Dean Ivory — from mechanic and welder to enthusiastic and successful trainer

Trainers used to come into racing with Aunt Agatha’s legacy after a short service commission, having probably worn a trilby in their playpens. These days some come by different routes. To describe Dean Ivory as a small trainer, as the media do, is technically accurate but missing the point. Drive along a lane in leafy Hertfordshire, past care homes, stockbroker villas and driving ranges, and you come across an imposing set of electronically operated gates next door to a bustling premises embracing self-drive hire, recycling and road haulage. The commercial yard, run with brother Christopher Ivory, is a thriving business. Behind the posh gates next door and down an avenue lined with massive, expensive-to-trim yew hedges is the fun part, the Harper Lodge Farm training establishment run by second-generation trainer Dean Ivory.

Dean is as big or small a trainer as he chooses to be. His father, Ken Ivory, who trained from the same 100 acres of leafy Hertfordshire, also farmed and ran a haulage company.