'The last two years have been the hardest of all - Covid ruined it for us'

When Dai Burchell tells you he trains "on the side of a Welsh mountain" he is not kidding. If you didn't know the trainer's Drysiog Farm was somewhere along the hilltop perched at the top of the valley in Ebbw Vale you would never find it, but neatly tucked behind a row of terraced houses sits a modest but perfectly functional stable yard.

Out of the driveway and across the road and you're literally standing on the Domen mountain, where the Burchells have mapped out a gallop with all the inclines, bends and straights you could wish for.

A million miles away from the hustle and bustle of work mornings on Warren Hill or the grandeur of Jackdaws Castle, this is something totally unique. A little rough around the edges it may be, but there is no getting away from the fact it has produced more than 400 winners.

"Paul Moloney came to ride out once and someone told me that in the sauna at the racecourse he was asked where he'd been that morning," recalls the trainer. "He said he'd been to the best place you could ever train a racehorse. No-one could believe him, but that has always stuck in my mind."

Burchell, along with his joyful wife Ruth, live in a traditional Welsh longhouse at the yard, where photographs of a colourful life in the sport have taken over.

Barring an Elvis Presley clock hanging on a brightly painted wall, their busy kitchen is a shrine to their lifetime in racing and it doesn't take much encouragement for the 84-year-old to take a trip down memory lane – which is rather appropriate given Monday marks his last day with a licence, the trainer having decided not to renew it beyond January.

Burchell arrived in Ebbw Vale from Chepstow in 1942 aged four when his father took a job in the local steelworks, once the largest in Europe but which has now succumbed with the mining industry. He followed his father into the works as a young man but had a fascination with horses. Rather than riding, his ambition was to train and it was just a matter of finding a way to make it happen.

"We always had some sort of horse at home," he says. "When I passed my driving test we used to go to all the [local town] shows. They'd have Galloway [pony] races at the end of the show. We went to the Monmouth show and a friend of ours, Archie Bull, had a horse running in it. Well, it won and I thought, 'I want one of those.'"

Dai Burchell: 'We pride ourselves in thinking we can train better than them!'Credit: Edward Whitaker

He started his training career on the flapping tracks alongside another of racing's great survivors, Milton Bradley, and landed the 1958 Cardiff Racecourse Cup with Teddy Bear.

"I bought that horse for £60 at Newmarket sales," he remembers. "I brought him back on the train! My mother went down there to watch the race, put money on and won enough to buy a new bedroom suite."

Burchell effectively taught himself to train, "picking it up" as he went, and having seen Bradley make the transition from flapping tracks to licensed courses he sent off for his own permit.

He literally took things into his own hands, riding many of his early runners himself. One of the framed photos on his wall captures his first ride at Chepstow in 1963. Owned, trained and ridden by Burchell, Commissary won at 20-1 and was one of four winners from 29 rides in total.

"I had a permit for two years with no problems, had five winners and rode four of them myself," he says. "I only rode because the jockeys I was employing were a total waste of time. I said to my mother if this horse [Commissary] runs again I'm riding. In the week we went down to Chepstow twice and walked the track twice and on the Saturday we went there and won."

He suffered a setback when the authorities were unconvinced he had the funds to support a training venture and revoked his licence – "the fellow on the licensing committee said I was running it on the smell of a kipper and a shoestring budget" – and it took years to get it back. In the meantime it was back to the furnace and his £5-a-week job at the steelworks.

"When I was in the works, a man from Merthyr, Jimmy Thomas, came there to work. He happened to know someone who worked for the Jockey Club, having been in the army with him in India. His name was Mr Burton and Jimmy said the next time he saw him he'd speak to him.

"The next thing Mr Burton came for a look around. We went for a ride up the mountain to where we were going to train these horses, came back and had a cup of tea and he told me to send for the permit."

There was no resistance this time and Burchell was up and running once more. In 1983 his permit became a full training licence, allowing him to train for outside owners, and there have been some memorable days since.

He does not try to hide the fact that the yard adopted a "gambling attitude" or that they landed a touch one February day at Southwell in 1987, when Bold Pearl, Brown Rifle and John Feather all scored on the same card. He repeated the trick at Perth in 1989, when Hot Company, Carrolls Grove and Gay Ruffian did the business under his son David.

Burchell has never had the backing to spend big at the sales but that has never mattered to him. He thrived on picking up a bargain and had faith he and Ruth could find the key.

"I used to like going to Ascot Sales," says the trainer, who believes no horse is worth more than £10,000. "We pride ourselves in thinking we can train better than them! We'd go to the sales, look at what condition they were in and go from there.

"We used to target people we thought wouldn't get their horses fit and when they had one in the sale we'd be there looking for him."

Ruth says: "They either come here and love it or come here and hate it – it's as simple as. The horses who come here and love it thrive on it. They can come here and be as grumpy as sin and in a fortnight they're in your pocket looking for your Polos. It's all about the lovin'. Being a little yard you can know them inside out, upside down and backwards."

Burchell picks out Kilsyth, who won six times having cost him £500 from Doncaster, as his most impressive bargain buy, but point at any of the pictures on the wall and it's a toss-up if the horse in shot cost three figures or four.

Dai and Ruth Burchell at their yard in South WalesCredit: Edward Whitaker

There is a wonderful camaraderie between Dai and Ruth. Both have a playful sense of humour and the conversation between the pair is easy. Ruth, 58, is also an attentive host, making sure each person sitting at the kitchen table is supplied with a Twix and Tunnock's Tea Cake (remember those?). Numerous offers of a sandwich soon follow.

Despite the warm atmosphere, the last few years have been particularly bleak for Burchell and only with his wife's support have they kept the show on the road. It might have been Dai's name on the licence but this is undoubtedly a partnership.

The trainer had already separated from his first wife when Ruth joined the yard as a 20-year-old in 1983. Romance was soon in the Welsh air once more and they later married.

Training is a labour of love for both and there has never been an alternative to getting stuck in with the feeding and mucking out, but there is nothing they would change. Their horses might have been cast off by others, but they have always been showered with affection when arriving in Ebbw Vale – which is why the trainer's decision not to renew his licence was tinged with sadness.

"It's been brilliant but things are not so easy as they were five or ten years ago," says Burchell, who is going out on a winner after Good Impression, snapped up for £5,000 from Ascot, scored at Uttoxeter on Saturday.

"You're on a shoestring budget and you've got to have money to replace and to repair. If I could still ride out and do all those jobs it would be no problem, but now we've got to pay people to do it. When you're younger everything is so easy."

There was a time when having a racehorse trained in Wales had a bit of novelty about it, but competition on this side of the Bristol Channel has never been more fierce and drumming up new business is not his strong point.

He says: "From Chepstow, where Ron Harris is, to Peter Bowen [in Pembrokeshire] there are 40-odd trainers. When I started there were only six of us here.

"When I started training [with a full licence] I was 45, the people I was training for then were 55, 60 and 70. We lost eight owners in about 18 months and we never recovered from that. It's just progression and my owners have died off.

"One owner said I've got to get down the pubs and bars, but I'm not that sort of a fella."

The father of five, who like his wife doesn't drink or smoke, was diagnosed with colon cancer three years ago but, after doctors removed half of his large intestine, he is happily in complete remission, words that bring a big smile to his face.

That is not the only battle he has been fighting, having seen the Covid pandemic pretty much cripple his training operation. Racing being locked down in March 2020, followed by the ban of spectators at racecourses, meant for the first time during Burchell's tenure all the stables at Drysiog Farm were at one stage empty.

"We've had two years of coronavirus and for six months we didn't have a horse in the place," he says. "Four of our owners said they're not putting their horses back into training until they can go racing. The last two years have been the hardest of all."

No horses effectively meant no income for the proprietors, and there is a palpable sense of the anguish that period caused.

"That ruined it for us," says Burchell. "We had no horses here, but the expenses are all the same. We survived, but without the Covid I think we'd be going pretty strong."

Burchell no longer drives due to his vision, and his ankle causes him discomfort. His quick wit might be unblunted, but his physical strength is understandably on the wane. Those ailments have all contributed to his decision to retire, but there are a raft of factors at play and he is not shy voicing them.

Dai Burchell: 'The last two years have been the hardest of all'Credit: Edward Whitaker

"Health doesn't help," he admits, "but they've also brought in new rules. You've got to have £45,000 in the bank [to train]. We've never had £45,000 in our life. We don't want to go into a battle but we didn't have £45,000 last year so why do we need it this year?"

The stable's capacity is 23 and was full for a short period in the yard's heyday, but for the last few months they have been trying to get results with just six horses. The time has come to call it a day.

Ruth says: "When you're getting only enough to cover the wages things are hard, but we've never been in debt and don't owe anybody. We want to thank everybody who has been with us over the years. That's owners, people who have worked for us and people we have dealt with – blacksmiths, feed merchants and vets. Thank you."

Some of the Burchells' happiest memories come from sellers and claimers, which suited the calibre of horse they have traditionally dealt with, but, similar to what Milton Bradley said upon his retirement last year, the races at the lower end that are paramount to their survival simply don't exist any more.

"The wrong people have got hold of the say in racing," says the trainer. "There used to be 0-95 races and you'd always have ten or 12 runners. They had four horses running for £150,000 last weekend and you knew half of them weren't going to win before the start.

"Martin Pipe used to win 200-plus races a year and 120 of them would be sellers, but it didn't matter."

Ruth adds: "There are no races for the lower-grade horses. People are paying the same money to get them trained and love them just the same as the top owners, but where are they supposed to go?

"It's very difficult to place your horses. A 0-100 is your lowest [grade over jumps] and 86 is the highest horse we've got, so you're stuffed before you start."

The Burchells' current equine residents are set to be rehomed to continue racing, but horses are unlikely to be lost to Drysiog Farm for long, with Ruth and daughter Katie planning on setting up a livery yard where anyone will be welcome.

However, Burchell's devoted wife says the main focus will be Dai and his health. As she serves up another round of teas and hands out the Rocky bars, you know he is in safe hands.

"We're going to have a month off," she says of the immediate future. "I'm chucking away the alarm clock and I'm tying him to the chair! I want to look after him."

With a wry smile, Burchell says: "I want to live as long as I can so as to get all the money out of my pension and make a profit on something!"

After the memories he leaves, a few quid is the least he deserves. Happy retirement.

This interview is exclusive to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Read more great interviews here:

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