Ian Williams is the son of the late
Billy Williams, who saddled Tom’s Little Al to win the
Mercedes-Benz Handicap Chase, now the Betbright Chase, at Kempton in
1984. However, Ian was reluctant to follow in his father’s
footsteps and, by his own admission, “fell” into training in his
own right after working as assistant trainer to Jenny Pitman for
three years. That said, he also spent six months with Martin Pipe and
four years with Francois Doumen, so he wasn’t a complete hayseed
when he sent up on his own, near Oxford, in August, 1996.
Shortly afterwards, Williams met
Patrick Kelly, once described as “a very shrewd Irish demolition
man”, but nonetheless ambitious, visionary and passionate about
horse racing.
With Kelly as landlord and Williams as
tenant, the pair developed Dominion Racing Stables, a modern,
self-contained training complex in Alvechurch, near Birmingham where
Williams has spent most of his 21-year career.
Having worked closely with Francois
Doumen, Williams has an intimate knowledge of the French racing
scene. Indeed, he saddled his first Grade 1 winner, Batman Senora, in
the Prix la Haye Jousselin (Chase) at Auteuil in November 2003.
He also achieved success at the highest
level, domestically, with Brewster in the Challow Novices’ Hurdle
at Newbury in 2004 and Wayward Prince in the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle
at Aintree in 2010. In 2016, Williams saddled his first and, so far,
only winner at the Cheltenham Festival, when Ballyalton rallied well
after being headed at the final fence to win the Close Brothers
Novices’ Handicap Chase by half a length. Later that year, he also
reached the milestone of 1,000 winners, when the aptly-named Appy
Days won a ‘bumper’ at Lingfield.
Of course, Ian Williams is a dual
purpose trainer. In fact, he has the distinction of saddling a winner
at every single racecourse in the country, a task made easier, but by
no means easy, by the fact that he trains in the heart of the
Midlands. His notable successes on the Flat, at home and abroad,
include Bulwark in the Chester Cup in 2008 and Sir Maximilian in the
Meydan Sprint in 2015, to name but two.
In the 2016/17 National Hunt season,
Williams saddled 46 winners and amassed £450,398 in total prize
money, while in the 2017 Flat season he saddled 51 winners and
amassed £617,338 in total prize money. All in all, he has over 90
horses in training at Dominion Racing Stables, including the
once-raced Zoffany gelding The Statesman, who hacked up on his
hurdling debut at Ludlow in October. The 4-year-old has no fancy
entries at this stage, but remains one to keep an eye on in the
future.