'When you've looked at probably 5,000 yearlings, it isn’t a lot!' - Jamie Insole looking for flying start with new Flat venture

It has been full steam ahead for a brand new name among the training ranks with Jamie Insole now looking forward to a sizeable squad of two-year-olds when his partnership with Dr Richard Newland is rubber-stamped.

The former assistant to Charlie Hills will be responsible for handling a Flat team at what has been a predominately National Hunt yard in Worcestershire. With his boss's financial backing and the assistance of Matt Houldsworth, Insole has been in the fortunate position of being one of the busier buyers of yearlings.

"For about six weeks I went to every sale," he says. "Starting off with the Premier Sale, we purchased three yearlings there, another three at the Somerville, we went to Ireland at Fairyhouse, another five there, three at the Orby and then one from Book 1 and five the following week at Book 2. 

"We wanted to purchase 20 if we could, Richard had his own homebred and we’ve had another owner who is sending us a homebred. We should get up to 25 or 26, with maybe some more people sending us horses, and that would be a really good number for our first year."

Insole had a connection with Houldsworth as the bloodstock agent had bought Phoenix Of Spain, the Hills yard's Irish Guineas winner and now a stallion, and received a further recommendation of his services from another agent, Richard Ryan.

"We had a few meetings and we hit it off," Insole says. "Matt's obviously a young agent himself, he looks after a very big client in the China Horse Club but he was keen to get involved with us in the market at the prices we were looking at, especially with another young ambitious trainer with some interesting ideas. He’s got some interesting views as well. 

Matt Houldworth was involved in the buying operationCredit: Alisha Meeder

"We were trying to be very strict on what we bought. We wanted nice pedigrees and nice physicals, just because we’re mostly buying on spec and you need the good pedigrees to be able to sell them on to prospective owners. Twenty seems a lot to buy but in the grand scheme of it, when you've looked at probably 5,000 yearlings, it isn’t a lot!"

When starting with a blank page, the idea was to find a range of individuals to suit all customers.

Insole continues: "We’re looking at this as a good couple of years' plan to get ourselves really cemented in the Flat racing ranks so we bought a number of two-year-old types and backed that up with some very nice progressive types. 

"We bought a really nice Sottsass from Book 2 out of a Grade 2-winning mare, Up In Time, who has already produced a black-type winner [Beauty Crescent]. I could see her being an out-and-out three-year-old, a mile and a quarter or mile and a half horse.

"There was a lovely Mastercraftsman at the Somerville Sale out of a half-sister to Marienbard, who won the Arc, and at Tattersalls Ireland we picked up a Churchill filly out of Lightning Thunder, who was second in the 1,000 Guineas in England and Ireland. We thought we got her for a very reasonable price [€24,000], she was probably a little small but she’s done nothing but grow since we’ve got her. It's a brilliant pedigree and hopefully she can put it down on the track.

A half-sister to the useful Beauty Crescent (left) was among Insole and Holdsworth's selectionsCredit: Patrick McCann

"We also got a Lope De Vega from Book 2 and a day afterward the brother [Going The Distance] won quite nicely at Nottingham for Ralph Beckett and Marc Chan. I think connections were hinting he’s Listed or Group quality, so she seems quite a good purchase now."

This could be an even more hectic week for the former amateur jump jockey and pupil assistant to Alan King as, along with looking for a few older Flat types to bolster the squad at this week's Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale, it coincides with having to do his modules for the licence.

With a fair wind, Insole's name will run alongside that of the Grand National winner's on racecards towards the end of December and he's itching to get going, while many of the yearlings should have been broken in in by Jane Allison and Charlie Poste by that stage too.

"We could do with some horses that can get us out running and some winners on the board, maybe some we can try to rejuvenate and hopefully allow us to show off our ability to improve them," he says. "The more horses we can get, the better, and if we get good results we can maybe attract some new owners. But we have to buy nice horses first, get the results and hopefully the rest will follow."

The yearlings are the latest stage of a major investment by Newland, who has developed his purpose-built Urloxhey Stables near Droitwich in the last few years and decided this was the next step in order to diversify. 

"We worked out we could be looking at maybe 85 or 90 horses in the yard by Christmas, so we’ve really had to expand," says Insole. "We recently got some more accommodation so we can attract more staff. Richard has always operated at about 50-55 horses; he was up to nearly 60 jumps horses for the season but we’ve sold a few. 

"Richard is enthusiastic about it and he's really behind it. The first part is nearly done with the purchase of the yearlings, now we'll start to get some older horses and probably a couple of months later we’ll start trying to run and try to win with them. We seem to be working together well and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner really."

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