By Tom Peacock
Weighing up the merit of higher education against hands-on experience is a conundrum which will occupy many young students this summer.
Archie Watson has little doubt he made the right decision in leaving the University of Edinburgh with his history degree half-finished to work for Alec Laird in Durban. It was part of a racing apprenticeship which, a few years later, has seen him emerge as the latest British training hot property.
“I spent most of my time at the sales with Blandford Bloodstock and not doing essays,” he recalled. “I think I might have lasted in a three-year English university, but four years at Edinburgh, especially when the opportunity was there to go down to South Africa, I don't think there was ever a question of what I was going to do.”
Watson did not have a direct link into racing but the wheels were set in motion when he was taken to Cheltenham by his step grandparents.
“I found the racecard the other day, it was 1996 so I must have been about seven, and I was completely bitten by the bug, it was all I wanted to do,” he said. “From 13 to 14 I would bike up to Kingston Lisle and was riding out, mucking out, that sort of thing for Charlie Morlock, then later rode out in summer holidays for Alan King and Paul Webber, who got me a job with Graham Motion and I went over to Maryland and spent a summer riding track work out there.”
After school followed spells in bloodstock with the likes of Johnnie Peter-Hoblyn at Shadwell and Windsor Park in New Zealand. The switch to Laird, famed for the globetrotting London News (SAf) (Bush Telegraph {SAf}), was formative.
“It was my first proper job and I ended up running a satellite yard of 30 horses,” he said. “Alec was a great teacher but in the off-season you were just down there on your own getting on with it. I think that was the best learning curve, making your own mistakes, figuring it out yourself. I did two seasons and for a long time I thought I might stay down there and start training, but for me British racing is what I grew up loving and what I wanted to succeed in, so I came home.”
He spent six months with Simon Callaghan in California and four more years as assistant to William Haggas. Last July, Watson took the plunge himself, completing the purchase of Saxon Gate Stables in Lambourn with only one horse to his name.
“I started young enough and, although I'm sure I could have gone somewhere else and learned more because you're still learning the whole time, I felt that any other step other than going training myself would have been a sideways or even a backward step from working for William and Maureen Haggas. The system they run, the success they have and the responsibility I had, it was a fantastic job and I hope it has prepared me well for what we're doing now.”
Watson's contacts brought the Abu Dhabi-based Al Asayl Bloodstock on board and in October, Ride The Lightning (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}) became his first winner.
By February, he had found his first stakes performer with Kulbir Sohi completing the purchase of Absolute Blast (Ire) (Kodiak {GB}), who won the Listed Magnolia S. at Kempton and then finished second to Convey in the Easter Classic S. at Lingfield. The mare is being primed for the G3 Princess Elizabeth S. at Epsom.
“She's an extraordinary story really,” Watson said. “She was sold out of France, having run some very good races including only being beaten six lengths in a Prix de Diane, to Saudi Arabia. She sort of dropped off the face of the earth for 18 months then reappeared off a mark of 72 with Iain Jardine. Iain and his team deserve a lot of the credit and fortunately she has continued to progress since we bought her.
“I firmly believe she's the best filly I've ever had the pleasure to work with anyway, and I do think she's more than capable of picking up a group race this year,” he added. “Hopefully we can go abroad later in the year and have a crack at some Group 1s. I do think those tight turf tracks in North America will suit her style of racing.”
Juvenile Corinthia Knight (Ire) (Society Rock {Ire}) lost a two-race unbeaten record to Frozen Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) at Ascot recently but is expected to be a Royal runner.
“From the word go, he has always led the string and done it all with the minimum of fuss,” Watson explained. “I think a) he probably bumped into a very good horse and b) was coming off the back of two quick runs and might've run a bit flat despite still finishing clear of the rest.”
“He had a little break and is back in the swing of things,” he noted. “We'll consider the [G2] Norfolk and the [Listed] Windsor Castle [at Royal Ascot] and I believe he'll continue to improve and we'll get him to Ascot in better shape than he went there for the last day. Hopefully he'd have a strong chance in whatever race he lines up in.”
There are now more than 30 horses in a yard once used by Fulke Walwyn and Mick Channon, a new barn is being built, and a tentative projection of 10 winners this year already passed.
“We'd be majority 2-year-olds with plenty more to hit the track,” Watson said. “It's nice when you get a call from a new owner that's considering putting one in with you. When you've started from scratch, it's a nice bit of recognition.”
Watson met his girlfriend Claire Short when she was based with Robert Cowell in Newmarket. She is a “massive asset” to the team not only for owner relations but work riding, with Watson's own aspirations in the saddle long ended.
“Unfortunately I'm 6′ 4″, so even if had the ability and wish to do it, the weight would have been an issue very quickly,” he explained. “I'd be more old fashioned about things, I train with my eye and by feel, and what my riders are telling me. I wouldn't really be one for what you might call the infernal machine, heart rate monitors, GPS tracking and that sort of malarkey. We try to keep it very simple.”
“Fit and happy horses win races, I think is the maxim we go by,” he said. “Hopefully that works for each horse and the results are showing.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
