Tom Dascombe welcomes you ONEWAY website Tom Dascombe started training from ONEWAY at the start of 2006 and in his first season trained 12 winners from 16 horses racing from the yard. In his second year, 2007, he trained 26 winners.
Tom writes:
"I now have some 40 horses in training and my target for 2008 is to have more winners than last year and to have a Group winner.
My strike rate in 2007 was the sixth best in the country. The following statistics are taken from the Racing Post and cover all flat trainers who had more than 100 runners in the year.
Saeed Bin Suroor 73 wins 285 runs, 26% strike rate
Sir Michael Stoute 113 wins 498 runs, 23% strike rate
Jeremy Noseda 56 wins 258 runs, 22% strike rate
Sir Mark Prescott 66 wins 311 runs, 21% strike rate
Henry Cecil 45 wins 215 runs, 21% strike rate
Tom Dascombe 26 wins 134 runs, 19% strike rate
William Haggas 62 wins 376 runs, 18% strike rate
John Gosden 67 wins 401 runs, 17% strike rate.
You can find out more about me, my horses and my statistics by clicking on the headings at the top of each page.
The highlights for me in my second year as a trainer were:
All the latest news from ONEWAY is to the side of the home page and further details are contained in the ONEWAY Blog.
Born in 1973 in Bristol, Tom first got his passion for horse racing at an early age watching the ITV Seven with his Grandfather and Dad, (Bill). On Saturdays all three would go to the local tracks, Bath, Chepstow, Cheltenham and Salisbury and watch Steve Cauthen push home another winner, or John Francome conjure another great leap out of a Fred Winter favourite.
Having started riding ponies at three years old, Tom's first 'job' in racing was with Henry Candy in Lambourn, just down the road from his ONEWAY base 17 years later. It was only for the summer before one more year at school. It was here that Tom realised he was not going to be a flat jockey. At 15 he was far bigger and heavier than the older lads.
After leaving school it was off to the Champion himself, MCP. And what an introduction to racing: a professional well-managed business in an otherwise amateur industry. Martin was ten years ahead of his competitors. Tom thinks he learnt more in his first five years there than he would have done in 15 years anywhere else. Martin was quite simply a genius. When people thought things could not be done he proved them wrong time and time again.
Tom says "The thing I learned from Martin above all else was to listen to everyone but always make up my own mind".
10 years of race riding resulted in 96 winners, a ride in the Grand National and no broken bones, so it was time to move on. Having spent three years as assistant trainer to Ralph Beckett and time track riding at Churchill Downs, Tom got a job in Florida breaking in yearlings. Just two riders broke in 80 yearlings in two months; it was hard work but very rewarding.
Tom says "the American way is much faster and in my opinion, just as good. You just get on them!"
On returning to England Tom took two horses to Dubai for Ralph Beckett and that is where he met Mike De Kock, a truly brilliant trainer who again taught Tom a lot. Mike works his horses hard and feeds them well but his main skill is his ability to spot unsoundness in a horse and treat it before it becomes a long-term problem. Tom spent two years with Mike in Dubai, South Africa and England and it was two of the best years of his life. Not only is Mike a great trainer and a wonderful bloke but also a brilliant golfer.
Tom says "In the two years with Mike my golf improved tremendously. In the winter of 2003 at the Dubai Racing Carnival I had 16 horses of Mike's under my care. The results speak for themselves:
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