Victoria Collins trains six pointers at Snowshill near Broadway in Gloucestershire, all of whom this season will run in the blue, pink and white of long-standing owner Sarah Dawson. A Hunter Chase specialist, Victoria won races at both showcase evening meetings – Stratford and Cheltenham – last season, and she is particular adept at training mares (My Flora, Queen Olivia) and revitalising talented horses who have lost their way under rules (Gauvain). A firm believer in hunting her pointers, Victoria has plenty to look forward to in 2022/2023. South Midlands Area Press Officer Jake Exelby dropped in at Snowshill before the start of the season to discover all about her.
I arrive at the yard as Victoria is returning from a morning’s hunting with the North Cotswold – where her partner and father of three-month-old Amelia, who has already sat on a horse, Oliver Dale is huntsman and Master of Hounds – on Stratford winner Zamparelli. “I hunt all my pointers,” she confirms, “And I hunt them properly – they jump hedges and gates. Could they get injured? They could injure themselves rolling in the stable... But I stop taking them out a few weeks before they’re due to race.” At this point Sarah interjects, “You hunted Sybarite the day before he ran at Cheltenham.” “Yes”, responds Victoria, “Just for 20 minutes to give him his head!”
Victoria on Solomon Grey
Victoria takes me round the yard before cantering two of her string – Cheltenham victor Solomon Grey and maiden Flick the Switch – round the fields at her Brockhampton Farm base, starting with new recruit Springtown Lake. “He’s ex-Philip Hobbs and Oliver Sherwood and was rated 142 at his best, but has gone sour. The aim is the Walrus Hunter Chase at Haydock if I can sweeten him up, but I’ll run him in a couple of points first to see if he’s enjoying it and I’ve managed to rekindle his fire – I don’t like starting off ex-rules horses in Hunter Chases.”
New recruit Springtown Lake
As for last season’s two stable stars, “I imagine Solomon Grey will go back to Cheltenham after starting off at Ludlow. The ground’s a huge factor as he runs better on quicker going. If he wins again, I’ll be able to celebrate this year – if I hadn’t been pregnant after my first Cheltenham win, we’d have partied for days! Zamparelli also loves Ludlow and his best trip is also two-and-a-half miles. He may run in a point first before going Hunter Chasing, with the ultimate goal being the Aintree Foxhunters.”
Zamparelli looking forward to Aintree
Siddington winner Duntish, “Has only just come in and won’t run until the New Year,” and maiden Welsh Rarebit will also be ready after Christmas, Victoria saying, “I couldn’t get him to settle last year and I like to think there’s more to come.” However, her big hope this year is to win a race with Sarah’s homebred Flick The Switch, out of their Howick winner Silver Phoenix. “I want to prove a point to his long-standing, long-suffering owner!” laughs Victoria. “It’s become a standing joke between us and we wind each other up about it, but I’d dearly love to see him win and I think he can – he’s had no luck at all.”
(L-R) Sarah (with Pippin), Victoria on Flick the Switch and Oliver with Amelia
As well as the six to run, Victoria keeps about 25 at home – “Hunters, broodmares, and youngsters” – and does most of the work herself, although “Donna Power, who used to work for Nigel Twiston-Davies and is brilliant, comes in part-time in the morning, and I send the youngsters to Christy Woods (nee Mews) to break-in. Sarah also has a five-year-old filly, Garthorpe third Clover All Over, with Tom and Gina Ellis – I’m a one-man-band and better at sweetening up older horses than developing young ones!” Victoria is keen to stress that, while most of her horses are owned by Sarah, she is not a private trainer and, “I have room for a couple more!”
While Victoria unsaddles her two horses, I ask Sarah – who has been with Victoria since 2009 – the obvious question, ‘What made you choose her to train your string?’ “I blame Heather Kemp,” smiles Sarah. “I had a maiden with her and she suggested Victoria, who was based in Hampshire at the time, as was I. One day, I went to Peper Harow, entered the box park and asked a guy sitting on a water butt if he knew Victoria. He replied, ‘She’s my daughter!’ and the rest is history! Now, I wouldn’t send my horses anywhere else – I know they get looked after so well and results on the racecourse are secondary, as they have such a lovely life.”
Work over, Victoria settles down to tell me about her background. “My father was huntsman for the Curre & Llangibby, Chiddingfold, Leconfield & Cowdray and Hampshire. I got into pointing through Sue Maxse (mother of former rider and Jockey Club PR Director John Maxse), for whom I worked for a long time. I was then offered the chance to run a mixed yard of hunters and pointers for (former Sandhurst Area Chairman) Charlie Corbett near Alresford in Hampshire and it took off from there. When the tenancy ended,” continues Victoria, “I moved to Ludlow, where I stayed for seven years. I was based next door to Henry Daly and we got on like a house on fire. I used his facilities and had the Downton Hall Estate to canter the horses. With Gauvain, I never took him on the gallops or jumped him at home – just out hunting! I had my best seasons in Ludlow and Sarah is the main reason for that,” confirms Victoria, “But it was Future To Future, who I bought for just £900 from Emma Lavelle, who first put me on the map. He won three on the bounce for Rilly Goschen, two at Badbury Rings and at Larkhill and I had five winners that year.”
With partner Oliver moving to Gloucestershire to be huntsman for the North Cotswold, it was also time for Victoria to uproot from their Ludlow base. “We didn’t have a yard when we first came here,” she admits. “The horses were in a rented field. We found Brockhampton Farm through hunting people we knew and, while we can only canter them here, (local farmer and former rider) Harry Wheeler has great grass gallops nearby and we also take the horses to Nigel Twiston-Davies – I’m great friends with his son Willie – Martin Keighley, DJ Jeffreys and Ben Brain.”
Victoria’s training career covered, talk turns to her – rather briefer – time in the saddle, which consisted of a single outing at Barbury in 2007. Why just the one ride? “I’m quite tall and didn’t want to diet, but I always wanted one go at a point-to-point, so I knew what it was like. (Former useful chaser) Gola Cher was now owned by Julie Butler, she said I should have a spin round Barbury and we finished fourth. We were flat to the boards and I was thinking at the time, ‘Oh my God, can we go any faster?’ and Polly Gundry said afterwards that I’d probably never go that quickly again in a race. I was used to riding out ten lots a day, but it’s amazing the fitness you need to race-ride and I don’t think people always grasp that.”
So does Victoria wish she’d prolonged her time as a rider? “I’d do it again, but – being a one-man band – wouldn’t be able to train if I got injured. (Shouts) ‘Sarah, will you let me ride Zamparelli in the North Cotswold Members?!’” On the subject of jockeys, I ask who she intends to use this season. “Darren Andrews, who I’d never met before he rode Solomon Grey at Cheltenham, James King, if we can get him – we’re good friends and Oliver plays cricket with him – and we’ll ask Gina Andrews. Sarah likes to keep the same jockeys, but you can’t always get them!”
As we bring up Cheltenham again, I ask why Victoria appears to favour Hunter Chases over pointing. “It’s the prize money – it costs the same to keep them, but you win a point and get £150, while you can get over £1,000 being placed in a Hunter Chase. Zamparelli paid his way last season.” So why not take the obvious next step and train professionally? “I’ve always been happy looking after hunters and pointers. I’m still in favour of local farmers running their horses in the Members race – that’s what pointing’s all about.”
With Victoria having been involved in pointing for over 15 years, it’s inevitable that the increasing professionalism of the sport is raised and we talk about the recent success of riders like Olive Nicholls (daughter of Paul) and Freddie Gingell (grandson of Colin Tizzard). “It’s great that people like Olive and Freddie are coming into points and riding good horses – you wouldn’t want to put them on an old yak and I’d do the same for Amelia if I could. But I do think that some young jockeys should stay in pointing longer to gain more experience, riding more maidens to learn about shoddy jumpers and stickability before going conditional.”
And, as a keen advocate of hunting her horses, how have Victoria’s views been affected by the recent changes in legislation? “I’m still as enthusiastic as I’ve always been and love being involved with horses and bringing them on. When you have winners, you want more. But I do think hunting’s on a slippery slope – it was banned 15 years ago and, though we can still go trail hunting, we have to enjoy every day while it lasts.” As for race programming, “I like the two-and-a-half mile races, because not every horse gets three miles, and I’m a fan of bumpers, as they’re a nice education, giving racecourse experience to young horses. I also like the way Maiden races are structured now, although – as my maidens are older – it can be a gripe when you’re giving away 21lbs to a four-year-old!”
Having talked horses for the best part of two hours, my final question to Victoria is what she does to relax. “I love lying on a beach, drinking an espresso martini through an intravenous drip with clean nails and nice hair! When I go on holiday in the summer, I don’t see or smell a horse! I love going to London, to the theatre, drinking and partying… but it’s always nice to come home.”