William Haggas Q&A: 'I want to have 40 or 50 four-year-olds next year - I’m going to be like a jumps trainer'
The trainer talks to former jockey Georgia Cox about stable favourites, racing overseas and the media in a wide-ranging Q&A
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This week we focus on a Q&A with trainer William Haggas, which featured in this week's Weekender. The Weekender is out every Wednesday and is available in all good newsagents, or you can subscribe here.
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My first job in racing was with William Haggas at Somerville Lodge and I spent eight influential years there. The standards are set high in the yard and are ingrained in my mind as to how an operation should be run.
Every activity is meticulously planned, from nurturing each horse as an individual to the relentless pursuit of excellence as a whole.
Haggas combines traditional, old-school values with a forward-thinking approach, ensuring he remains relevant in this ever-evolving landscape. Somerville Lodge will always hold a special place in my heart – it was the location of the job that got me hooked for life and it’s where I learned the trade I love.
Here, I sit down with Haggas for a fascinating Q&A.
Georgia Cox: You’ve had a few unexposed types make a big impression recently, such as Almeraq. What path do you think they’ll take going forward?
William Haggas: I think they’re a pretty useful bunch. We don’t ask them too many questions too quickly, but we’ve got some nice three-year-old colts especially and Almeraq is a very nice horse, as is Merchant. There was one who came out of the woodwork in July, Binhareer, who won at Ayr and was then runner-up at Newmarket last week. We’ve run three horses in three different weeks at Ayr; all went for the ground, all got it and all won. The lack of soft ground – I’m sure every trainer tells you this – has just killed us, because you can’t get into any rhythm. Poor Hamish has been ready since April and there aren’t that many races he can run in. He got to go to Goodwood in June when it was wet, but otherwise it’s been really frustrating with him and lots of others. But then I guess everyone has lots of others.
GC: I’ve noticed recently a lot of your winners are homebreds
WH: People always ask me what percentage of our two-year-olds are homebred and I always think about 40, which is probably right. But yes, it’s nice to get families that you’ve known before, that’s the chance we have in our position, which is a very good one. I’m not complaining but the three big battalions now are Coolmore, Godolphin and Juddmonte, and they breed the best horses and we don’t train for them. I’m not complaining, I’m just stating a fact. The best yearlings that go to the sales are bought by the top eight people and we’re not really in the game for those, so the only chance we have is the homebred that nobody has a chance to buy and we get to train. And we’re very lucky in that aspect – we get some beautiful homebreds.
GC: As a member of the Pattern committee, you’ve been a part in changing the City of York to Group 1 status. Are you pleased with the way it’s been received?
WH: It’s certainly not all my doing but there was an appetite for a Group 1 at the distance, which I’ve always believed should happen. One Master won the Prix de la Foret three years running and that was the only 7f Group 1 in Europe for four-year-olds. York is such an ambitious track and they deserve it – they put the prize-money up to half a million to encourage people to run their best horses there. Personally, I don’t particularly like the 7f track at York, I think it’s a strange one, in that they often race in single file. It’s very difficult to hold one up – there’s a real speed bias, as shown in the Criterion Stakes. If you have hold-up horses like More Thunder and Lake Forest it’s difficult. I’d have prefered for it to go to the Hungerford Stakes, but Newbury doesn’t have York’s ambition so they deserve it.
GC: Winning the Juddmonte International with Baaeed must have been pretty special. Have you seen many of his foals?
WH: I haven’t seen that many. I obviously saw the foals that went to auction last year that were well received, as they would be, and I’m looking forward to seeing the yearlings.I hope very much he’ll be a top stallion because he was a top racehorse.
GC: There’s pressure that comes with nurturing a stallion’s career – does that make training the likes of Hamish and Al Aasy, both geldings, more enjoyable?
WH: A stallion’s career is a completely different thing. We gelded Al Aasy once we realised he wasn’t going to be a stallion, and Hamish was gelded early and Dubai Honour was gelded as a two-year-old. Addeybb was gelded before he ran. In my opinion, in all four cases they wouldn’t have been what they were if they hadn’t been gelded. So we’re careful what we geld but once we’ve worked out that they’re not going to be stallions then we geld them, and then if you look after them when they’re young they’ll repay you. With Hamish, we’ve never run him on anything other than soft – we’ve run him on the all-weather a couple of times and he hated it. He’s kept going and is still running to a mark of 115-plus because we ran him only when conditions were in his favour. Also, when you wait you have to have them ready to go. People ask if I’m going to run Al Aasy in a Group 1 again, but I said what’s the point? He ran in the Hardwicke, a Group 2, and got beat. I’m not saying he wasn’t good enough but it didn’t set up well for him – what he likes is five-runner races where he can feel like Nijinsky and he was really good the other day at Goodwood. He’s a good horse and the handicapper has put him back up to 115 – the only reason he’s doing that aged eight is because we haven’t hammered him.
GC: Do they both have plans for life after racing?
WH: Oh, yes, for sure. Shadwell and Godolphin have their own retraining programmes and keep them for life. Shadwell will obviously look after Al Aasy. Addeybb has gone to Godolphin and they absolutely adore him.He’s one of their flagship horses, as he’s such a kind horse, and I have no doubt Dubai Honour will go there as well because he’s the same. I mean, anyone could ride him; he’ll be lovely. And Maureen [Haggas’s wife] will have Hamish for the rest of his life. We still have old Harris Tweed – he’s marvellous. He’s an 18-year-old and he has a great life under the care of Bizzy Budden, who was with us for years, and rode him when he was in training and still rides him out hacking now.
GC: What’s your opinion on geldings in the Arc?
WH: I don’t have a strong view either way. There are massive opportunities for geldings outside of the Arc, and I think what they’re trying to do is protect the breed and in a way that’s right.
GC: Do you feel like you have to be more open with the media these days?
WH: You have to respect people for the job they do, but all the good journalists want something different. If you make an official statement, you get three journalists ringing you and saying, “Yeah, I’ve read your statement,” because they want a different angle. They don’t just want to churn out Press Association stuff. In the old days, there used to be a press conference if you won at Royal Ascot. Always when you had said everything, you’d get Richard Evans – at the time – coming up afterwards and saying this, that and the other, trying to get a different angle from what I’d told everyone else, to make his piece look different. It’s lovely having a good horse; people want to talk about it – there aren’t many people ringing me at the moment. But social media has changed the world, never mind racing. I see more trainers filming as they go by rather than actually looking at the horses. Lester Piggott always used to say, “The more you say, the less they listen,” and it’s the same principle.
GC: M3 Media – the company that does your social media output – seem to do a good job
WH: Well, it costs me a few quid. I was told to get a website first, so I did that. I don’t think anyone looks at it, and now I’ve got M3 Media, who are excellent, young and forward-thinking. The only instruction I give is that I don’t want any of me on there – nobody wants to see me – but the staff, the horses, and the yard are all there.
GC: A young trainer once told me that the only way he can make money is by selling a nice horse overseas. With the prize-money available abroad, does that ease the pressure to sell when you know you can secure a big pot somewhere? Do you remember having those concerns when you started, or is it now harder to make it pay?
WH: I think it helps that I’ve been doing it a long time and I think most of the owners trust me. I find they get more upset if I say I don’t want to train them anymore or suggest trying a new trainer. I don’t want Cheveley Park to see their colours trail out the back of the field, as it upsets them and I. They don’t mind winning a small race up north, as long as they can win or be thereabouts, and they’ve always been like that. I’ve tried to adapt that approach for everyone else. I’ve got a filly for Shadwell at the moment and I can’t win with her. I told Angus Gold [racing manager] that the day she wins, he can come and pick her up because she isn’t going to win two – or we’re not going to try to find out if she can win two. So I think if I want to keep one, most people usually listen. This year will be very interesting as I want to keep a lot of three-year-olds into their four-year-old career. I’ll have 40 or 50 four-year-olds next year. I’m going to be like a jumps trainer but I’ve got some really nice horses.
GC: From 29 starts in Australia, you’ve accumulated more than $15 million in prize-money. Has your global success attracted new owners? I see Caviar Heights is now owned by Rick and Kerry Smith, who paid 520,000gns. Are you now more comfortable doing that, knowing the successful route to get that investment back?
WH: Rick bought into Beaten Up and I’ve always kept in touch with him. My son Sam was on to Caviar Heights last year after he won at the Guineas meeting for Karl Burke. He said, “This is a serious horse,” – he then ran back in the Dante and got stuffed by Economics. I said that can’t be a good horse, and he said, “That’s a good horse.” I told him to write to Rick as he might want to have a go. He wrote to him and valued him between £300,000 and £400,000. When I saw him, I rang him up and said, “You have a letter from Sam, he’s going to be around £600,000, but I’ll bring him to Australia in 2026 if you buy him,” and he said let’s go for it. He bought him for 520,000gns, with his daughter, who’s lovely.
GC: Why did you have him gelded straight away?
WH: Well, I gelded him because he wasn’t going to be a stallion. If we’re going to get him to improve from Karl Burke, we’ve got to do something different – something he didn’t do. And one of those things was gelding him. But it doesn’t suit all horses, I’ve come to learn. When we cut Desert Hero I don’t think he was ever the same. And Dubai Honour – we gelded him at the end of his two-year-old career. In March, he looked like he’d had six races, sour as anything. We had Yogi Breisner come in, and I said to Yogi, “I don’t know what to do with him.” He told me to send him to Laura Collett. Well, he came back six weeks later completely transformed. He was as sweet as a nut, finished fourth in the Britannia and from then on never looked back. And there’s no doubt she made him. Maureen is very good at thinking outside the box with things like that. He was rated only 89 then and now he’s 118.
GC: Would you ever set up a satellite yard in Australia?
WH: We’ve looked at it, Andrew Balding and I. When Addeybb was down there Harry Eustace was going to train them, we had it all sorted – the property with an agreement for 20 boxes. We also planned to do a thing for the staff, having our winter in Australia, and the Australian staff coming up here. We were going to quarantine at Andrew’s Kingsclere Stud, but then Covid came, and the owner of the property said, “I don’t want anyone within a mile of my property,” as he had been very poorly. So, we canned it. Then, of course, Harry came back and started training, so that was that. I’d never do it now – I’m too old, I’m almost 65. I still have lots of ambition, but I don’t think having a satellite yard is one. Andrew is young and could have driven it on.
GC: What do you look for in a horse to know they’ll handle travelling and enjoy their style of training and racing?
WH: Most horses travel well. Usually, if you send a gelding, they see it as an adventure. Lake Forest is a hard little bugger, so we thought he’d travel well to Australia. But after he got his leg over in the stalls, I wanted to abort. I said to the owners we don’t know about the 7½f trip, as he’d only ever run over 6f, he’d need to do a stalls test and it would cost £100,000 to get him to Australia. They came straight back and said, “No, we’re absolutely all in. We fancy it big time.” So, it’s thanks to them really that Lake Forest won the Rosehill race.
GC: If you were starting training now, would it still be in England?
WH: Interesting question. Yes, probably. But I think there are opportunities around the world for training. I don’t know much about America, but I think it’s good if you want to start from nothing – you can rent three stables, but you can’t really do that here. Australia is right up there at the moment for prize-money, but I think it’ll take a dip. I believe Peter V’landys has been pivotal in Sydney going from strength to strength and I don’t think he’ll be there much longer. He’s been there for eight or nine years. It’ll be very interesting to see where Australian racing goes after that.
GC: Do you have a dark horse for our readers?
WH: Klassleader. He was second at Doncaster and the winner Gran Descans has won since. I didn’t put him in the Leger but I see him as a nice, galloping horse.
GC: Next month, on September 20, you’ll be opening Somerville Lodge to the public for the first time as part of Newmarket’s Henry Cecil Open Weekend. What can people look forward to seeing?
WH: The open day will be interesting, as we haven’t opened for years, if ever. I think a few people will come. I don’t quite know how we’re going to organise it yet. We have a committee handling all the details. I’m not sure how they want to play it yet – whether horses will be out on show or if it’ll be a meet and greet with Tom Marquand, Cieren Fallon and I. We’ll see closer to the time. I’m looking forward to it; it should be good. I think it’s a very good thing.
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