Interview with former leading South African-based trainer, who is already among the winners after his return to Britain following a hugely successful 20-year spell in Cape Town
Joey Ramsden is in excellent spirits. Maybe it’s his natural bonhomie, maybe the time of year or perhaps it’s the genuine excitement which comes with a new venture.
A new venture, that is, a long way from where you might expect, because it’s not in South Africa – where Ramsden is one of the most successful trainers of all time, with 1,850 winners on his CV – nor Australia, where he lived during Covid. Rather, it’s in the UK away from the bright lights in Nottinghamshire – which, with the best will in the world, is not necessarily regarded as a hotbed of international racing.
The 57-year-old is based near Newark from a 62-box yard where Breeders’ Cup-winning trainer Mick Appleby enjoyed success. “I love where we are,” says the trainer, who was known as ‘The Captain’ in South Africa. “It’s in the Midlands and it may not be as fashionable as some of the training centres, but the facilities are incredible.”
Be that as it may, this is a bit of a departure from Ramsden’s peak in Cape Town, where he once had 180 horses. They included the star Variety Club, winner of three G1s in South Africa, the G2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai and the G1 Champions Mile in Hong Kong (albeit in Mike De Kock’s name owing to quarantine regulations).
Admittedly, there is probably nothing of that elite talent among Ramsden’s current string, which numbers, in his own words, “a whopping 14!”
However, he is full of praise for his new base. “We have an 800-metre heavy round track and a 7½-furlong uphill all-weather, which has just been relaid and is gorgeous,” he says.
Dose of realism
‘Gorgeous’ isn’t a word you hear too often in association with a training surface, but Ramsden’s enthusiasm is genuine. It comes with a dose of realism too, when asked how many horses he would ideally like to train.
“Fifty is a nice number,” he ponders. “But I wouldn’t like to go as big as I was and have 180 again.”
Ramsden cites the “weather and the wine” as the two things he misses most about South Africa. Then, of course, there are the horses, which took him to the summit of the sport during a 20-year stint that ended in January 2020. He won the nation’s biggest race, the Durban July, in 2016 with The Conglomerate.
“The highlights were staying in business for so long and being able to live in the most beautiful city, Cape Town,” says Ramsden. “Also to be able to train the best horses that South Africa could breed and be able to compete in buying them, that was lovely. I was very spoiled, but I loved it.
“Variety Club was obviously the best I had, along with another South African champion called Winter Solstice, who was very good and won the G1 Queen’s Plate. I think I had 26 or 27 Group 1 winners, and 400-odd Listed and stakes winners.”
By any reckoning, this was a hugely successful career, and one which was elevated higher when Variety Club won in Dubai in 2014, during a time when, due to African Horse Sickness quarantine protocols, South African horses had to travel to the UAE via a spell in Europe – meaning the best part of a year off the track.
Monstrous moment
“It was a monstrous moment,” he says of the Meydan win. “I was very lucky to be able to use Mike De Kock’s stable and his expertise, as it was so hard getting the horse out. They lose nine months of their lives and you lose nine months of your life. Whatever Mike achieved and whatever Variety Club achieved was all the more special because it was that bloody hard.”
Ramsden’s world changed dramatically when Variety Club’s owner and one of his main backers, Markus Jooste, CEO of Steinhoff International, was fined R475 million (US$25,000) in March 2020 for publishing false financial statements between 2014 and 2017. Jooste later took his own life, in March 2024.
It indirectly led to Ramsden shutting up shop in Cape Town, which he describes in one word: “Heartbreaking.”
Ramsden goes on: “The hardest part was parting ways with the team and the staff who had been with me for a very long time. They were just fantastic – the best – and I was spoiled.
“There were also some fantastic owners who had been with me from the beginning. But I’d gone down to about 40 horses – I couldn’t make it pay and couldn’t see a future for the time being.”
He gave racing a break and took up travelling, timing it just as the Covid pandemic made much of the world grind to a halt. “After I stopped training my mind was basically cooked so I decided to take a year off and do the Grand Tour,” he explains.
Swanning around Australia
“I bought a campervan – we towed a car and went around Australia. That was a lot of fun and we were lucky to do it during Covid. When everyone else was locked in we were busy swanning around Australia and it was magical.”
After that came a stint as a pre-trainer, a return to holding a licence still far from his mind.
“I was in Australia running a spelling farm and a pre-training farm with 100 or so horses. I enjoyed that but that came to an end,” he explains.
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking to start training again. I was hoping to find someone to work for and help and use some of my knowledge. But then this job popped up, and I jumped at the opportunity.”
Ramsden’s new employers, Dr Geoff and Viv Kinder, own his stables, Hill Top Equestrian Centre. They hadn’t even heard of the trainer before considering him for the job – which is perhaps surprising given his family name.
He is the son of famed gambler Jack Ramsden and the stepson of former trainer Lynda, while sister Emma Spencer was a mainstay of Channel 4’s racing coverage. His brother Andrew runs Valmont, whose recent successes include an Irish Oaks with You Got To Me.
Ramsden laughs when asked about his father’s exploits, saying he’s seldom questioned about it now. “When I was doing well in South Africa, my father said, ‘You’re no longer known as my son – now I’m known as your father!’ which was nice of him.”
Off the mark
Despite his small equine team, Ramsden didn’t have to wait too long for his first win from the new base. Hill Top Equestrian Centre’s Bishop’s Glory, his ninth runner, struck at Newcastle on November 6, before Valmont’s New York Minute won at Southwell two weeks later. As such, the trainer is happy enough about the start he’s made to career version 2.0.
“Considering what we’ve got, I’m ecstatic,” he says, before turning slightly coy. “I’ve got a couple of Valmont horses and I’m very lucky to have them.”
It would be a surprise were he not to push on from here and attract more owners, even in challenging times for smaller operations. “The game has changed so much,” he ruminates. “The powerful stables are so incredibly powerful.”
Ramsden has experienced the sport from the very top and the bottom, but his confidence and charisma remain intact. Somehow, you sense he’s firmly on the way back up again.
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