Gay Kelleway has sold her yard in Newmarket, where she has trained for 20 years, to move to Yorkshire to work alongside Ann Duffield
Two of Britain’s best-known women trainers are joining forces to reignite their careers.
Gay Kelleway, who made history when she became the first female to ride a Royal Ascot winner, has trained in Newmarket for 20 years.
Ann Duffield, whose husband is the former top jockey George Duffield, is based closed to the Yorkshire training centre of Middleham.
Kelleway, 60, has sold her Queen Alexandra stables in Newmarket to move to Yorkshire to team up with Duffield at her base at Sun Hill, Constable Burton, which is three miles from Middleham.
“We’ve both still got fire in our bellies and it looks the perfect fit,” said Kelleway, who started training at the same time as Duffield did in the early nineties.
“I’ve always been tempted to go up north because I’ve had a lot of winners up there and that’s where many of my owners are based.”
Initially, they will start with between 20 and 30 horses and Kelleway’s charges will run under Duffield’s name until the BHA paperwork has been approved for them to operate jointly.
“It just makes more sense to share a business 50 percent between us and go places than to keep 100 percent and not go anywhere,” said Duffield, 60.
“Racing’s a tough game and getting tougher – both our numbers were dwindling and this is a great way to be competitive moving forward.
“You have got to have the ammunition to go to war and this way we have the facilities, experienced and talented staff and a great environment to get back competing.
“We’ve known each other for years and, when she rang to say she had sold up in Newmarket, I asked what she was planning to do. Coming up to train with me just evolved naturally.
“A lot of trainers are sharing the workload now and it just made sense for us to do the same.”
Kelleway, 61 in December, is in the process of buying an apartment near the Knavesmire in York and is excited by the opportunities that lay ahead.
“We both still love the game and are ambitious.” she said. “The timing was right, too, as my head girl Liz Mullen is retiring after 20 years and my lead rider is leaving to become an electrician.
“Ann has experienced, talented staff already in place and it is becoming increasingly harder to get that at Newmarket these days.
“We both have knowledge and experience and that will give us a solid foundation in our new venture.”
She added: “While I’ve trained Group two and three winners, I’ve never won a Group One, so hopefully we can get that Group One horse now.”
Duffield won her first Group race with her very first runner when Melody of Love took the Group Three Firth of Clyde Stakes at Ayr in 2012, returning to win the race again with the Sheikh Fahad Al-Thani-owned Dark Reckoning two years later.
There is ample room for the new training duo to expand their operation at the 70-horse capacity stables, which has a grass and uphill all-weather gallop, arena, water treadmill and also incorporates bespoke accommodation lodges, allowing owners to stay overnight.
Duffield, fresh from a double at Newcastle on Tuesday, will also continue to run her successful pre-training and rehabilitation yard for other trainers as well as Middleham Park Racing, for whom she has trained 96 winners.
National Hunt handler Nicky Henderson credited her for the revival of his Cheltenham winner Marie’s Rock in 2022.
“That is a big part of what goes on here and that will not change,” she said.
