The small-scale trainer enjoying his best season and now aiming for glory on the biggest stage at Goodwood

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As a general rule, the Front Runner looks askance at jump racing people crossing the border into Flat racing. But an exception must be made for James Evans, who has been enjoying great success since extending into the summer game, and I'll be cheering for his Dream Composer in the opening race at Glorious Goodwood tomorrow. 

He and Jane, his wife, have spent decades making their own contribution to the jumping scene but a chance to buy stock for a new owner who wanted Flat horses has led them in a new and fruitful direction. Evans has already won more prize money this season than in any other before and in the process has brought unprecedented quantities of Flat success to a historic jumps yard, Kinnersley, for so long the base of the Rimell dynasty. 

"We've chipped away at the lower end for quite a time," Evans told me when I dropped round last week. "It's just so hard to buy jumpers now, the market's so strong and it's kept going. 

"In the summer of 2020, when we linked up with Peter Clarke Racing, that encouraged them to send us off to buy horses for them. Three have turned out to be very, very good animals: Masqool, Justcallmepete and Dream Composer. 

"They've won 20 races between them and have ended up good handicappers and won plenty of prize money. They weren't dear, in the scheme of things, and we've been able to run them a lot. It's underpinned the whole operation." 

Evans rents 20 boxes at Kinnersley, where Henry Oliver is also based. The yard is in a sleepy Worcestershire village of the same name, a haven of peace but only ten minutes' drive from the M5. There are ancient grass gallops and a six-furlong all-weather. 

The Evanses moved here in 2017, which he describes as "a bit of a turning point for us". At least one of their former bases turned out to be a regrettable choice; you live and learn. 

Dream Composer winning for Peter Clarke Racing at Ascot in OctoberCredit: Getty Images

"Obviously, I tell all my owners that their horse is in Comedy Of Error's box or Rag Trade's," he jokes. The names of Fred and Mercy Rimell's stars trip off his tongue because Evans was a jump jockey in the 70s. 

He is proud to have ridden in a couple of Grand Nationals and completed the course in 1978 aboard Lean Forward, after John Hanmer called his mount as having belted the very first fence. Also in the race was his brother Richard, riding The Pilgarlic for the Rimells. 

"I loved riding and it was a big wrench to stop but I was in a position to go and do another career." He became a chartered surveyor and perhaps thought he'd finished with the game. But then he met Jane at the local cricket club, they discovered a mutual love of horses and eventually decided to have a go at training together. 

Dream Composer, currently fourth in the betting on that Goodwood race tomorrow, is their flagship horse. He was a maiden after five runs in France when Evans bought him for 14,000gns as a two-year-old. Three years later, he is the winner of eight races and rated 97. 

"We were lucky enough to come up with a nicely bred horse who's just kept improving," the trainer reflects. "We started off in the lower grades with him and luckily we've been able to hang onto him." 

Masqool has been on a similar journey. A Godolphin cast-off, he started in handicaps off 55, has won seven times and is now rated 74. Justcallmepete, pipped on the line at Newmarket on Saturday on a mark of 85, was rated just 68 at the start of last year - he might take his chance in the consolation race for the Stewards' Cup on Saturday.

Croseo Cymraeg is another standard-bearer for the yard, being a nine-year-old who has won nine times. Owned by the trainer's brother, he started out on a mark of just 46 for the yard and is now on 83, having scored at Salisbury a fortnight ago. 

"He's been second in the Cumberland Plate, ran well in the Racing League last year," Evans says. "He's a good handicapper, pays his way and he's a pleasure to train." 

There are still jumpers on the premises. Risk And Roll was only beaten five lengths in the Pertemps Final, carrying the colours of Barry Preece, a longstanding supporter of Evans. 

Risk And Roll: ninth in the Pertemps Final at the Cheltenham FestivalCredit: Edward Whitaker

He is enjoying success, feels lucky to have good staff working for him and hopes to keep the yard in form but he was not surprised to read the recent news about a sharp decline in trainer numbers. "It's a labour intensive job and a hard one.

"You can't really see people rushing to come into it and quite a few would probably be damn glad to get out of it. You'll always get people coming in and having a go but unless you're taking over an established business or you have really powerful connections, it's not easy to do.

"In the 70s, we were riding for pots that, in relation to today, were good. You wonder where all the TV rights money and the betting money ends up because it certainly doesn't end up in the pockets of the owners. 

"If the owners got more, then obviously Jane and I would be able to charge a bit more, we'd be able to pay our staff a bit more. More money's got to come into the main guts of the operation rather than completely relying on owners." 

Back home, I dip into Mercy Rimell's book from 1990, Reflections On Racing, and find some familiar sentiments. "I'm no authority on high finance, but I feel that a lot of people are getting a lot of money out of racing and putting nothing into it, and that I think is wrong," she writes on the final page. "But it's a good life..." 

Monday's picks, by Tom Segal

No surprises for guessing which trainer has dominated the Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap at Galway (6.40) in recent years. Of course it's Willie Mullins, who has won the race four times since 2017 and no doubt will have targeted it again. 

Patrick Mullins rides the mare Lot Of Joy, who has a lot of talent but is prone to being much too keen and didn't seem to get home when fourth in last year's race. She has a chance if she settles but she was 10-1 last year and is a much shorter price now, despite being 4lb higher. Consequently, I think she can be taken on and I like the look of her stablemate Maze Runner, who came from a long way back right around the outside to be second a year ago. 

It would be hard to say Maze Runner was unlucky, as he was beaten by stablemate Echoes In Rain, who has subsequently won a Grade 1 hurdle and finished eighth in the Ascot Gold Cup, but he didn't have quite as smooth a run through the race as the winner and there doesn't seem to be anything of Echoes In Rain's class in the line-up this time. 

The question is whether Maze Runner is in the same form because he came into the race last year on the back of an easy win, whereas he was well beaten on his recent comeback run at the Curragh. However, that was over 1m4f on quick ground and he was always going to struggle for speed in those conditions. Nevertheless, he kept on well and wasn't beaten all that far. 

That run will have set him up perfectly for this race, which would have been his main target, given how well he ran last year, and the icing on the cake is the booking of Charlie Mullins, who is excellent value for his 7lb claim and has a good record when riding for the stable. 

'That run will have set him up perfectly' - Tom Segal with a familiar face to back at Galway 

Three things to look out for on Monday

1. If it's Monday at Ayr, it must be See My Baby Jive - that's what I wrote a week ago and the chestnut mare duly stuck her bonny head out to score at 9-2. A month ago, she was a seven-year-old maiden. Since the fitting of blinkers, she's won at the west-coast track on three consecutive Mondays and has a go at the four-timer this afternoon. A 4lb penalty only takes her up to a mark of 55, which doesn't seem beyond her, judging by last week's effort. But she's drawn on the far side in stall two of 11, a potential problem, given how she's rallied against the near rail in each of the last three weeks. 

See My Baby Jive15:05 Ayr

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Jky: Jason Hart Tnr: Donald Whillans

2. Hollie Doyle is back at Ayr for the second time this year, having averaged six rides per year at the Scottish track over the last couple of years. At first, I thought it might be a sign of how far she was prepared to go for winners in pursuit of a possible title bid - after all, she lies joint-second as I type, albeit a fair way behind William Buick. But if that were the reason, I expect her agent would have found her a ride in every race, rather than the three that she's taking. It looks like Archie Watson's Chriszoff is the reason for this journey, a three-year-old Zoffany colt who's won three in a row and will be well fancied for a 1m2f handicap from a mark 6lb higher than last time, which was over the same course and distance.

Chriszoff16:15 Ayr

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Jky: Hollie Doyle Tnr: Archie Watson

3. A week of action at Galway begins with quite a major occasion - the hurdling debut of Annie Power's first foal. Incredibly, it's seven years since we saw her, so if you need reminding, she was a champion who won 12 of 14 starts over hurdles but is remembered by many for one of the losses, when she somehow decked herself at the final flight of the Mares Hurdle of 2015. Anyway, her final performance, in the Aintree Hurdle of 2016, was her best and it'll be a big deal if she can pass on that quality to her kids, the first of which is Mystical Power. By Galileo, he won a Ballinrobe bumper in May, his only start to date, and will probably be a warm order, despite facing some capable rivals. 

Mystical Power17:10 Galway

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Jky: Mark Walsh Tnr: W P Mullins

Read these next:

 What's on this week: It's Glorious as Goodwood returns alongside Galway summer festival  

'Frankie Dettori's mounts will be popular' - bookmakers reveal big Glorious Goodwood and Galway liabilities 

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.