Unlock the potential of your horse’s ability
Gail Haywood - Trainer
Having ridden ponies since the age of 5 and having been obsessed with horse racing before then, Gail started to ride out at the age of 13, for renowned horseman and trainer Neil Kernick (son of the legendary Sid Kernick, who has recently been described on Channel 4 Racing by Sir Mark Prescott, who started his career at Mr Kernick’s Kingsteignton yard, as "..a genius").
Taking Mr Kernick's advice, to gain as much experience as possible and to learn as much as possible from as many different people as she could, Gail has ridden out and worked for over 13 different trainers over a 25 year period and rode Point to Pointing whilst studying at University.
After Mr Kernick’s, Gail worked for renowned West Country trainer and superb horsewoman, Mrs Jackie Retter. Mrs Retter was highly successful and respected Trainer. Her yard has since be recognised as a hot bed of talent, having been the starting ground for a Grand National Winning Jockey in Mick Fitzgerald, a thrice Gold Cup Winning Jockey and Gold Cup Winning Trainer in Jim Culloty and a Derby Winning Trainer in Charlie Appleby.
For two seasons Gail was Senior Work Rider for Mr Paul Keane at Conkwell Grange. This also found her travelling to the races, when the horses ran . In this time she learnt an extraordinary amount and gained even more valuable experience from a very successful Trainer and great horseman.
After a relocation to Dartmoor in 2004, Gail started as Work Rider for Mr Victor Dartnall, again learning a vast amount, and later took on the role of Racing Secretary. This has given her valuable experience of the paperwork side of Racing and how to run the business side of a fully functioning Professional Racing Yard.
In 2007 Gail relinquished her position as Racing Secretary to Mr Dartnall to fulfil a lifetime's ambition to train her own horses and GGH racing was born. From it’s fledgling beginnings as a Point to Point Training Yard, where Gail’s first two runners ever both won first time out after long lay offs, to a now fully functioning Professional BHA Licenced Racing Establishment.
Gail has also had a life outside of racing which has seen her run an Art Gallery and Concert Hall in Bath and start up a Design Agency of Grammy Award Winning Artists working within the Music Industry. Despite many successes in this genre Gail’s passion has always been horse racing and she is now fulfilling her dreams by training racehorses.
GGH Racing has gone from strength to strength, with the granting of a Full National Hunt Licence in 2014. Gail has recently had a winning strike rate of 13% over hurdles and current chase strike rate of 33% with very few horses in training.
Gail is at the helm of the GGH RACING 24/7. She mucks out, rides out, schools and cares for the horses entrusted to her. She and her team spend an extraordinary amount of time getting to know each horse inside out, working out what they need both physically and mentally to perform at their best and win races for their Owners.
Gail has a genuinely open approach to Training for her Owners and thoroughly explains everything she does with horses from their daily routine, to schooling and race planning. Owners are not kept in the dark at GGH Racing and are actively welcomed to take an interest in the minutiae of training racehorses.
Gail briefing Owners from the racecourse
Gail schooling over fences