'My heart was going 100mph four furlongs out' - Haynes celebrates first winner

A decade on from riding her first winner at Wolverhampton, Alice Haynes celebrated her first success as a trainer at the same track on Friday evening with 1m1½f handicap scorer Act Of Magic.

Haynes is based at the foot of the Warren Hill training grounds in Newmarket at Cadland Cottage Stables and celebrated her first victory with her tenth runner, having had five finishers in the first four in her first three weeks with a licence.

Act Of Magic, who is owned by The Hidden Brace, had finished fourth at Kempton on Wednesday but showed no ill-effects from the quick turnaround to prevail by three-quarters of a length under Kieran O'Neill, who rides out for Haynes each morning.

It was aboard the David Simcock-trained Roi Du Boeuf that Haynes struck in the saddle for the first time at Dunstall Park in January 2011, so she has a special affinity with the West Midlands track.

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Haynes, 29, said: “Ten years ago I rode my first winner at Wolverhampton and ten years on I’ve trained my first winner there, so it’s the place to be!

“It was a great relief as our horses had been running well and several had been placed, so it’s good to get off the mark. We rode Act Of Magic a bit differently and it paid off.

“My heart was going 100mph four furlongs out and I was thinking he has a real chance. It was a big thrill. When I was riding a winner, I was just praying they were still on the bridle two furlongs out so I didn’t have to push very far.”

Haynes had been running a pre-training operation in previous years, preparing horses for William Haggas and Roger Varian among others, before taking the plunge to take out her licence last month and has 17 horses in training with a mix of two-year-olds and older horses.

Haynes, who nominated an unnamed two-year-old filly by Cotai Glory and Smart Connection as horses to follow, added: “The skills I learned from pre-training are pretty transferable to running a racing yard and I’m in a great position being at the bottom of Warren Hill. If I can’t train winners up the Hill, I’m definitely doing something wrong.

“I’d like to have the quality of horses I had in pre-training, as we had some Dubawis and really well-bred horses, but hopefully we will work up to that one day.

“I’ve set a realistic aim of ten winners for our first year – if we hit 15 that would be great – but the monkey is off our back and we’ve got plenty to look forward to.”

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