Bill Ratcliffe Racing

Bill Ratcliffe - The Trainer

BEl

Race horse trainer Bill Ratcliffe is a progressive, ambitious young trainer. He saddled his first winner, Bel Cantor, at Pontefract in July 2006. Since then he has saddled winners as far North as Ayr and Musselburgh and as far South as Brighton and Yarmouth. He has trained winners at every All Weather Track. In 2008/9 alone, he has trained over 25 winners and his horses to date have earned well over £200,000 in prize money for their owners.

Bill (centre) recieving presentation at Pontefract on 26th May 2006 after training his first winner, Bel Cantor.

Bill gained his experience with Stan Moore and then later as Assistant Trainer to Barry Hills. Then with limited resources and only 3 horses Bill started his training career in a small shared starter yard in Lambourn. In 2007 Bill took the opportunity to move to a private yard near Middleham in North Yorkshire. He and his team sent out 20 winners from this yard and also gained valuable experience of the Northern Racecourses. Bill is ambitious and aspires to train at the highest level and in April 2009 he relocated to his current base, Heyward Place in Newmarket. The yard and facilities are outstanding and within just 7 months the team had already sent out 14 winners and earned nearly £100k in prize money. He is quickly establishing himself in Newmarket as one of the up and coming trainers. Bill has an impressive strike rate and his winners tally and prize money earned has increased each year of his short training career. He has shown the ability to keep horses in form throughout the year and get the best from the ammunition at his disposal.

Highlights of 2009:

Eton Fable won the £20k Brighton Cup at the Brighton Festival at odds of 22/1. This was Bills first runner at Brighton.
Guto won the 11th race of his career and 4th of the year including a win at the Ayr Gold Cup Festival.
Bel Cantor won the 10th race of his career. Bill has trained Bel Cantor for all of the 10 wins and he was Bills first winner as a trainer and part of Bill first double.

Heyward Place is a beautiful private yard in a prime location on the Hamilton Road in Newmarket. The yard was designed and built by Grand National winning jockey, Bob Champion. The facilities are excellent and include: superb courtyard of 28 stables, washroom/solarium, covered horse-walker, 4 turnout paddocks, starting stalls on site, loading ramp and access to the best training grounds and gallops in the World. Bill has a team of experienced staff behind him and he is assisted by his wife Elena. They run a professional friendly operation and there is always a hospitable welcome for visitors.

6th August 2009 - Eton Fable (right) ridden by Travis Block winning the £20k Totesport.Com Brighton Challenge Cup over 1m4f. (Halfway House ridden by Jamie Spencer and trained by M L W Bell on left)

Trainers Record

2010

2009

Wins	Runs	%	2nds	3rds	4ths	Win Prize (£)	Total Prize (£)
14	122	11%	14	15	7	£55,747	£88,125

Highlights- There were many highlights from our first season based in Newmarket. Jethro Bodine our first runner from Heyward Place won at Redcar and then the same week our third runner Eton Fable won at Pontefract. We went onto have 14 winners and increased our win strike rate again by 2% to 11%. We increased our prize money total to £88,125 and in addition to the 14 winners we also had 14 seconds, 15 thirds and 7 fourths.
Eton Fable went onto also win the £20k Brighton Challenge Cup at odds of 22/1. Guto won 4 races through the year including a good win at the Ayr Gold Cup Festival. Colorus also won 4 races including one at Windsor and one win at the Yarmouth Festival. Style Award also won the 5th race of her career when winning at Windsor. Bel Cantor won 2 races during the year and took his career tally to 10 wins which was very special to us. Promising 2yo Olney Lass (by Lucky Story) ran 3 times and she followed up a good Nottingahm Maiden 3rd place with a close 2nd place at Doncaster on the last day of the season. We are looking forward to her getting back racing in Spring 2010. Overall a very pleasing year with the demands of moving yard and getting settled to have continued our progression and good results.

2008

Wins	Runs	%	2nds	3rds	4ths	Win Prize (£)	Total Prize (£)
10	117	9%	11	12	10	£46,075	£70,026

Highlights – Achieved target of 10 winners for the year, Style Award wins the 4th race of her short career, Guto wins four races in a year. Trained first double when Bel Cantor and Eton Fable won at Pontefract. Bel Cantor won biggest race of trainer’s career to date when winning the Class 2 Ripon Cathedral City of the Dales H’cap. Bel Cantor placed in the Ayr Silver Cup. Broke through the £100k prize money earned barrier after less than 200 runners. Doubled winner tally from previous year and also prize money up by over 50%.

2007

Wins	Runs	%	2nds	3rds	4ths	Win Prize (£)	Total Prize (£)
5	73	7%	8	7	9	£26,053	£42,256

Highlights – Style Award was trainers’ first 2yo winner and she went onto win 3 races in 2007. 40% of trainer’s runners finished in first 4. Won £42k in prize money which was three times the figure won in trainers first season. Bel Cantor won Class 3 6f sprint at Pontefract.

2006

Wins	Runs	%	2nds	3rds	4ths	Win Prize (£)	Total Prize (£)
3	26	12%	1	2	1	£11,659	£14,645

Highlights – Trainer’s first winner when in July, Bel Cantor, won a maiden at Pontefract. Achieved 3 wins, 4 places and £15k prize money from only 26 runners. Bel Cantor won twice in a week at Nottingham and the first of which was at odds of 40/1.

Trainer's Review of 2008

Looking back over the year we had to be very pleased, as Gutos win at Southwell on 4th November was our 10th of the year. The season started well with Style Award landing her 4th win when she won by 5 lengths under Richard Hughes at Lingfield. In March Bel Cantor went on to win at Wolverhampton with Guto winning the following day at Southwell, both well ridden by Kelly Harrison. My Kaiser Chief then landed our first turf win of the season in April at Thirsk and then narrowly failed to follow up over course and distance a week later when he was 2nd after hanging across the track in the finish.

July yielded our first double when Bel Cantor and Eton Fable won at Pontefract. After winning the Class 3 - 6f Sky Bet Handicap for the second year in succession Bel Cantor then went on to finish 2nd to Ayr Gold Cup favourite Valery Borzov in the Class 2 Betfred Sprint at Haydock under the promising apprentice Andrea Atzeni. Bel then went on to score our best career success to date when he easily won the Class 2 Ripon Cathedral City of the Dales Handicap in late August. He then went on to be placed 4th in the Ayr Silver Cup. During the year we have forged a good partnership with apprentice Kelly Harrison who put a lot of work in with the horses at home and rode many winners for us.

We would also like to thank our owners for their continued support in 2008. At the end of 2008 our focus was on relocating our yard to Newmarket which was a major task and with the help of staff, owners, family and friends we managed to get moved. We achieved good results in 2008 from limited ammunition and we look forward to increasing the quantity and quality of our horses. We will aim to settle quickly into Newmarket and use all the excellent facilities to achieve the best results for our owners. The relocation is a clear sign of our ambitions to train at the highest level.