When the news reached me via a mutual friend that Joseph Tuite was leaving Mick Channon, where he had been assistant manager for over 8 years and helped to regularly send out in excess of 100 winners a season, to set up on his own I determined to pay him a visit once he’d got up and running. Joe is a top man, both charming and knowledgeable in equal measures; essential qualities needed to attract owners into a new yard, especially with the backdrop of an uncertain economy and all the press about paltry prize money, increasing costs and trainers having to shut up shop. So it is already some achievement that he now has 12 horses based at Shefford Valley Stables just outside Lambourn where he rents his facilities (stable boxes, exerciser and private 6 furlong wood chip gallops) from Andrew Liddiard. At the minute the tack room doubles up as his office (see photo) although he is hoping to bring in a container type mobile home to serve as his office very shortly. Whilst I was chatting to Joe he was simultaneously drying out a damp muck sheet with a gas fired patio heater. This made for an atmospheric environment but also served to remind me that life isn’t always that glamorous when you are starting out on your own in business. What makes things a little more complicated for Joe is that he is still waiting for his dual-purpose training license (he will concentrate on the flat to start with) to come through the post so he is not able to enter his horses to race anywhere just yet. He is running everything on a shoestring until the results start to come and, knowing Joe, it will not be too long before we are reading about him saddling a first winner in his own right, such is the measure of the man and such is the loyalty which he engenders from those who have backed him by sending him horses in the yard’s infancy. Most notably, his yard sponsor, David Greaney who owns DG Imports (specialist importers of fruits, salads and vegetables) has sent him a couple of horses and the Heart of the South syndicate have sent Interakt to be trained by Joe. Some of his horses are ready to run whilst others need a little bit more work but I am convinced it will not be long before we see a certain Joe Tuite climbing the leading trainers table in the coming years. He has given himself 10 years to build his dream and given that most businesses when they set up think about the 5 year horizon you can tell that Joe is deadly serious and, in my opinion, very likely to succeed. I wish him and the team well at Great Shefford. Roll on February.......
