Charlie Fellowes stable tour
Breaking new ground each year is a hard thing for any trainer to achieve, but it is something Charlie Fellowes has made a habit of doing.
Looking through the Newmarket handler's statistics shows improvement in each of his three years with a licence, with both his annual winners and earnings totals better than the previous ones.
Last year saw Fellowes, a former assistant to fellow Newmarket trainer James Fanshawe, saddle 25 winners on British soil, along with gaining his first stakes winner thanks to the victory of the now-retired Moonlit Show in a Listed contest at Fairyhouse in September.
With three targets set out for this season, there is every chance Fellowes will go on to tick each of them off and take the next step up the ladder.
He said: "We had an awesome year last year and I am hoping we will improve again.
"The obvious thing to aim for is 30 winners and to get a Group winner, along with breaking £200,000 in prize-money. All three are realistic targets and if we get to the end of the year having not done this, it would be disappointing.
"The big one is improving the numbers of winners and to get that first Group winner, as it gives people the confidence we can train a good one. I really believe we will have that breakthrough."
Fellowes on five horses to follow:
"He has run twice for me, finishing third the first time then second. He is a really good looking horse that has done well over the winter. He got an injury at the back-end so we had to stop with him. He is a big boy and built like a machine. He takes a lot to get fit.
"He will probably do his first piece of work this weekend and it will take all of April to get him fit. We are looking at the beginning of May to get him out if we have no setbacks.
"He will probably get a mile and a quarter but we will start him over a mile. Realistically we would be looking at some of those nice races at the back-end of the year. He could be a Cambridgeshire horse."
"She ran an absolute blinder first time out at Newmarket behind two horses that are well regarded. She was green and the trip was too short. On her second start she was slow out of the gates at Chelmsford and you can't afford to do that there.
"I think a lot of her and she has come back looking fantastic, but she is probably a month away from running yet. There is a fillies' maiden at the Craven meeting so she might go there if she is ready in time.
" We will go a mile straight away with her and she may get further in time, but I would like to think she could be a Sandringham type for Royal Ascot."
"He has only run four times as a four-year-old and is a really late developer. He would switch off in the middle of his races last year as if he wasn't interested. I don't think he wasn't trying, he was just physically and mentally immature. He has come back from his holidays and strengthened up and looks wonderful.
"The plan is to run him this weekend at Kempton in a 0-85 handicap as I want to run him in the Chester Cup. He is rated 81 so he would need to go up about 10lb, but hopefully he will win this weekend then he will go back there for the Queen's Prize in two weeks."
"He was not putting his best foot forward so we gelded him and he hacked up at Kempton, then ran a blinder in a Listed race back there over a mile and a half. He was a bit unlucky as he got stuck behind horses and got out too late.
"He will run at Kempton on Saturday in a one-mile-three handicap and that will qualify him for the Marathon final on Good Friday.
"He is by Shirocco and staying races look to be where his future lies, but Good Friday will tell us where we go. I think he will be at his best over two miles and if we can improve him again for that step up in trip and get him up to 110, then we are in business."
REPERCUSSION
"He was purchased from Andre Fabre's yard. He is pretty lightly raced but rated 95. He is a good looking horse that doesn't carry much condition. Trying to improve one out of Andre Fabre's yard is not going to be easy at all and I am very aware of that.
"The owners want to go to Royal Ascot and while he has been running over a mile, his pedigree suggests he will get further than a mile if he learns to relax. The Duke of Edinburgh might stretch him so it leaves us with either the Hunt Cup or Wolferton, but he needs to go up 5lb to get in these races. I don't know where he will start."