Rookie trainer Tom Clover talks to Graham Clark

Having spent the previous five years as assistant to David Simcock, the 31-year-old, together with partner Jackie Jarvis, daughter of the late Michael Jarvis, has made the decision to branch out and become the latest name to join the training ranks in Newmarket.

While targets remain low key at this stage of his career, the Wroughton House Stables handler is well aware firing in a steady flow of winners will be imperative early on if he is to become a success in the future.

He said: "It was the right time to strike out on my own. If you can do eight years as an assistant, I think it is a good stint and will stand you in good stead. If you do the graft, hopefully in the long term you will reap the rewards.

"I'm under no illusion that what we need is winners, but I've not set a number of winners I want to achieve.

"I just want the horses to run well and the ones that should win do exactly that and keep attracting owners.

"I'm trying to do the best by every horse and hopefully the winners will come, rather than setting a target. David Simcock was not one for setting targets and I'm cut from the same cloth."

Attracting high-profile owners has not proven to be a problem so far, with some of the most recognisable names in racing placing their faith in his skills, along with tempting a former trainer and Manchester City icon to become involved in horses in his care.

Clover said: "We've been lucky so far, we've attracted Kirsten Rausing, Alan Spence and Imad Al Sagar and Saleh Al Homaizi (owners of 2007 Derby winner Authorized).

"We also have an unnamed two-year-old by Acclamation that is owned by Francis Lee (pictured). He used to have lots of horses with Michael Jarvis and Jackie's mum is very good friends with him.

"He hadn't had a horse for years. He rang up and said 'What have you got?' and him and a friend bought the Acclamation colt. He is very much a horse for the back-end. He has got loads of scope and covers the ground lovely. We would start him at a mile and go from there.

"We have also got Jack Berry involved in a syndicate. He is another of Gaye and Michael's old friends. They have a Foxwedge filly called Sweet Vixen who I hope will make the racecourse in May. She is training well.

"It's lovely we have a right mixture of owners and I'm lucky I have a yard where I can take them and think it is smart enough."

His historic base has been home to Grand National winners in the past and Clover hopes one day it will be Pattern-race performers housed in those very boxes.

Although those aspirations may be some way off, he has in Archie and Askari horses he hopes will help put his name on the map throughout the season.

He said: "Our team of older horses are ones which we will try and save for the summer and hopefully we can get one to win one of those Saturday handicaps

"Archie is rated 87 and I see him as a seven-furlong or a mile horse. He is generous in his training and I'd hope he is in that bracket where if he was lucky enough to win one he almost gets into the 90 and above bracket and you can get into the odd good race then.

"I would hope in time that Askari would stay well. He was bought cheaply and is rated 65. He ran very well for us on his debut when he was third at Wolverhampton, where he was held up off a reasonably slow pace. He didn't run so well next time at Kempton, but since scoped bad.

"He will be better on the turf, without question. He needs to be held up with a bit of pace to aim at. I would be disappointed if he was not rated a good bit better than 65 by the end of the season."

Hopes are high speedily-bred two-year-old Declarationoflove could be a colt capable of packing a punch early doors at an above-average level.

He said: "We have a lovely mixture of two-year-olds. We've got a couple that are precocious and a few that are mid- to back-end.

"We have got a lovely Declaration Of War called Declarationoflove. He looks precocious and is training well at the moment.

"How good he will be we will find out on the track, but his work is fine. He will hopefully be out in April.

"We've put him in the Super Sprint at Newbury. It's for horses bought for £60,000 or less and he would have a lovely weight for that if he turned out to be okay. It makes obvious sense to give him the entry, as he is all speed and is bred like that."