Meet the first mother-and-daughter training partnership in Britain

The mother-and-daughter pairing of Julia and Shelley Birkett have become the first female dual-licence holders in Britain and launch their new partnership on New Year's Day when Kodi Red makes his debut for the stable at Fakenham.

Julia Birkett trained more than 300 winners in her maiden name of Feilden over nearly 25 years after enjoying much success as an amateur rider and has even changed her name to help the launch of the new venture at Harraton Stud.

Shelley Birkett followed her mother into the saddle by riding 100 winners in a ten-year spell that ended in 2020. It was a spell that featured a Listed winner at Newmarket and a stint as apprentice to David O'Meara.

She worked as a secretary for William Knight but joined her mother as assistant two years ago with the intention of doing her BHA training modules after her brother Ross, who is also a successful amateur jockey, decided against the idea.

The operation is based in Exning near Newmarket and Julia said: "It's all exciting and I believe we're the first mother and daughter training partnership and first female combination in the country.

"It's been on the cards for a few years and I believe businesses need younger eyes these days, especially with things like social media."

Julia, 68, said: "We've rebranded the business as Birkett Racing. Feilden was my maiden name and I just never got around to changing it as people knew the name when I was riding.

"I didn't want the long name of Julia Feilden and Shelley Birkett, which is a bit long-winded, so I-m now Birkett and we've rebranded it as we also wanted to reflect that it's very much a family business."

Rebranded signage at Harraton Stud in Exning

Shelley, 30, said: "Originally it was always Ross that was going to take over, but he decided he didn't want to do it when he was offered a good job with Tattersalls. Mum was keen to do a joint-licence so I joined as assistant a couple of years ago and the plan is for me to take over in a few years."

Their first runner Kodi Red goes in the 2m maiden hurdle (12.50) at Fakenham where he will be saddled by Shelley, who has been very busy in recent weeks.

She said: "I also got engaged to Dylan Hogan in November and he's pretty much stable jockey here at the moment. We've 25 horses in and we're very much syndicate-based. A massive bonus is that we're just about the only yard in Newmarket that has on-site turnout for horses, which stretches to 33 acres."

As to the prospects of Kodi Red, Shelley added: "He's a new horse to us and has schooled well but we’ll see how we go.

"Our first Flat runner will be Smokey Malone at Wolverhampton on January 6 and hopefully he can get Birkett Racing rolling."

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