Symonds is living his own dream

Nick Townsend talks to trainer Tom Symonds, once assistant to Nicky Henderson, now successful in his own right

- Nick Townsend

As a pupil, Tom Symonds studied at some of the greatest seats of thoroughbred learning. Names like Venetia Williams, for whom he rode out, Michael and Peter Scudamore and Flat trainer James Fanshawe, with whom he has enjoyed associations, leap off the pages of his CV. But in the National Hunt game, few can add more lustre to a man’s employment record than Nicky Henderson.

Symonds was just 21 when he became assistant to the current and six-times overall champion jumps trainer and, for five years, while assimilating knowledge of his chosen craft, Symonds gloried in Henderson’s triumphs.

“I was just a child living a dream, really,” the now 35-year-old enthuses of life under the master of Seven Barrows in Lambourn. “God, I rode Long Run for two years, and he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup (in 2011). One day, I rode him and Riverside Theatre first and second lot, and they finished first and second in the King George (King George VI Chase at Kempton).”

He adds: “If you could wind back to the years when I was watching racing as a fan, and you’d told me that I’d never do anything else again, I’d probably have been happy with that. It was pretty amazing.” Yet, while he had lived the dream, it was someone else’s dream. Symonds had always harboured a desire to succeed on his own merits, and, in 2011, set up as a licenced trainer at Dason Court, the family farm near Ross-on-Wye.

When protégé becomes practitioner in his own right the early examination of his acumen and resilience to setbacks can be daunting and, for Symonds progress has been steady. He despatched 97 winners over nine seasons – until this current remarkable one in which an admirable win strike rate of 27% has been matched only by Paul Nicholls.