Danny Brooke: Meet the successful Yorkshire racehorse trainer who is making waves at just 26

Danny is having his most successful year since obtaining his full trainer’s licence just four years ago, but takes nothing for granted.

“Looking back I probably took over at a bit of a bad time and it was a while before we get things rolling, then we had a lull in middle, but this year has been fantastic so far with seven wins on the flat and two on the jumps.

"National Hunt has just started again and it was nice to get under way when Ginger Pointe won first time out for us and his first career win, at Market Rasen a couple of weeks ago.

“Our best horse this year has probably been Bowman who was third at York, has won at Catterick and has been placed more than he hasn’t. He’s a great horse and is back at York on Monday (September 9).”

It’s a measure of where Danny wants to be that third place at York is mentioned in the same breath as race wins this year that sees him currently at a 14 per cent winning percentage of horses entered, and with Ney having won three times at Southwell, Catterick and Ripon.

“If I finish the season on that winning percentage I’d be delighted,” says Danny, in a manner that is tempered with getting too carried away.

“To get a horse to York is a really big thing for us in what are our early days, but obviously I’d take a winner anywhere and we have been fortunate to win on several of our local racecourses too which is also great."

Woobay won at Ripon; Flavius Titus has won at Pontefract and Newcastle; and Melvich Bay won at Cartmel in May, all adding to what is now an impressive career win tally for Danny of 30 wins, spread evenly across the flat and the jumps.

“We’ve pretty much had an even split of entries between flat and jump horses so far,” says Danny. “But we have been edging more towards flat recently. I have no preference. It’s just what we’ve been sent.”

Horseracing is very much a family affair for the Brookes, as Danny’s brother Henry has been one of the top jump jockeys for a number of years; mum Julia was a successful point to point jockey, became one of the first women jockeys to race on the flat and turned to training racehorses, taking up her full licence in 2015; dad Glenn, who passed away some ten years ago, was a blacksmith and farrier whose racing claim to fame was having shod the first five home for trainer Martin Dickinson in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

With this pedigree in mind and plenty more besides it is perhaps no real surprise that Danny has followed on from Julia, but he is fully aware of the time it takes to be a successful trainer while also juggling the demands of farming.

“I was always going to be involved in farming and I’ve always been involved with horses from being a kid. Probably before we could walk Henry and myself have been on ponies and then we were involved in show jumping, cross country and one day events.

"When Henry got to 16 he fancied going Pointing, so mum got him a couple of pointers and when he became a professional jockey she changed on to rules racing.

“I probably should have been a jockey too, but I was always on the heavier side. When I got to being 14 or 15 when I had to watch my weight I didn’t. I do enjoy food too much, that’s one of my vices.

"So my racing, is as a trainer. I went down to Newmarket to study my trainer’s modules and here I am now.”

Danny is fully committed to his career and currently has a string of 15 racehorses in training. He is working hard in an industry that is also going through uncertain times.

“Racing isn’t the only industry going through a hard time. Farming is getting harder to make a living. Racing is also by its nature very competitive and that North-South divide exists.

"When the horses come up from the south to the tracks up here it makes it harder for a win, but I love it, and we’re doing well at the moment.”

Danny also still has his love of farming.

“The racing takes my full attention and has to in order to do it right and the farming fits in nicely around it. Luckily, I’ve mum as well and she’s a massive part of everything. She gets a lot of the mucky jobs down on the farm and has great attention to detail.

“We have around 100 acres, which includes a bit of rented land and we rent out 22 acres to a farmer who grows barley and I keep the straw. We have grass and a bit of rougher grazing that is only any good for sheep or cattle.

“Our 150 breeding ewes are pretty much all commercial Texel and Suffolk crosses off the Mule. We have 30 pure Suffolk and Texel ewes that we try and breed quality tups off, to sell on, and anything not quite good enough goes. It’s effective for us, having the commercial flock.

“We sell mostly at Leyburn livestock market, but I also go to Bentham for their evening sale.

"Sometimes it’s really handy, obviously with having the racehorses that need riding out in the morning, because Bentham’s sale doesn’t start until 4 o’clock, so I don’t have to set off from here until 12.30 or 1 o’clock, which is perfect for finishing the horses, loading up and setting off.

"It’s a pretty good thing for farmers and just a bit easier to get to sometimes, as daft as it sounds for the distance we go.”

Sheep and cattle make up today’s farming operation at Brough Farm. Danny says they’ve made a few changes since he became a trainer.

“We used to have a pedigree herd of British Blues and Simmentals, but at the minute we have around 20 dairy bred-cross heifers to put embryos into. I’m putting Blues and Simmental embryos back in. It’s costly but I think it should work.

“We went out of breeding tups while the racing took over and for a while we had a bigger flock of commercial ewes that got up to 300. I’m just trying to get the quality back up now rather than the numbers. Just like racing really. It’s all about quality not quantity.

“Henry will ride ours when he can but has his own business to run as a professional jockey. He works here on the farm when he can and lives on the yard with his wife Alice and their two young kids Arthur and Eva.”