Ed Vaughan: 'I just don't see the future in training horses here'

It is three and a half weeks since Ed Vaughan made the biggest decision of his career but it takes only 90 minutes in his company to appreciate he made the right call at the right time.

His announcement to quit training in Britain at the end of the season was met with a mixture of shock, sadness and even frustration but, for the combined health of his bank balance and his sanity, there was only one outcome he could reach.

"I would never go down the route of it costing me money," says Vaughan. "Things have got tight on a few occasions but nobody has ever been owed a penny.

"What I'm doing is getting out before I'm in the position where it is costing me. I can see that my finances will probably never be any better than they are now but they will be significantly less next year if I continue to go on."

For a man who only last month celebrated one of the biggest successes of his training career and can count Derby-winning owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer among his supporters, it is a pretty damning illustration of British racing's landscape that someone with Vaughan's ambition and business acumen is essentially being wrenched from the only career he has ever dreamed of.

"I've got the best landlord in Colin Murfitt, he's a good mate and always looked after me," the trainer explains.

"When I said I was going he said he'd not charge me for months and months to stay on next year, which shows the type of man he is, but I told him he'd only be putting a patch on the puncture – it would be putting off the inevitable. I've got to get a new tyre and a new way of doing things."

Ed Vaughan: 'We're taking owners for granted'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Considering he is unsure what the future may hold, Vaughan cuts a contented figure at his Newmarket yard, which is ideally placed for morning work at the foot of Warren Hill.

There is no angst in his demeanour and he certainly has no axe to grind. Yes, he tells it exactly how it is when asked for his opinion, but he has accepted the situation and there is even a sense that a burden has now been lifted.

"It's probably been in my head for a couple of years," he reveals. "When you're getting down to around 20 horses and don't have star quality it's on your mind. It's probably not changed an awful lot since 2004 – the funding mechanism was bad then but when you're younger you'd race for rosettes.

"You want to train horses and making money doesn't matter but I've come to a stage of my life that I just don't see the future in it. With the numbers we've got it just doesn't make sense."

It is because so little has changed during the 16 years he has been training that more trainers and owners have been increasingly outspoken about their own fears of arriving at the crossroads at which Vaughan now finds himself.

The strain which the coronavirus pandemic has placed on their finances may be accelerating that journey but, when it comes to funding, British racing has been falling further and further behind almost every major racing jurisdiction across the globe for years. Ultimately, that is the reason Vaughan has decided to walk away.

"We were fine to accept that, because racing had to restart, things would be tough for a while after lockdown but we're so far behind the times," he says.

"I had an owner a couple of weeks ago who said he had his first horse in 1975, when it cost £8 a day to train. He said we're running for pretty much the same prize-money today but it costs a whole lot more than £8 to train them now. That tells you we have not moved."

Due to its history, prestige, variety and the fact the best of the breed have for so long competed here, racing in Britain has often survived in its own bubble, seemingly floating just beyond the wider worries of the world.

But Covid-19 has discriminated against no-one and no industry, least of all British racing, whose many frailties have been magnified as owners weigh up what, if any, value for money the sport is offering them. Vaughan is confident he knows the conclusion they will reach and it is why he struggles to see things improving.

Ed Vaughan with his dog Louis at Machell Place StablesCredit: Edward Whitaker

"I think you're going to see horses going abroad a lot more," he says. "Not necessarily sold but I think a lot of the owners are going to send them there.

"A lot of those twilight type of horses, who are racing here for £10,000 but can go over to Australia or America and race for £100,000, is where I could see a shift happening and it will leave a gap.

"Owners are becoming more aware. It's like we've suddenly moved on ten years and accelerated people's way of thinking. Who doesn't like racing in Britain? It's so unique. But is it enough? No, it isn't.

"No-one could see the pandemic coming but I think it has made people look and realise that it's a lot of money for very little sport and, even when you're winning, you're not actually winning.

"It's an easy product to sell if, like in Australia, you can win a £100,000 or £50,000 race. People will look at that as taking a bit of a punt or like buying a lottery ticket because if they win two races the year is all paid for. But when the money is constantly going out of their accounts, even when they are winning, it just doesn't make sense. I've had plenty of owners emphasise that of late."

He continues: "We're taking owners for granted. For years it's been a poor effort. I remember being at a certain track a few years ago inside the owners' and trainers' area and it was a Styrofoam cup, a tea bag and help yourself. Is that really good enough for the people who are paying to put on the show? We're at a stage now where we need to be more focused on keeping our existing owners and looking after them."

Come the end of the season the health of racing in Britain will no longer be his concern but that will never stop him caring and the man from County Cork passionately urges racing's many factions to unite before it is too late.

"If you're going to grow the sport and grow the industry, you've got to be more forward thinking," he rallies. "It should be self-funded I think. I don't have the answers of how we get there but one thing I can tell you is that everyone needs to get together and we need to work this out for the future, otherwise it's not going to have a future."

Considering what he would like to see in the BHA's next chief executive, he continues: "We need somebody who has run a successful business, who is a strong leader and they must have a passion for the sport. Knowledge and passion are the most important things. It's not me but I'm sure that person exists.

"We need people who will represent us – not just politicians. I know people like Mark Johnston, Ralph Beckett and Stuart Williams get plenty of flak but they do a great job fighting for us. I can assure you that if those guys didn't speak up, we'd be racing for rosettes. They believe in it and are trying to make the sport better."

Ed Vaughan and Dame Malliot at his yard in NewmarketCredit: Edward Whitaker

Vaughan describes training as an itch that has to be scratched and would never discourage any youngster from living their dream. However, if he had his time again he would most likely launch from a country where the rewards offer the chance to earn more than just a living.

The reason he has managed to stay afloat for 16 years based in Britain is down to the business model he adopted early on, which focused on trading horses abroad.

Thanks to his association with bloodstock agent Paul Moroney, he has been particularly successful with his exports to Australia, while he has also seen horses who have started their career with him thrive in Hong Kong and the US.

"If you're not trading horses in this country, it's virtually impossible to make it work," he says. "We always tried to develop the horses here and give them that European base, which they like in Australia and they're still winning four or five years later. They might have won 20 grand here but have won 400 grand out there. That's the only way."

The 45-year-old has never operated with a huge team but has consistently returned a strike-rate in the teens. He has also unearthed the odd gem along the way.

'No regrets' is the mantra he lives by but, granted a better rub of the green, it is not folly to think he might have found that big-race winner capable of changing everything.

Robin Hoods Bay, Mehronissa and Hikmaa have all won decent prizes for the yard, but what might have been had Dance And Dance got a clear run up the rail when runner-up in the 2011 Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot?

"He was a little warrior of a horse," recalls his trainer. "He should have won a Goodwood Mile, a Hunt Cup and the Hambleton at York. We took him to Canada for the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile. He travelled around on the bridle but was blocked in and had nowhere to go – he'd have won by a minute!

"It was a $1 million race and I was down to my last shillings at the time. It was $600,000 to the winner and we were so near, but we got through it. He was a great horse and took me to Dubai, America and Canada and always showed up. We've had plenty of 'nearly horses' who just didn't quite get it done and you just don't know what might have come of it if we'd won the Hunt Cup or that Grade 1."

The horse who best highlights his talent as a trainer is without doubt Robin Hoods Bay. Whereas the majority could not see beyond his blatant imperfections, Vaughan spotted the racehorse and nurtured him to eight wins, close to £200,000 in prize-money and a perfect result in the Group 3 Winter Derby. All in the colours of his long-term supporter and great friend Alan Pickering.

"Robin Hoods Bay gave me great satisfaction," he says. "I bought him cheaply [9,000gns as a yearling], he had poor conformation. He was a challenge to train – he was extremely unsound but he was a racehorse.

"He was a challenge the whole way through but it was a great day when he won the Winter Derby."

While a few good horses have come along, there is no getting away from the irony that, just as he prepares to walk away from it all, the one he has been searching for over the past 16 years is standing just yards from the front door of his red-brick house tucked away in the corner of Machell Place Stables.

Ed Vaughan stands with stable star Dame MalliotCredit: Edward Whitaker

Dame Malliot, a gorgeous and towering presence, is "the best I've trained without a doubt" according to Vaughan, yet even after last month's Group 2 victory in the Princess of Wales's Stakes on the neighbouring July course, her trainer was not tempted to delay his bombshell.

"Perhaps a bit of me thought that if it's taken this long to find her, will it take me that long again to find the next one? That's the reality – they don't come along that often. At this stage of my career I'm a realist."

Hoping to sign off with a bang, he continues: "I imagine she'll go to Germany for the Preis von Europa on August 15 but we'll enter her in every fillies' Group 1 race. She'll have an entry in the Romanet and Vermeille, and the EP Taylor in Canada is an option too. I think she'll win one."

An exact date for his departure has not been set and it will not be before Dame Malliot has been given every chance to land her Group 1, but come next year his name will no longer be on the training roster in Britain. That is not, however, to say he will not be training.

"I'm not under any pressure to rush into things and we'll see how the next few months play out," he says. "I'm taking away great friendships and it's on to the next journey with no regrets.

"If I want to continue training I'll have to leave Britain. I don't know where I'll go and I'll just take my time but the thought of starting something new is exciting.

"Nothing will give you more pleasure than training. It's 85 per cent disappointment but the buzz of that other 15 per cent and having winners, there's nothing like it.

"Racing is different everywhere but, at the end of the day, horses are horses and the key wherever you go is keeping them sound, happy and mentally wanting to do it."

Where Vaughan is concerned, our loss will no doubt be someone else's gain. The sobering question his departure raises is how many more might follow?

Dame Malliot wins the Princess Of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket in JulyCredit: Pool

Cecil was a calming influence in the early days