In our new column, Chris Wald, assistant trainer to Joe Tizzard, tells us how Venn Farm went from dairy farm to racing dynasty
Venn Farm Racing is a National Hunt racing yard at Milborne Port, currently home to around 90 horses, all trained by Joe Tizzard. I am Joe’s assistant trainer and I’m looking forward to sharing some of the highs and lows of the jumps season with you, as well as looking behind the scenes.
For our first column, though, I thought it would be good to go back to the start, to understand how the yard has become what it is today.
Joe’s father, Colin, started training horses in 1996, alongside his main business of milking cows. He bought two horses, The Jogger and Qualitaire Memory, so that when Joe turned 16 he could ride in point-to-points.
Each horses went on to win four races – and so began the start of both Colin’s training and Joe’s riding careers.
After training a few more point-to-pointers, in 1998 Colin was prompted to take out a permit to train under rules (professional racing). There was about to be a rule change which meant that new trainers would have to attend a three-week course to obtain a full licence – but Colin had cows to milk, and unless they started milking themselves, he couldn’t go anywhere.
Then he realised that if he already had a permit, he could get away with taking just a half-day course to gain his full licence – problem solved!
Meanwhile, Joe had gone to work for local top National Hunt trainer Paul Nicholls in Ditcheat, just over the border in Somerset. He enjoyed success as an amateur, winning the 1998 Cheltenham Foxhunters on Earthmover, before turning professional. He became Champion Conditional Jockey in the 1998/99 season.
Back in Milborne Port, Colin continued to improve the horses and facilities in the yard – Joe Lively and Hey Big Spender were early flag bearers, before Cue Card came along and took things to a whole new level. He won the Champion Bumper at the 2010 Cheltenham Festival as a four-year-old and went on to win 16 races, eight at Grade 1 level, amassing more than £1.4 million in prize money. The achievements of Cue Card allowed Colin to invest in expanding the yard to more than 100 boxes, and also to install new gallops and other facilities. Stars such as Thistlecrack and Native River followed, with the latter’s 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup victory a career highlight.
No more milk
After riding more than 700 winners, Joe retired
as a jockey in 2014. He became Colin’s assistant trainer, alongside his sister Kim Gingell, who was
an integral part of the yard and its success. She sadly passed away in 2020 after a short illness.
After a successful 26-year training career, in 2022 Colin passed the licence over to Joe. Until this point the dairy farm had continued alongside the horses, but it was finally decided that selling the milking herd and making the switch to beef cattle would allow Joe more time to focus on racing.
Now in his third season as a trainer, Joe already has more than 130 winners on his record, and has earned £2.3 million in prize money. He has also trained his first Grade 1 winner – Elixir De Nutz won the Clarence House Chase at Cheltenham last year, fittingly ridden by Joe’s nephew, Freddie Gingell.
And that brings us up to date – we are well under way with the 2024/25 National Hunt season which started in earnest in October, although there is jump racing through the summer. The end of the season is the last weekend in April at Sandown.
We have had a great start, with 32 winners on the board at the time of writing and a healthy 20 per cent winners-to-runners strike rate. The highlight so far has been JPR One winning the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter, one of the big early season races in the Jumps calendar.
New faces
Another really exciting theme has been the amount of young horses winning races this season: First Confession, Alexei and Western Knight have all won
Novice Hurdles and Tennessee Tango won a National Hunt Flat Race at Wincanton. Our owners have invested in lots of young horses over the last few years, and while this can require some patience, it is incredibly rewarding for everyone to see this approach paying off. Joe also bought two horses, Etna Bianco and Kool Kid, at the recent Cheltenham sales for existing owners. Both have form in Irish point-to-points, a proven source of horses that go on to have successful National Hunt careers.
With so many people and horses involved with the yard, there are lots of stories to tell!
Over the coming months, I plan to spotlight individuals from the stable staff and jockeys to the farriers, vet and physio, as well as keeping BV readers updated with how our season is going. December is always a busy month and the Christmas period will be made even busier for Joe this year – he and his wife Rachel are expecting their second child on Boxing Day … the busiest day in the racing calendar …
Very poor planning!
