Jeremy Scott interview: Farmer turned trainer who has his own ‘barmy army' of fans

Telegraph

02-05-2025

The sign off the 'main' road – as main as they get on Exmoor – is as unassuming as the trainer of this season's Champion Hurdle; on the verge, 'JS Racing' competes for daylight with wild garlic and primroses.
In a sport increasingly dominated by a few big players, the signpost to Jeremy Scott's farm might equally direct you to a place called 'Hope' after Golden Ace won the hurdling crown at Cheltenham last month for her 35-horse stable.
The bare outcome does not tell the whole story; that the two previous champions, Constitution Hill and State Man, both fell. But, in racing, it is surprising how often what might be termed a 'funny' result is proved less of a fluke in time. Scott, 63, hopes that the Boodles Punchestown Champion Hurdle, when the three champions meet again on Irish turf, proves to be one of those moments.
Either way, to have the Champion Hurdle winner, standing in his converted dairy farm, is remarkable for someone who started out with a couple of pointers for no better reason than to get him and his wife, Camilla, off the place occasionally.
Golden Ace was bought by her owner, Ian Gosden, for £12,000. He went up to the sales, deviated away from the selection which his advisers had come up with and did his own thing. As Gosden quite freely admits, he does not like being told 'no', it just hardens his resolve.
'That's probably what made him a successful businessman,' Scott says. 'He is used to making his own decisions and not relying on others. She just needed time to mature. She didn't run for us until she was nearly five. She's not flash, she doesn't scatter the sheep, but her work's improved. She does seem to keep her best for the racecourse. She improved again to Cheltenham and, if anything, she's better now than all season.'
Scott says that the Champion Hurdle result did not sink in until the pay cheque dropped in his bank account. If it had been up to him, she might not even have run in the race, as he was favouring going for the easier option of the Mares' Hurdle over the longer trip of 2½ miles.
'There had been all this to-ing and fro-ing about whether we'd go for the Champion or Mares' Hurdle. Both Lorcan [Williams, jockey] and myself thought the Mares' would be easier. I think Ian, in his heart of hearts, was always determined to run in the Champion but he indulged us, going along with the Mares' for a bit.
'He felt third or fourth in the Champion, prize-money-wise, equated to winning the Mares', but I'd always prefer a winner and to bathe in champagne. When the decision was made, the nice thing was, suddenly there was no pressure. I was just hopeful we'd manage the first three.
'You never like to see a horse fall, so when Constitution Hill went down, I didn't suddenly think 'whoopie-do, we've a chance of the first two'. State Man was going well coming down the hill, Brighterdaysahead was still there and we could be third. We crept back up on Brighterdaysahead and I was getting a bit excited we'd be second and then State Man topples over. The rest is a complete blur. It's the sort of thing you dream about.'
Wow... Golden Ace wins a drama-fuelled Champion Hurdle 👀 pic.twitter.com/gfcVXlk6hz
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) March 11, 2025
As the 25-1 Golden Ace arrived in the winner's enclosure, a large, vociferous West Country section of the crowd started chanting Scott's name long and loudly.
'It's nice having your own barmy army,' he points out. 'It's a good job they were there. Everyone was so shocked. But to be fair, once they'd computed it, the crowd cheered her like a champion when she was paraded round the paddock.
'People have been incredibly gracious and kind, punters and fellow trainers, it has helped give people hope I think. This game is so much about hope. It's possible. Sometimes you take a punt – for which I take no credit – and it comes off.'
It was Scott's father, Michael – inspired by an uncle who farmed in Somerset – who bought 400-acre Higher Holworthy Farm, now overlooking Wimbleball Lake, after the Second World War.
'Dad absolutely hated horses,' Scott says. 'Mother came down from Northumberland to groom on the neighbouring farm so, conveniently, a girlfriend arrived on the doorstep. She was all horses. I was the only one of three siblings who stuck at them, though. This is all Camilla's fault we've done this! I was happily farming away, milking cows and doing the sheep.
'In fairness, cows were giving us up. We were milking in the wrong place. When father started, every farm milked a few cows but there were only two of us left on the Brendon Hills in the end. We had difficulty in getting people to pick the milk up and all the food was dearer to drag up here.'
He still has 500 ewes – lambing is dictated by the weather so coincides with Aintree and not Cheltenham – while it was the arrival of Gone To Lunch, better than a pointer, who proved the catalyst to his becoming a professional trainer in 2006.
'He ran at the Festival five times, was favourite for the 2009 RSA at one stage, nosedived at the fifth, ran in the Scottish National, was just touched off for second, then turned out again for Punchestown, where he was second in a Grade One,' Scott says.
'Lamb's been good for the last couple of years but, of all the things I could have done, being a farmer and trainer is the least profitable,' he points out, not entirely in jest. 'But the two things work quite well together and having the farm means we have a bit of space for the horses. If you're in Lambourn or Newmarket, you have to pay someone to take the muck away, I've got a very handy place to spread it. It does put pressure on at certain times of the year but, ultimately, the horses come first.
'We never had a goal, a couple of point-to-pointers purely to have a bit of fun. Someone asked us to train one for them and it grew from there. You're always asked as a child what you're going to do and the right answer is 'I don't know'. That's half the fun of life, hopefully it takes you off somewhere.'