Michael Halford and Tracey Collins to combine forces and take out joint training licence next month

Group 1-winning trainer Michael Halford is set to join forces with Tracey Collins and take out a joint licence from the beginning of March.

Halford, whose training career extends over three decades, will relocate operations from his existing Copper Beech Stables base in Duneany, County Kildare to Collins' Conyngham Lodge yard on the Curragh.

Halford has established himself as one of the leading Flat trainers in Ireland with the Aga Khan among his main patrons, and in 2010 enjoyed a Group 1 triumph with Casamento in what was then the Racing Post Trophy. He is among a select group of Irish trainers to have trained 1,000 winners, a milestone he reached in May 2018 when Platinum Warrior won the Gallinule Stakes at the Curragh.

Halford sent out 24 domestic Flat winners last season and has had ten this campaign, the latest being Arcanears at Dundalk ten days ago.

He said in a statement on Monday: "The association between the Collins family and Irish racing goes back close to a century and is one of the proudest in our sport. I'm grateful, humbled and excited by the chance to train alongside Tracey at one of the most famous yards on the Curragh and look forward to starting this new chapter next month."

Tracey Collins: family steeped in racingCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Collins comes from a family steeped in Irish racing. Both her grandfather MC Collins and her father Con trained Classic winners, with MC saddling Windsor Slipper to win the Irish Triple Crown in 1942. Collins has had several Group winners, most recently Majestic Queen in the Chartwell Fillies' Stakes in 2015, while Captain Joy was a stable stalwart whose ten wins included victory under Pat Smullen at Lingfield's all-weather championships in 2016.

Collins said: "There is a long and proud tradition here at Conyngham Lodge and I'm greatly looking forward to the next chapter in the yard's history by teaming up with Michael from the start of March. It's an exciting venture and one full of potential and I hope we have much to look forward to over the coming months and years."

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