'We can do the job' - Golden Rules camp look to inspire smaller trainers with ambitious Ebor tilt

Golden Rules will fly the flag for Britain's struggling smaller trainers in the £500,000 Sky Bet Ebor Handicap next month as Deborah Faulkner, who has just 18 boxes at her Monmouthshire yard, looks to upset racing's superpowers in one of the highlights of the Flat season.

The Northumberland Plate runner-up is a 12-1 shot for the Ebor with Paddy Power for a stable that trained only its seventh Flat winner on Thursday, and it comes after data from the Thoroughbred Group and BHA last week highlighted a shift towards the bigger yards being responsible for a larger proportion of runners in British racing, with smaller trainers forced towards the exit.

Golden Rules started his career with five-time champion Flat trainer John Gosden, but could only win once. His new connections described him as "wired to the moon" after being bought for 6,000gns for owner Gareth Cheshire, but a switch to a smaller stable and almost two years off has helped the Golden Horn gelding realise his potential. He won impressively off a 638-day break at Kempton in March before going down narrowly in Newcastle's prestigious staying handicap at the start of the month and is now on course for the Ebor, a 'win and you're in' race for the Lexus Melbourne Cup.

Tom Faulkner, the trainer's son and assistant, said: "It shows what we're capable of. We might get into the Ebor and he might finish out the back, but at least we're going there with a live chance. We're playing it cool, but it'd be a dream for us. If – and it's a huge, massive if – he was to win then we'd have to think about the Melbourne Cup, and there won't be many small trainers who have a horse capable of running in that.

"A lot of the horses we get have lost their way, but we try to rekindle them as a more relaxed yard with a bit of swimming and hacking them out, rather than just going up the gallops all the time. A lot of praise has to go to my vet, and brother-in-law Conail McAdam too, We can do the job, we could just do with a bit more support.

"It's fantastic to have a horse of his calibre, he's even got a bit of a fan club now. We've had quite a few letters and cards saying well done with the horse – a young kid has even written to us and asked for a shoe in the post, which we'll be sending."

'He had a hell of a bump'

Golden Rules was all the rage heading into Newcastle after Cheshire said "it'll win" in a colourful television interview before the race, and he produced a mighty effort under Oisin Murphy when just failing to reel in Calling The Wind by half a length.

Faulkner added: "There was a lot of hype for the Northumberland Plate, thanks to his owner, but he got knocked and bumped about. He was cut to smithereens. He had a nasty nip on his tendon in the front, two nasty ones behind. He had a hell of a bump so we let him out in the field for a week after the race, we haven't even sat on him since Newcastle yet, but our vet has looked at him and says he's all right, so we can start a bit of work." 

Before this season, no horse trained by Faulkner had produced a Racing Post Rating higher than 70 on the Flat, and the yard understands the issues smaller stables are facing. Prize-money was identified as the biggest challenge, with low-rated horses described as unsustainable.

"We won a £6,200 race with Louis Treize at Chepstow last week, which is just over £3,000 to winner – that's absolutely dismal," the assistant added. "If you're lucky that covers your training for a month along with jockey fees and entries. You just about break even. It's not great.

"The cost of keeping these horses is much more expensive now: the haylage, feed, bedding, fuel, staff wages, rates and rent have gone up and inflation is all you see on the TV, but prize-money isn't going up. You can't break even unless it's a £10,000 race because most of the time it is costing the owner to go racing, even finishing fourth or fifth.

"Racing is the sport of kings, but at the other end it seems to be if you don't like it then bugger off. After all, it's the same cost to feed a 58-rated handicapper as it is an Ebor runner."

Read these next:

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'Wages doubled, feed tripled in price and our fees went up' - the current battles trainers face 

'You've got to do something' - trainers sharing yards could happen more often 

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