Slowly but surely

You don’t have to be a brilliant rider to make it as a trainer. As jump jockeys, Paul Nicholls and Philip Hobbs never rose above the middle ranks. Both have since proved to be exceptional at training jumpers. In ten years as a jump jockey Tom Dascombe rode only 96 winners, but as a trainer he is making his mark a lot faster.

Unlike Nicholls and Hobbs, though, and despite spending five years with leading jumps trainer Martin Pipe, whom he rates as ‘a genius’, Tom is concentrating on training Flat horses.

The explanation lies in simple economics: ‘I started buying all my horses on spec [without having been commissioned to do so by owners]. It can take a time to find them owners. That’s all right with yearlings for the Flat, but if you buy six jumpers and start looking for owners you could have four of them broken down before you sell them.