YOU know what they say about the best laid plans. Noel Wilson doesn’t need reminding. He’s back in North Yorkshire after his move to Scotland and the Belstane Racing Stables in Lanarkshire went awry.

The Irishman had taken over from Ian Semple at the historic Carluke yard believing he would have the opportunity to train more horses and get more winners.

In the event, he was merely saddling his own thoroughbreds several hundred miles up the road.

But Wilson has never been the sort to meekly go along with things.

Recognising it wasn’t working out, he quit as head trainer and has moved back to his adopted county. He has taken over boxes at the Breckenbrough Stables in Sandhutton, near Thirsk, and is delighted to be back.

“I went up to Carluke for the numbers game,” he explains. “I took 25 horses with me and I thought I would make another 45 to 50. That would have given me the numbers to do the job – because the more horses the more winners.

“When I got there, there were only about 18 horses left and only eight of them were sound enough to be trained and go and win a race. All I had done was transfer myself from Flaxton to Belstane.

“There was no investment, no fresh horses and there seemed to be no point in being up there training my own horses. We were spending a lot of money travelling down to this area and there was a lot of expense for people who went with me.

“My business was going to go downhill so I have come back down the road again. It was a six-month waste of my life and my training career. I lost a couple of decent horses like Demolition through the move. But I am man enough to bite the bullet and get out before it damaged me.”

Breckenbrough “basically fell into my lap”, Wilson says and he has big plans for the former empire of Jack and Lynda Ramsden. With two gallops and an equine swimming pool, he now has the sort of facilities he has longed for in his ambitions to train the bigger and better winners.

Wilson arrived back with a bang.

The day after making the move back, Hotham struck gold at York Racecourse in the John Smith’s Stakes and Ya Boy Sir has since gone in at Ayr.

“It was great to be back like that and to let people know I was back in North Yorkshire,” he added. “This couldn’t have worked out any better for me and I have got the facilities I need. I still have nice horses with me, the likes of Pavershooz and Hotham that can win Class 2 races and challenge in the Ayr Gold Cup.

“The Ramsdens built this place and it would have been top of the range 20 years ago. It’s got a seven-furlong round, and seven-furlong hill gallop – with grass gallops.

“We can do steady work on the flat, and fast work on the hill gallop and there is that variety – so horses aren’t going round the same gallop all the time.

“There’s a swimming pool, so horses that are hard to train because of injury can be kept fit in the pool.

“If I can keep them healthy and well then I am hoping for another ten winners this season before starting to build for the next campaign.

“I have to try to get some new owners and get some of the old owners back and get this place up and running again.

“We have got everything we need here. I am looking forward to building it up because it is such a great place for owners to come and watch their horses.”


Nunthorpe next for Robin’s best

BRING on the Nunthorpe, declared Cowthorpe trainer Robin Bastiman after Borderlescott notched another top-class success when winning the Group 1 Audi Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.

The eight-year-old, ridden by Kieren Fallon for the first time, produced a trademark burst of speed late in the five-furlong contest to sweep to the front and win cosily from Group Therapy.

Borderlescott, the 9-2 favourite, will now move on to Knavesmire on August 20, where he will seek to become the first horse since Sharpo in 1982 to win the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes three times in a row.

Bastiman said: “He’s just an unbelievable horse and I think he is better than he has ever been. Once he gets wound up, he goes. He has got to run against top-class horses and at a fast pace. The engine is still there. Bring on the Nunthorpe.”

Fallon added: “He has been a great servant to the Bastiman family and he made it easy for me. He won quite well. You wouldn’t think he was eight.”