'We need to deliver' - top trainer Harry Fry setting the bar high for new season

Harry Fry, lauded for his preparation of Champion Hurdle hero Rock On Ruby and the fine start he made to his training career, insists it is now time to produce the goods once more after a year settling into his new base in Dorset.

Fry, who opened his doors at Higher Crockermoor to around 200 owners and then more than 300 members of the public for National Racehorse Week on Sunday, sprang to prominence when running a nearby satellite yard for Rock On Ruby's trainer Paul Nicholls, from where that horse landed the 2012 Champion Hurdle.

The 34-year-old was then granted a licence to train in his own right from there and did not take long to make a name for himself, and he recorded his first Cheltenham Festival success when stable stalwart Unowhatimeanharry captured the Albert Bartlett in 2016.

Fry enjoyed his best campaign the following season when he saddled 67 winners and accrued £886,752 in prize-money, while he gained a reputation as a shrewd operator blessed with an in-depth knowledge of the programme book.

However, his tally of winners decreased to 30 and 31 in the last two seasons, although the coronavirus pandemic and move to a new yard offer alibis – not that its leader is prepared to make excuses.

"We were building, moving, settling in against the backdrop of the pandemic, and everyone worked extremely hard. We learned an awful lot in those first 12 months at the yard," he said.

"It wasn't all plain sailing, but we feel we've a solid foundation to progress, and build the numbers back up.

"We always strive to beat the previous season's tally and we'd like to get back to training 50 winners a year. That's very much the target, to get back to that level as a first step on the rebuilding front."

Fry's stables – not far from Yeovil bang in the middle of green Dorset countryside – was an old farm that was bulldozed and renovated from top to bottom.

Metier: winner of the Tolworth Hurdle last seasonCredit: Edward Whitaker

He said: "We're starting off this year without any builders under our feet and everything is finished. This time last year the outdoor school was still being completed, while everything was new so it was trial and error to a degree, but we've been able to tweak things and have learned an awful lot, even just with the day-to-day running of the yard and getting to grips with that.

"I went to see a Flat trainer in May who'd built a new yard and he said it took him three years to get to grips with it. We've got a purpose-built yard with tall American-style barns and lots of natural light and ventilation.

"We've had chance to find our feet and put enough pressure on ourselves, but we do feel it's a season we need to deliver, that's for sure."

Tolworth ace Metier, Ask Me Early, who is being aimed at the Coral Welsh Grand National and could develop into a contender for the Randox Grand National, Punchestown festival-winning mare Pure Bliss and the luckless Boothill are among the names who could create headlines for Fry. Sean Bowen, Johnny Burke, Daryl Jacob, Nick Scholfield, Bryan Carver and conditional Lorcan Murtagh are the riders the trainer is set to call on.

"We've 65 horses and we've capacity for 80," Fry added. "We're always looking to reinvest and replace, but it's about finding the right ones and not filling boxes for the sake of it.

"We've got some really nice horses to look forward to and 20 of those are unraced and include some nicely bred individuals, so hopefully there's a potential star among them."

Three to watch

Metier
He'll stay over hurdles and we're thinking of starting him in the Greatwood and see how we progress from there. He was our first Grade 1 winner from the new yard in the Tolworth and had a good first season over hurdles, but it wasn't his true running in the Supreme at Cheltenham. He had an inflamed arytenoid cartilage, which makes up part of the larynx and he couldn't breathe basically. That explains his below-par performance at the festival but he's made a full recovery. He was seen to best effect on slow ground last winter and we hope he can progress as a second-season hurdler, and it will be interesting to see him on slightly better ground at some point.

Ask Me Early on parade at Harry Fry's yardCredit: Harry Fry Racing

I had the Midlands National in mind for him last season, but he didn't run his race at Sandown the time before – even going to post he wasn't right and he never jumped or travelled. We were able to diagnose and treat a kissing spine and he bounced back to form in the novice handicap chase at Uttoxeter on Midlands National day as we felt after Sandown we couldn't go for the big one. That was our fourth win in it and De Rasher Counter also won it and went on to win the Ladbrokes Trophy, while we won it with American, a very fragile, but talented horse. The Welsh National is an ideal target for Ask Me Early, who has already won twice at Chepstow and it's possible he'll have an entry in the Ladbrokes Trophy or the Welsh National Trial the following weekend. Both races are after the weights for the Welsh National are published. He's exciting and there's also Aintree later on.

Boothill
Last year he had a splint flare up after his win at Taunton and it settled down initially, but then flared up again and it was just unfortunate timing. He was back in full work by March/April, but the season and its main events were over. He's fully recovered and deserves a bit of luck because his two runs have been impressive. Our focus is very much on chasing – it always has been – so hopefully he can make up for lost time.

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