Tom Ward broke into the training ranks in 2019 following four years as assistant to Richard Hannon and had somewhat of a transition period throughout last year whilst his yard was being finished.

Coming into the spring of 2021, it is clear that Tom has a good team and set up at home, with his horses running consistently well.

We are delighted that Tom has agreed to a regular slot on Race Sharp this year and his blog will be updated midweek every week, with his thoughts on his forthcoming runners out of his Upper Lambourn base.

To kick us off, Tom spoke about his transition through 2020 and on some of his horses to run in the coming days. He also nominates a potential flag-bearer for Race Sharp readers to follow this summer.

STARTING 2021 WITH A BANG

Our yard was built from scratch. It was meant to be completed in time for the start of last year, but Covid led to 8 months of delays. This was quite a challenge for us training out of three different bases, so it was tricky to establish a solid routine – COVID19 also did not do us any favours.

Our yard came into form towards the end of last year, but with the sporadic season, we decided to take a pull with a few horses, especially the backwards, slow-maturing types.

The yard is now finished, and the horses are all really happy and settled. We have 40 boxes here at Whitehouse Stables and we’ll have 35 horses to go to war with – ranging from juveniles to smart handicappers who can take us to the big meetings.

In terms of jockeys, Tom Marquand and Harry Bentley were both very good to us last year and we hope that we can get them on as many horses as possible this year. Hollie Doyle too if we can, but she is obviously very sought after. Our apprentice Laura Coughlan will get plenty of chances this year and has already ridden a few winners for us.

ONE TO FOLLOW FOR 2021

There are several to pick from! I will go with Raging Rascal. He’s a lovely big strong colt, who was left a bit short over seven furlongs at Kempton last time and will be better over a mile on turf. That last run will have blown away the cobwebs after a long absence.

He’s a proper horse and is very straightforward. He might even progress beyond the nice three-year-old handicaps later this year.

FRIDAY

Amanda Perrett did a fantastic job with Zhui Feng over the years, but it was probably nice for him to have a change of scenery. We bought him quite cheaply for 15,000 guineas with the aim of running in decent handicaps. Hopefully he will win a big one.

He won well on debut for us last time. We’ve decided to ride him a bit differently now, having been ridden quite positively in the past. We are now eager to save his energy in the running and let him do his best work late on in the race.

He has a nice draw on Friday and has Ryan Moore in the saddle. He should be well suited by the good pace, so I expect him to be bang there.

SATURDAY

Aussie Rascal’s wind went against him on debut, and he ended up having a wind op after that. He ran a nice race last time following his op and will have progressed again to this run. He is starting to get the hang of things now – I think many of the Australias take a while to learn their job; he is also out of a mare who has produced two siblings rated 90+.

He will hopefully be running in nice handicaps once he gets his mark.

NEXT WEEK

Valentine Blues won’t go to Chelmsford. It’s not her track, so I’m going to try to get her to Wolverhampton, but there are a few above her in the handicap. If she doesn’t get in there I will probably head to Southwell next week.

If we do go for Southwell, and she takes to the surface, I can’t see why she wouldn’t run a big race. I do know that some horses just do not handle it – full stop.

Despite her rating of 48, she shows me plenty at home and I think she will put it all in one day on the track. Once she does, she can hopefully run up a sequence.