Jim Boyle outlines redevelopment plans for Epsom yard

Simon Milham
February 1, 2022 10:00 am

Work is imminent at South Hatch Stables.

Jim Boyle is set to break ground on a new training centre at South Hatch Stables by April.

The existing yard has been a key part of Epsom’s horseracing industry, seeing over 170 years of continuous use.

Steeped in history, the timber-framed boxes were built when Scobie Breasley was at South Hatch and extended by Reg Akehurst.

The old yard, which dates back to 1900, saw Walter Nightingale train the the 1943 Derby winner Straight Deal and in 1965, he saddled 2000 Guineas hero Niksar, as well as big-race winners for Sir Winston Churchill, notably Colonist, High Hat and Vienna.

Change is imminent, however.

Boyle explained: “We have had a long-running planning process to try and knock down the yard and rebuild and start again, and build a brand new 60-box racing yard. We have finally got it through planning after many years of trying and we are just finalising the financing of that now.

“We are hoping to get spades in the ground within the next two months and that is looking good.”

Planning permission was granted for a main yard stable complex of 40 boxes, a secondary stable block of 20 boxes, an isolation yard, a trainer and assistant trainer’s house, stable staff accommodation, horse walkers, muck pits, a therapy barn, a trotting ring and outdoor school, a lunge ring, turnout paddocks, a machinery store and storage barn and enabling residential development of 46 apartments.

Boyle, who has been at South Hatch for the last two decades, has had a quiet winter, but is gearing up for a much busier 2022.

“I decided to give the yard pretty much a break over the winter, so we have had very few all-weather runners,” he added.

“Most of the owners were not too fussed about it, so we have had a nice break from it and the horses have had a break for a couple of months. Now they are back in full training and we are ready to go for the start of the turf.

“We will build some new stables first, then knock down the old stables and de-placing the old yard with flats to fund it all.

“It is going to be a 30-month process from start to finish but maybe from the next turf season, we will hopefully have our first barn up and running, where we can move the horses to and start training them from a new facility. I’d like to think that is the timescale we are working on.

“There will be plenty going on.

“We have got a nice team for the summer. Numbers-wise we are still where we were, with about 24 or 25 horses max – we have got no room – but hopefully we have a nice-looking team and should have a bit of fun.”