Ian Williams
Ian's notable winners to date:
Royal Ascot
Ian has won 2 of the last 6 runnings of the Ascot Stakes at Royal Ascot
2019 The Grand Visir
2021 Reshoun
Cheltenham Festival
2016 Ballyalton
French Grade 1
2003 Batman Senora
Global
Bahrain Turf Series
2023/24 Parlando
Meydan
2015 Sir Maximilian - Group 3
2023 Enemy winner in Meydan and over £1m in prizemoney
UK Jumps
2004 Brewerster, Challow Hurdle
2006 Tagula Blue, G2, Ascot
2017 London Prize, Imperial Cup
2017 London Prize, Elite Hurdle
2017 Gas Line Boy, Grand Sefton
2022 Party Business, G3, Aintree
Initially, Ian was not drawn to follow his father, Billy, into training, but, a year at college studying Business & Accountancy persuaded him that horses weren’t too bad after all.
At 18, Ian went to Lambourn to join Jenny Pitman as Assistant Trainer. This was the era of Royal Athlete, Garrison Savannah, Toby Tobias et al, and was a formative period in Ian’s development. Ian admits he knew very little when joining Mrs P, and was most grateful for the opportunity given by Jenny.
In the early 90’s, Ian spent 6 months with Martin Pipe at Pond House before joining Francois Doumen at Chantilly in France. His time there coincided with a golden age for the yard with The Fellow landing a couple of King George’s as well as the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
In 1997, Ian returned to Britain to begin his own journey as a trainer. Initially based near Oxford, with just a dozen horses, half of which came from the ever supportive John and Anne Poynton; very quickly it became obvious that these facilities were not to the standard the ambitious Williams required.
Fortunately, Ian was introduced to Patrick Kelly, a very successful businessman, who shared a passion for horseracing. Mr Kelly had a vision to create a state of the art training facility in the heart of the Midlands and together, they created the amazing training complex of Dominion Racing Stables.
As the tag line on Ian's website says "Passion to succeed never dies." Ian’s objectives are simple - "improve the quality of the string and continue to saddle winners". He achieved a lifetime ambition on 15th March 2016 when Ballyalton gave him his first Cheltenham Festival winner. Having run so well to be 2nd to the mighty Faugheen in 2014, it was appropriate that Ballyalton should give him his first 'gold medal'.
When Brasted won at Chelmsford on 15th October 2015, Ian completed a full set of saddling a winner at every racecourse in the UK - a unique achievement in modern training!
Ian Williams has trained over 300 in the last 5 seasons alone, winners including a winner at EVERY UK track - winners at both Royal Ascot, HAVING WON TWO OF THE LAST SIX RUNNINGS OF THE ASCOT STAKES AT ROYAL ASCOT. and the Cheltenham Festival come alike including and latterly THE GRAND VISIR, RESHOUN (both Ascot Stakes winners at Royal Ascot), ENEMY, ONE MORE FLEURIE, Aintree festival winners SOLAR IMPULSE & PARTY BUSINESS, Chester Cup winners MAGIC CIRCLE & BULWALK as well as Ebor runner up 2022 ALFRED BOUCHER
Stuart Riley from the Racing Post caught up with Ian Williams earlier this year. Read all about it here:
Ian Williams celebrates his most lucrative season and believes there are 'great opportunities' in the programme book