Nick Townsend talks to Ed Walker, loving life in his beloved Lambourn
Drive through Upper Lambourn’s twists and turns into Maddle Road on any morning and you invariably encounter work-riders on their mounts all bearing the distinctive Ed Walker insignia.
Maybe it’s just me, but there appears an ebullience about their bearing as they politely offer directions to Kingsdown Stables. If so, you can fully appreciate a sense of pride in their guv’nor.
If ever a man is currently at the top of his game it’s this hitherto nomadic 41-year-oldwhat you might deem an Ed-turner in terms of his progression since arriving here eight years ago.
Today, Walker trains more than 100 horses, and those work-riders are amongst a 40-strong workforce. In January, he finally introduced a state of permanence to the premises he took over when he purchased the yard from his landlord, owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen.
It is a timely meeting with Walker, coming shortly after Makarova has yielded him a 22nd Group win in his 15 seasons as a licensed trainer. At the time of writing, he boasts a strike rate of 19per centa figure mostly only comparable with such eminent figures as John and Thady Gosden and Charlie Appleby, who trains for Godolphin.
By nature, a sanguine, affable individual, you swiftly discover that Walker has a neat line in self-deprecation, a necessary quality for any aspiring empire-builder in this industry.
He readily turns acclamation of his current strike rate on its head. “You say we’ve got a great strike rate. That we’re going at 19per cent. But that means that four out of five runs are disappointing. And we’re going well! There are times when we’ve been going at seven per cent.”
He adds: “Why is it good this year? Better horses. Staff doing a great job. Having a happy team. Everything’s flowing. But it’s not something that bothers me. The only stat I do worry about is the number of individual winners to individual runners. By the end of the year you want to have at least 50per cent, maybe 45per cent of your horses to have won.”
It is inevitable that, when talking about his winners, we should first recall the previous Saturday when, under Hector Crouch, Makarova claimed the Group 3 Coral Charge at Sandown, his five-year-old mare having progressed from a handicap rating of 68 as a juvenile.
“We’re thrilled,” he says of his sprinter. “She was so horizontally laid-back to get going. She has been a real star who has progressed through the ranks.”
The Group 2 King George Stakes at Goodwood Festival could be next on her schedule. “It’s sort of ‘where do you go from here?’,” says her trainer. “The ground would have to be soft at Goodwood. I’m inclined to skip the Nunthorpe (at York) and go for the Flying Five at The Curragh. That would suit her better. And then go for the Abbaye (Group 1 The Prix de L’Abbaye at Longchamp). She ran well in it last year (beaten less than two lengths into sixth) and it was quite quick. Softer ground would help her.”
When, in 2016, Walker had moved from assorted rented locations in Newmarket to Kingsdown he was essentially coming home. Providence decreed that he should be raised – one of three boysby parents Tim, who was a commodities broker in the City, and Gilly, near Kingsclere, where Ian, and more recently Andrew Balding’s Park House Stables is based.
“Actually, it’s mainly Andrew’s fault I got into this mess!” he recalls with a laugh. “When I was in my early teens Andrew had just moved home to be assistant to his dad. My dad had a few syndicate horses with Andrew. They were trained under Ian’s name for my dad and a few of his mates. That was really my first exposure to training and racing. I just loved it. Other than Ballydoyle, Park House is the best private training facility. It’s amazing. That was my first taste of what a trainer’s life was like.”
After working at a stud farm in Western Australia, “doing yearling prep”, he spent two years with Roger Charlton (at Beckampton Stables, near Marlborough) before joining Luca Cumani at Bedford House Stables as his assistant. “I was there for four years. Then I started training at age 27, which is quite young.”
Remarkably, his first runner, Rig-gins, was a Listed winner. Though, as he puts it, with a wry grin, the gelding was “slightly trained by Andrew Balding.”
He adds: “I had bought him out of Luca’s yard and sent him to Andrew.” He ran four races under Balding’s charge, without winning, but was beaten only half a length in the Royal Hunt Cup. The gelding was then moved to rookie trainer Walker’s first yard at St Gatien Stables in Newmarket, and five days’ later dead-heated for first in a Listed race at Kempton.
Though not blessed by familial advantage – unlike Balding Jnr, Richard Hannon and othersa subject to which we would return, had he always believed, even in those early years, that owning a major racing yard could possibly be his destiny?
“When I was with Luca and would be riding a hack down the Bury Road, passing Freemason Lodge (Sir Michael Stoute), Carlburg (Roger Varian), I’d always think that one day I’d love to train from one of these yards – though you never really imagine you will. I ended up at Newmarket training at Warren Place (the late Henry Cecil’s yard) for two years, which was a real buzz. I always say that the only reason I’d go back to Newmarket would be for Warren Place.”
He adds of his eight years at Kingsdown: “I can’t believe it’s gone so quickly. We love it and the horses are happy here. We’ve just bought the yard off my landlord, Bjorn Nielsen (the owner-breeder of Stradivarius, amongst others). He wanted to sell and we managed to get that over the line early this year which was a big relief. So, we’re here to stay.”
He adds: “Unless I can’t pay the mortgage – which is very likely.” He jests, of course!
“Seven and a half years ago, if you’d told me ‘you’ll own this in seven years’ time’, I’d have said ‘Don’t be ridiculous’. But through a lot of luck, we managed to scramble enough pennies together and borrow enough to get it over the line.”
It doesn’t take long in his company to discern that Walker lacks nothing in confidence in what he can achieve here. “There’s that great quote, isn’t there?” he says. “‘The fear of failure is the biggest prohibitor to success’. I’m a big believer in that. I think if you’re frightened of what might happen…” He pauses, before continuing: “Yes, I borrowed an astronomical amount of money and if I think too much of what happens if we have a virus, a few owners pull out, whatever, numbers drop, then you’d never do it. You’d think ‘I can’t service that debt if I drop to 50 horses’. Then it’s game over.”
Or maybe you could say, to borrow a lyric from The Killers’ This River is Wild – he mentions seeing the American band at the O2 recently in a rare break from winning races and family life with wife Camilla and their three children – “It’s a long, long, long way down”.
Walker adds: “If you think about that too much, you’d never borrow the money to do it – and do what we’re doing.”
Does that include continuing to accumulate horses? Would around 200 be his target? He hesitates before answering: “I don’t think so, but on the other hand, we had just one runner last Saturday. Thank God she won, and won a Group 3. But there was good racing round the country, so part of me says ‘why had I got one runner?’”
His initial answer prompts the trainer to ask himself the question again: “Do I want 200 horses? Probably, because I want to be competing at a high level on a regular basis. I’d love to have 130, 140 very good horses. I think we have the infrastructure now to train that number.”
He adds: “You have to believe in yourself. It’s such a fine balance. You don’t want to be too gung-ho, but I don’t think anyone’s ever been successful in any walk of life without taking risks. You do have to gamble in some shape or form. And have luck – that’s a massive thing.”
He cites an instance of providence. “When Starman won the (2021) July Cup, there was flooding in Moulton and Woodditon (two villages near Newmarket) and he wanted fast ground. Yet there was not a drop of rain on the July course – that was so lucky.”
He adds: “I think we’d had five seconds over the years. I’d been training for 10 years and it slightly felt that we were never going to win a Group 1. But with Starman, I said many a time if this horse didn’t win a Group 1, I’ll never win a Group 1. He was so good.”
As much as Starman’s July Cup triumph provided that vital Group 1 breakthrough victory, it arrived a time of emotional turmoil. “It was a
really difficult time for me,” Walker says. “I’d just lost my dad in January that same year, at 69. It was too young. He was really the reason I got into racing. A real racing man. He loved it and he loved the fact that I was training. I’m so sad that he’s not here now. He’d be so proud that we bought the yard.”
The trainer adds: “It was really key, I think, more so than most people’s first Group 1 – because I was mentally very low. It was rather more than ‘Whoopee, we’ve won a Group 1’. It had much more meaning to it. Thankfully, thanks to horses like Starman and others, we had a really good season that year. Full credit to my assistant Jack Steels and the team around us; those guys kept the ship going when I was a bit distracted, certainly through the winter.”
The following year Dreamloper demonstrated that Walker was no one-hit wonder with two Group 1 victories in France.
As mentors, Rogers Charlton and Luca Cumani both had vital roles in Ed Walker’s education but ask him which figure has been most inspirational and he unhesitatingly provides a one-word answer:
“Stoute. I often think with a horse: ‘what would Stoute do?’ He’s just phenomenally patient. I would also think what would Luca and Roger do, but Stoutey just has that knack with horses, that feel. Ten times champion trainer. He’s unbelievable. I’ve got a horse now, Almaqam. He’s a big, beautiful horse, immature, and I think ‘what would Stoutey do with this horse?’ I know this horse will come good.”
I suggest that the manner in which he stayed on eye-catchingly in the St James’s Palace Stakes to finish five lengths fifth to Richard Hannon’s Rosallion indicated that 1m 2f could be his distance. Walker offers an intriguing insight in race-planning (an area in which he is assisted by the former jockey and friend George Baker) for a talented, developing horse.
“I think he needs to go up to ten feel the less we squeeze the lemon this year, the more the juice there’ll be next year.
“I have a wonderful owner in Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum who’s not going to rush me. It’s down to me to not stuff it up. Yes, there were three Guineas winners in there (at Royal Ascot) and he beat one of them. But we went there thinking ‘we’ve got a proper horse’ and that was a disappointing run. I want to go and win next time – impressively – wherever that is and for Almaqand to announce himself as a proper horse because that’s what I think he is.”
Talking of winning impressively, his English Oak’s imperious victory in the Buckingham Palace Handicap at Royal Ascot, justifying favouritism to surge clear by three lengths, can hardly have been more emphatic.
“Awesome, wasn’t he?” he enthuses. “Mind you, I’d been ribbing Oisin (Murphy) ever since Haydock (his previous race) he’d cost me a Royal Ascot winner by winning too easily. I told Oisin before Haydock, ‘make sure he wins but he needs to go up up 3 or 4lbs to get into the Buckingham Palace’ – so he wins by 4½ lengths and goes up 9lbs (to 99)!
“Oisin’s a good friend, but I was giving him a lot of grief for winning too well. I thought if he goes and furlongs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back to a mile,” says the trainer “I just think he’s not yet mentally switched on enough for a mile.”
“Earlier on in his career he was so laid back, looked like a slower horse. But he’s actually got a big old engine there and he’s quick. Tom (Marquand) said he was resting a leg down at the start (at Royal Ascot) and looking at the birds in the trees – usually how you want a horse before a race. But then the gates opened and he flopped out to his left, and was behind. He didn’t come round the bend well, lost a lot of ground, and then flew home. I was told he ran the second fastest last two furlongs of the week. Remarkable if that’s true.”
He adds: “I think he’s going to be a serious eight, nine, ten furlong horse. Next year’s his year. He’ll probably finish this season on Champions Day in the QE II (Queen Elizabeth II Stakes) or Champion Stakes; probably the QEII, and have one or two runs between now and then. I just gets chinned at Royal Ascot I’ll give Oisin a good kicking, but it wasn’t to be, thank God. He’s now 108-rated and into the deep end.”
At the time we speak, the son of Wootton Bassett is 6-1 for the Group 2 7f Lennox Stakes at Goodwood at the end of July (in which Walker has also entered Ten Bob Tony, his German 2,000 Guineas fourth, and Popmaster). The trainer reveals: “The July Cup was tempting. I don’t feel it’s a strong division, six furlong sprinting, at the moment. But he’s proved himself over 7f so we’ll stick with that,”
Walker turns to the yard’s quality juveniles include Celadine, who finished a length third in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly in mid-July. “She’s very exciting, very, fast,” he says. “Celadine has always done things very easily. She could go to the Molecomb (at Glorious Goodwood).”
Amongst his unraced two-yearolds on the ones-to-watch roster are “two nice fillies, Sorbus and and Bridget’s View.” and “a very nice colt called Desert Hero. He’s very exciting and really catches the eye, and Mister Rizz, a lovely Lope De Vega colt.”
Of his older horses, Waipiro, who was sixth in last year’s Derby before securing the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot, was then taken to Hong Kong with the plan to contest that Derby run at Sha Tin. “But sadly, he did a tendon there,” says Walker. “He’s come back, is rehabbing, and he’ll come back into training at the end of this year.”
Speaking of the Epsom Derby – in which Snow Knight was sent out from Kingsdown Stables to secure victory in 1974Walker’s English King, owned by Bjorn Nielsen and partnered by Frankie Dettori, finished fifth in the 2020 renewal. Winning the event is high on his list of aspirations? “Oh, yes. If I haven’t won the Derby when I retire I’ll be disappointed.” He says. “The Derby’s everything.”
For all that he appears cool and calculating, you suspect that, on occasions such as that 2020 Derby when his charge was second favourite, he is beset by nerves. “Yes, very, but I think that’s part of the reason why we do it,” he agrees. “That feeling of anxiety is addictive in a way. When I was younger, I used to enjoy bungee jumping and sky divingall those kind of things. It’s that feeling you get standing on top of a bridge and about to throw yourself out of an aeroplane.” You’re very lucky to have that kind of thrill as a job.”
He adds: “It’s pressure you put on yourself. Not pressure put on you by owners, though of course you want to please, to keep your owners happy. And you want to do well for the team. The only time I’m not nervous is when I don’t expect anything to happen.” He pauses before adding: “In which case it probably shouldn’t be running, I suppose!”
Ask him consider what advice he’d offer any young man or woman considering a similar career, and he warns: “You’ve just got to love it – because the minute you stop loving it, it’s so awful. If you don’t love it, you just wouldn’t do it. It’s too disappointing, too depressing. There’s so much bad stuff going on the whole time. There’s a lot more bad news than good news, training racehorses. You’re forever delivering bad news and that’s tough.”
Though his operation doesn’t have a retained jockey – “We’re not big enough yet, though hopefully we will one day” – Walker says: “Tom (Marquand) would be my go-to man. Has been for a long time on the big day – as is Oisin (Murphy), William (Buick), and James Doyle, all the big guns, and also Saffie (Osborne) has been great in the last few years. She’s a fabulous horsewoman She’s had something like a 25% strike rate for us this year.”
We return to Kingsclere, and the Balding stable, where Walker‘s interest in racing was first piqued. Andrew Balding’s yard is now well over 200-strong, and the trainer is currently second in the championship. “But not for a moment would Walker have welcomed what one might describe as a hand-me-down operation.
“The likes of Ralph Beckett, me, George Boughey, the guys who started with nothing, it’s so much easier,” says Walker. “It’s much easier creating something from scratch. It’s so hard for, say, Richard Hannon to better his dad though he’s doing an amazing job. Andrew is a custodian at Park House, Kingsclere. You’re always going to be judged against your father. It’s almost a responsibility and a pressure to not screw it up and hand it over to the next generation.”
He adds: “It’s only me who’s going to be disappointed if I screw this up.”
From the manner in which this resourceful character has returned close to his childhood home determined to create something special there looks no chance of that.
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