FLAT racing’s dinosaurs don’t like living next door to Alice.
It’s probably because she has been showing them up at racecourses around the country.
Alice Haynes has made a flying start to the season thanks to horses like Maximum Impact
The young trainer has shaken up the training establishment in Newmarket
There is no Smokie without fire – and jockey-turned-trainer Alice Haynes is now one of the sport’s biggest smash hits.
Judging by the size of the squad she is getting ready for Royal Ascot in a few weeks, she has plenty of bright young things in her stable, too.
Not that it was guaranteed things would pan out quite as well as they have.
You see Haynes, 31, decided in the middle of the pandemic to quit the security of her pre-training business – where she prepared young horses for racing – to go it alone.
It was a huge gamble, and she started out from a rented stable with a tiny team of horses in ultra-competitive Newmarket . . . with its 64 other trainers.
She who dares, and all that.
Since firing in her first winner in March 2021 the Haynes bandwagon has only gathered steam. How does 89 winners and over £800,000 in prize-money in a little over two years sound?
And it has not gone unnoticed by the Newmarket establishment — a small number of whom haven’t taken too kindly to Haynes’ fast start.
She said: “We had to hit the ground running when we started out, it was so important.
“You can only win with what you’ve got and hope you attract big owners who will give you a break and send you more horses.
“Even now you overhear people saying ‘how did she get that horse’ or ‘how did she get that owner’. You need a thick skin.
“In general racing is a male-dominated sport and, unfortunately, a few people live up to the old negative stereotypes.
“There was an owner this year who decided to send their horses to other trainers because I am a girl, but that’s up to them.
“I’m better off not having people like that around the yard.
“What those who have a shot at us don’t realise is we’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into the business to get to where we are now.
“We started with a handful of horses and have had nothing handed to us whatsoever.”
That was quite literally the case with regards a few of her former owners. Some chancers disappeared without paying their training fees, making a difficult job even harder.
She continued: “We have learnt the hard way, I have had some owners who haven’t paid the bills and left me up the creek without a paddle.
“It’s not what you want in your first couple of years when you are spending so much money trying to get going, especially during the pandemic.
“Though it is even tougher for a lot of yards now with the cost of living than it was then.
“Everything is more expensive than it was this time last year, so everyone is feeling the pinch.
“I am very lucky to have some good and supportive owners now and you keep hoping there will be a superstar around the corner.
“From where we started to where we are now, we have made great progress and have some lovely horses in the yard.”
You can say that again.
Her two-year-olds have come flying out of the traps and it is just a matter of time before she notches her first Royal Ascot winner. When she does there will no doubt be tears, what with her family home being a stone’s throw from the racecourse.
She is not a one-trick pony, though, and has several older horses lined up for some of the big-money handicaps.
But it does look as though her main hope heading into the biggest week of the Flat season will be Maximum Impact — the unbeaten colt owned by footy super agent Kia Joorabchian.
Haynes said: “He is a very smart horse. I’ve been thrilled with what he has done so far.
“He gave me my first winner at Ascot earlier this month which was very emotional as it’s where I grew up. It was lovely and my mum was there to support me.
“We’ll probably stick to five furlongs with him in the Norfolk, though we will give him an entry in the Coventry as well over six.”
Haynes has had five winners in the last week — including debutants Majestic Beauty, Golden Arrow and Hala Emaraaty.
And earlier this month Haynes enjoyed a trip to Cork and did what few British trainers ever attempt to do — beat the likes of Ger Lyons and Joseph O’Brien in their own backyard to win a Listed race with Joorabchian’s Fix You who could step up to Group company at Haydock next week.
Haynes said: “Majestic Beauty will go for the Queen Mary after her nice win at Catterick while Golden Arrow will run over five in the Norfolk or Windsor Castle.
“We have some good older horses going to the Royal meeting too. We’re not just having a pop at the two-year-old races.”
“There are lots of ups and downs in this game so you need to be mentally tough, but if you can’t be afraid of taking a chance on these big days.”
Alice isn’t afraid, but the dinosaurs should be.
