There is a spellbinding beauty to the North Yorkshire countryside around Middleham and on a misty morning in March the possibilities seem endless at Thorngill stables, home to Group 1-winning trainer Ed Bethell and around 100 racehorses.
It’s the first gallop morning of 2025; steady canters and conditioning work have been the order of the day until now when the serious stuff begins. Instructions are handed out, assessments are made, plans are formed.
As the horses thunder up the seven-furlong Polytrack gallop on the Low Moor, their every move is captured on a smartphone, a sign of how the sport, especially communication with owners, has changed in the years since Ed’s father, James, began his own training adventure in 1975, taking over from dual Derby winner Arthur Budgett.
Bethell senior, who retired at the end of 2020, enjoyed big days with the likes of Rich Ground, Strawberry Dale and Mine but never trained huge numbers – his best campaign in 1977 produced 25 winners – or secured that all-important top-level triumph, as his son did when bargain-buy Regional claimed the Sprint Cup at Haydock in 2023.
Regional is the headline act among a cast that has propelled Ed up the trainers’ table. His first season yielded 22 winners, a figure matched in 2022, followed by totals of 43 and 58 last year, when Mickley shone brightest with his success in the Britannia Handicap at Royal Ascot.
I wanted to build things up quietly, quality over quantity
It’s been some progress in a short period for a man whose apprenticeship included spells with Fasig-Tipton, Coolmore Stud, Gai Waterhouse and Charlie Hills.
“Basically, I thought I’d have to make a name for myself in the first five years of training racehorses or I’d be forgotten,” explains Bethell, helping himself to a breakfast of low-fat yogurt with banana – bacon rolls are off the menu for the time being – in the office after supervising third lot. “Whether that’s right or wrong I don’t know, but I’ve seen plenty of good trainers not achieve as much as they might have done in the first five years and slowly go down.
“I wanted to build things up quietly, quality over quantity, and now we’re getting the numbers too. That will push up the quality. Winning a Group 1 has been the catalyst and hopefully we can continue to compete at the highest level.
“However, I’d say the biggest change has been in the past year, after Mickley won at Royal Ascot – and that was just a handicap. That’s when the bigger numbers started coming, along with the bigger owners. It might also be the case that people had been monitoring our stable and seen the consistency.
“I’ve never told anyone what my targets are because I don’t want to embarrass myself, but I always had it in my head that after five years I wanted 100 horses.”
While Mickley has moved on, now plying his trade in Hong Kong for the Siu family, Regional remains in the care of Bethell, who is hoping for a clean run with the Territories gelding bought for just 3,5000 guineas – possibly the cheapest thoroughbred in the stable.
“It was just luck”, Bethell replies when asked how he picked Regional out of Richard Fahey’s offering at the horses-in-training sale. “The Future Champions came to me in the February of my first year – I hadn’t trained a winner at that point – and said they were thinking of starting a syndicate and wanted me to train for them.
We hope he can win another Group 1 this year
“Two weeks before the Tattersalls July Sale, they rang me and said they wanted to buy a horse. I asked Tom Biggs, who works under the banner of Blandford Bloodstock, to find me a fun horse that might have won a few races for 20 or 30 grand. He gave me a list and Regional popped up.
“He’s had issues with his wind – that’s why he was cheap. I didn’t do anything special with him, but he’s never looked back. On his first run for us he won a Class 2 handicap and paid for himself in one run. We hope he can win another Group 1 this year. The King Charles III Stakes [in which he was second to Asfoora last year] is a likely target but Haydock will always be the big plan.”
Buoyed by their success with Regional, who has also helped showcase the ability of stable jockey Callum Rodriguez, the Future Champions now have four horses in total at Thorngill, just one of the shared ownership groups supporting the Bethell yard, which also runs its own in-house syndicate, Clarendon Racing.
The trainer says: “Syndicates are huge because there are a lot of people that can’t afford to own a horse outright and it’s the perfect way to get involved and enjoy racing at an affordable rate. This is an expensive game. I’d say around 20% of my horses are syndicate-owned.
“With Clarendon it’s an all-inclusive rate – members pay one fee once a year and it’s a great bunch of local owners. The Future Champions have been with me from the word go and are fantastic to deal with.”
Alongside the syndicates, owners like David Armstrong, Chris Wright and Philippa Cooper, Julie and David Martin and recent joiner Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, who has supplied three juveniles, give the stable strength in depth.
Bethell has over 40 two-year-olds on his books this year, while among the three-year-old cohort Danger Bay and Callisto Dream are singled out for their talent, along with lightly-raced four-year-old gelding Paborus.
Whether syndicates or sole owners, communication is vital
He says: “I feel lucky to train here and I’m fortunate to be in a beautiful yard. That’s due to my parents and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity they’ve presented to me. I don’t take it for granted.
“Dad’s owners supported me and then others came along. I met Julie and David when I worked as assistant to Charlie Hills. They chucked me a bone and now they’re my biggest sole owners with eight horses here.
“Chris Wright loves to give young people a chance. He’s been very good to me along with George Scott, Jack Channon, Charlie Hills, the Johnstons – he’s a big supporter of racing who puts a lot of money into his breeding and enjoys the videos we send him.
“Whether syndicates or sole owners, communication is vital – it’s about looking after people. If you don’t keep in touch, you’ll fall behind your contemporaries. We film all the gallops – life is so much easier with WhatsApp.
“Look at George Boughey. He’s around the same age and doing extraordinarily well. George is way ahead of all of us on social media – he’s the hare that sets the trail and we’re trying to catch him. It’s important to note what others are doing.”
He continues: “The owner demographic has changed dramatically in the last few years, comparing the type of owner we have now to what dad had when he was training.
“Dad always had nice owners, good owners – friends more than anything. Fortunately, I’ve been supported by some very wealthy people who have bought some expensive horses. I have no doubt that if dad had the same backing, he would have been equally successful.
“I have had to be a little bit more aggressive with my approach to change things. But ultimately people come here because of the results. I think the stats are probably what has made us a desirable location for horses to be trained.
“There’s a lot of good northern trainers – it’s a much stronger scene than it used to be. When I was assistant trainer to Charlie Hills, you could bring a well-bred horse up here and win a maiden quite easily. You can’t do that now because of all the powerhouses in the north.
“Pioneers like Mark Johnston made it not so taboo to have a horse in the north. I’m merely latching onto people’s coat-tails.”
With Group 1 and Royal Ascot milestones achieved, Bethell is reluctant to discuss targets for his growing string – planning permission has been sought for further expansion – but the rise in quality necessarily means the 31-year-old trainer has lofty ambitions.
A Classic would be the next thing to try and knock off the list
“A Classic would be the next thing to try and knock off the list. But how many Classics have been won from the north of England?” he says. “That is the challenge.
“Andrew Balding has proved more than anybody that you can be on your own and fight for the championship. The same goes for Ralph Beckett.
“Being supported by the likes of Sheikh Ahmed and Fiona Carmichael, who are able to invest at the sales, and Philippa Cooper, who can produce pedigrees beyond pedigrees, will give me a better chance of getting closer to my goals.
“What we’ve made our name on is horses that are pretty inexpensive and gone on do to well – that’s my bread and butter and I don’t want to get away from that or what I’ve created here.
“The people who’ve looked after me from the start will hopefully look after me if we get any bigger – and I’ll look after them. I want to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Bethell is quick to praise the rest of his team when his achievements are highlighted. Assistant trainer Keith McGloin is “exceptional – as good a horse person as you could wish to work with”. Secretary Sammy Jo Bell, the former jockey who still enjoys riding out is “incredible – she runs the joint and I’d be lost without her”, while Marianne Pamment, who manages the finances, “keeps us all in check”. Parents James and Sally are deeply involved in the smooth running of the operation and wife Milly manages the owner communications.
Bethell Racing employs 24 people full time, including nine work riders from the subcontinent. Given the staffing issues facing the sport, the trainer is grateful to have them on board. “I would find life very difficult if we didn’t have them,” Bethell says. “They’re brilliant people and they have wonderful manners. You can rely on them and that’s important.”
I think we we’re way too negative about our wonderful sport
Despite the prospect of having to put his fees up in the next 12 months following an increase to employers’ National Insurance contributions, optimism abounds at Bethell’s outfit, although some aspects of the sport frustrate him deeply. “We need to sell our product better,” he says. “We have the best racing in the world, but the sport isn’t sold like it is in Japan or Australia.
“I’m confident there’s more intelligent people than me that can work together and create something, but everyone seems to be out for themselves, trying to be a hero for their own sector of the industry.
“Also, I think we we’re way too negative about our wonderful sport – the Racing Post could show racing in a far better light than it does. That’s my honest opinion.”
Owners who ring up when Bethell is doing evening bath-time with three-month-old daughter Sienna are a more minor irritation. Family is all important; he is supportive of his parent’s endeavours with the Jessica Bethell Charitable Foundation, named in memory of his sister, who died of meningitis in October 2012.
“I think about it every day – it’s a massive part of my life,” Bethell says. “She worked incredibly closely with mum and dad before me. That’s why I went around the world; she was always the one likely to take over here. Jessica was a significantly better horseperson than I ever was, without a shadow of a doubt.
“I don’t talk about it very often, but a lot of what I do is for her. It’s still pretty raw, even though it was over 12 years ago.”
He adds: “From the day dot, I always wanted to be a jockey or a trainer. Being a jockey went out the window when I was about eight years old – I’m 6’4″ – so training was the only thing I ever really wanted to do. I’ve never wanted to do anything else.”
“I’d rather put his name on the tin”
James Bethell knows the racing game inside out and couldn’t be prouder of what his son has achieved during his short time with a licence.
His own training career started at Whatcombe at the tender age of 23, succeeding Arthur Budgett, the man who bred, owned and trained the Derby-winning half-brothers Blakeney and Morston.
Bethell senior enjoyed a promising start – a Royal Ascot winner arrived in 1977 with Celtic Pleasure in the King George V Handicap – but he quickly realised the challenges of his chosen profession.
“I’d love to have travelled [like Ed] – that’s my biggest regret – but I couldn’t say no to succeeding Arthur Budgett,” he relates. “The world was my oyster when I took over.
“I had a really good last season there, then went to Whitsbury with a full yard of horses and subsequently got the most appalling bug.
“I’d been to Ostend with a decent horse, sharing a horsebox with Peter Walwyn, and they both came back with a virus. It nearly wiped me out completely.
“That’s always your dread as a young trainer. If you can keep that upward trajectory then everything’s good. When you get a dip it’s amazing how quickly people walk away.
“Had I continued on an upward trajectory, things might have been very different. But I lost that momentum; thankfully my son hasn’t.”
After moving around, Bethell and his family settled in the tranquil location of Coverham, Middleham. He has witnessed the area’s upturn as an elite training centre.
“Karl [Burke] has really broken the trend with Arab owners up here,” Bethell says. “Mark [Johnston] had them originally but the stable has fewer now, hence they’re perhaps not getting as many Saturday horses as in the past.
“I was going nowhere – on 30 horses maximum – and a lot of my owners were dying. Older trainers get to a stage where they’re not attracting new blood; I recognised that fact, so I said there was no way I wanted to have a joint licence. I’d rather put his name on the tin.
“To be fair to Ed, if he’d been training in Newmarket and had similar success, he might have 200 horses by now.”
He adds: “He’s a bloody good boy and I’m seriously proud of him.”
