Trainer Rebecca Menzies opts to switch stables

UP-AND-COMING trainer Rebecca Menzies is moving to new stables to further her career.
Racehorse trainer Rebecca Menzies at Catterick Bridge Racecourse (Picture: John Giles/PA Wire).Racehorse trainer Rebecca Menzies at Catterick Bridge Racecourse (Picture: John Giles/PA Wire).
Racehorse trainer Rebecca Menzies at Catterick Bridge Racecourse (Picture: John Giles/PA Wire).

Based for the past three years at the Brandsby yard of former Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Peter Beaumont, she is moving to the County Durham yard of dual purpose handler John Wade, who is retiring.

Menzies, who served her racing apprenticeship in North Yorkshire with Ferdy Murphy, hopes to saddle her first runners from Howe Hill Stables later this 
week.

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A short canter from Sedgefield racecourse, she hopes to have 30 horses in training and says the new location will be particularly advantageous when she saddles Flat runners on the all-weather at Newcastle.

The 27-year-old, a popular figure in Yorkshire racing, has built up her business in conjunction with jump jockey Tony Kelly.

They are particularly astute when it comes to training horses owned by syndicates.

“I will always be grateful to Peter Beaumont and his family for giving me the chance to start my training career at Foulrice Farm,” Menzies told The Yorkshire Post.

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“They have given me fantastic support, but this is too good an opportunity to turn down at a time when I’m hoping to expand.

“The transport links to the new yard are very good, and the proximity of the all-weather at Newcastle will be an advantage,” she added.

Menzies and her five-strong team completed their move at the weekend.

Mark Johnston has confirmed last week’s Glorious Goodwood winner Yalta is likely to be supplemented for the Coolmore Nunthorpe at York.

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Following two disappointing runs over six furlongs in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot and the July Stakes at Newmarket, the Exceed And Excel juvenile dropped to the minimum distance on the Sussex Downs and produced a dominant performance from the front under James Doyle.

Even Johnston himself was shocked by the performance, but is now keen for Yalta to line up at Group One level on Knavesmire on August 19, where he will receive a significant weight-for-age allowance from his elders.

“It was a blistering performance,” said the Middleham trainer.

Mondialiste is set to be prepared for a tilt at the Arlington Million later this month following his excellent recent run in defeat at York.

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The six-year-old won the Woodbine Mile and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile across the Atlantic last season and he ran easily his best race of the current campaign when narrowly denied by Time Test in the Sky Bet York Stakes.

North Yorkshire trainer David O’Meara says the Chicago race looks the ideal target.

York has been granted an additional fixture in 2017.

It will stage an extra meeting on July 1, taking the total tally of meetings on Knavesmire to 18. The announcement means that the track will have seven Saturday racedays, good news for alcohol sales but possibly less welcome from the perspective of residents increasingly concerned by the raucous behaviour of racegoers as well as the proliferation of stag-dos and hen parties in the city.

The new-look fixture list includes year-round racing on Saturday evenings and three meetings to be staged for the first time on Good Friday.

Some 1,496 fixtures are scheduled to take place over 363 days in 2017 – 14 more than were planned this year – while there is an extra day of racing owing to December 23 falling on a Saturday.

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