Our Trainers - Ian Williams

Ian Williams - Trainer of Twentyfourcarat, The Goldmeister and Pirate's Gold

At 18, Ian went to Lambourn to join Jenny Pitman as Assistant. This was the vintage era of Royal Athlete, Garrison Savannah, Toby Tobias et al, and was a formative period in Williams’ development.  He admits he knew very little when joining Pitman, and was most grateful for the opportunity and responsibility given by Jenny.

In the early 90s, Ian spent 6 months with Martin Pipe at Pond House before joining Francois Doumen at Chantilly in France.  His time there coincided with a golden age for the yard, as the Gallic handler saddled The Fellow to land a couple of King Georges and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.  Ian also remembers that The Fellow was beaten a short head, behind both Garrison Savannah and Cool Ground in 1991 and 1992, before winning the ultimate chasing prize in 1994. Interestingly, he insists that The Fellow was not even the best chaser in the yard.  That accolade went to Ucello II, in the same ownership as The Fellow, who never raced in Britain.

In 1997 Ian returned to Britain to begin his own journey as a trainer.  Ian was introduced to Patrick Kelly, a very successful businessman, who shares a passion for racing and had a vision to create a state of the art training facility in the heart of the Midlands. Together, they have created an amazing training complex on the outskirts of Birmingham.  Kelly is also a successful owner and, it is a testimony to the training skills of Williams that, two of the Kelly string between them won no fewer than 29 races, Governor Daniel with 18 and The Prince with 11!!

Currently there are 75 horses in training and the yard has had over 400 winners, but Ian remains fiercely ambitious and continues on the quest for the champions.  The objectives are simple - improve the quality of the string and continue saddling the winners, most importantly the elusive Festival winners.

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