred.

He added: "I like nothing better than snapping up some cheap yearlings to give owners plenty of enjoyment."

Brittain's best seasons were 1987 and 1988 when he sent out 57 and 44 winners, and finished in the top ten trainers numerically.

In 1987 he won 33 races with 20 two year olds, and the whole lot cost only 23,300gns at public auction.