Talking Horses: Rebecca Menzies making waves after relocating to County Durham training base

Earlier this week, we met again. “There’s a horse we really like called Von Blucher,” she said. “We need to see how he goes, but if everything goes to plan, he could run at Royal Ascot.” It’s safe to say a fair bit has changed in the last three-and-a-half years.

Having struck out on her own after her former employer, Ferdy Murphy, relocated to France, 27-year-old Menzies has rapidly developed into one of Northern racing’s biggest success stories.

When Tomkevi bolted up at Hexham last weekend, she was able to celebrate her 39th National Hunt winner, to go alongside the 13 successes she has recorded on the flat. Her string has more than doubled, from the 18 horses she initially began with to the 30-or-so she is responsible for today. And having begun her training career at a small yard in Brandsby, close to Easingwold, she now finds herself presiding over the palatial base at Howe Hill Stables in Mordon that John Wade once called home.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind,” said Menzies. “But after battling through some tough times to begin with, we feel like we’re getting towards where we want to go.

“The first yard was amazing, and it gave me a great grounding into what it takes to be a trainer on your own. I couldn’t have gone straight into where I’m at now because it would have been too much, too soon, but it got to a point where I needed more space to be able to grow.

“At the old stables, there was a three-month spell where we couldn’t use the gallop properly because the weather was a real problem. We were transporting horses two by two in the box to train them and weren’t getting finished until it was getting dark.

“I wouldn’t have changed it for the world, but there was only ever so much you could do because of the number of boxes. Then this place came along.”

Wade has been a well-known face on the Northern jumps scene for more than two decades, but having taken the decision to scale back his own training operation, the haulier was looking for someone to take over his yard.

His stable jockey, Brian Hughes, also rode regularly for Menzies. He put the duo in contact, and within the space of a couple of months, Menzies was moving into Howe Hill and taking over the training responsibility for some of Wade’s horses.

“The facilities are just amazing,” she said. “There’s everything here you’d find in a really top yard. The gallops are brilliant – they’ve never frozen or flooded once in all the time we’ve been here – we’ve got three individual horse walkers and an equine spa.

“There’s 100 acres of land, which is all laid out for horses, and there’s scope to build another stable block if we’re in a position to expand. There’s nothing missing. Actually, that’s not quite true. I’ve ordered one of those fancy coffee machines off Amazon for the office, and it still hasn’t arrived!”

Wade helps out every morning, preparing and maintaining the gallop, but this is very much Menzies’ operation. She employs six full-time members of staff and uses some of the leading jockeys in the North to ride out on a regular basis.

Training can be a stubborn old profession, with many of its practitioners stuck in their ways, adopting methods that have remained unchanged for the best part of half-a-century.

As befits someone who is not yet 30, Menzies is much more amenable to technical advances, and her attention to detail is clearly a key part of her ongoing success.

Her use of social media and the internet enable her to stand apart from a number of her peers, and is clearly popular amongst her owners, who regularly retweet her messages. She prides herself on refusing to cut corners, and buys in the same Bluegrass horse feed that is used at Gordon Elliott’s yard, even though it has to be imported from Ireland. “We use the same haylage as Mark Johnston too,” she said. “You wouldn’t have a top-class athlete and feed them rubbish.”

Last month, she spent a weekend in Ireland, visiting a host of top yards and spending time in the company of Elliott, who enjoyed such a successful Cheltenham Festival.

“You learn so much just from being around those people,” she said. “It’s not necessarily the big things, it’s more the little things you pick up. They have such big yards, but they know everything about the tiniest little thing that they’re doing.”

She has increased the number of flat horses in her care in the last few years, but remains committed to supporting the jumps, even if it is becoming ever more difficult to carve out a sustainable career from National Hunt racing in the North.

“The economics mean it’s unsustainable to just have jumps horses and effectively shut the yard down for four or five months a year,” she said. “Plus with flat horses, you can run them much more regularly.

“But my heart will always be with the jumps and I couldn’t ever see a day when we turned our back on that. It’s not like it used to be in the North, when people like Ferdy, Howard Johnson and Keith Reveley were winning big races, but I’m not one of those people who think that Northern jumps racing is dying.

“It’s in a tough place at the moment, but these things are usually cyclical and hopefully it’ll come back. And anyway, Lucinda Russell just won a Grand National. I don’t see too many people telling her she’s training in the wrong place.”

Could Menzies see herself winning a Grand National one day? “I wouldn’t say no,” she smiled. “The dream would be to have winners at Cheltenham or Aintree, but being realistic, we haven’t even got a horse that could qualify for one of those Festivals at the moment, let alone win there.

“One day, though, you never know. And there’s always Royal Ascot isn’t there. Maybe we’ll just have to leave Cheltenham for another year and win there instead!”

HORSES TO FOLLOW:

FLAT:

Geordie George

“He was sent over to France, but he’s come back now and should have a good summer. He finished third at Southwell last month, but he needs a fair bit of cut in the ground and you’ll only really see him at his best when he gets that. He’s one to look at really seriously when it starts raining a bit.”

Desert Way

“She’s a local horse, owned by a syndicate, Titanium Racing, that is based up at Newcastle. She ran very well at the start of the month when she finished fourth at Pontefract, and I think she’ll really come on for that. We’ve got her earmarked for some nice fillies’ handicaps, but they’ll have to be over a trip.”

JUMPS:

Clues and Arrows

“He’s owned by John Wade and if all goes to plan, he’ll be fairly busy through the summer. He wants good ground, and he’ll be aimed at some of the summer staying chases in the North. He seems to like it round Cartmel and he’s pretty consistent in terms of running his race.”

Celtic Artisan

“If he improves over jumps at the same rate that he’s improved on the Flat, then he should be on a useful mark. He’s another one that wants fast ground, so he’s ideal for summer jumping. He’s won over hurdles in the past and we’re looking forward to seeing how he goes.”