‘Ten Grand And A Dream’: New Trainer James Keane Hoping It’s His Time To Sparkle

[Wandering Eyes]

Like London buses, James Keane will have not one but two runners this week in quick succession, marking his first two appearances on the racecourse as trainer.

The 32-year-old Irishman now claims Newmarket as his home, rather extraordinarily falling in love with the place during a winter which included the fierce 'Beast from the East' cold snap of eight years ago. If you can withstand winters in Newmarket, then the other seasons will be a doddle.

“You have to be a bit of a glutton for punishment to be a trainer, don't you? Something possesses us,” he says.

Indeed, horses, if not racehorses, have been in his blood for years. Keane cut his teeth riding ponies and sport horses and represented Ireland at junior and young rider level, becoming the junior national eventing champion of 2008.

Modestly, though, he says, “I was a show jumper by trade and quickly discovered I wasn't a good enough rider to make a living out of that, so I tried my hand on the breeding side of things but didn't really enjoy that. I did a year at Barouche Stud and then took a job as a marketing manager at Wolverhampton Racecourse. I didn't really know the first thing about marketing but I managed to talk my way into the job.”

While at Wolverhampton, Keane started riding out for James Unett and says his progression towards wanting to be a trainer “just kind of snowballed”. A year as pupil assistant to Ed Dunlop was followed by three years with fellow Newmarket trainer Lucy Wadham before he joined the Godolphin Flying Start programme, from which he graduated in 2023.

“I very quickly decided when I was a couple of months in at Ed's that I quite liked the training game. It's been a long road to get here, a bit of a winding one,” Keane says. 

“I get my kicks from performance horses, and obviously show jumping is a performance industry, and that didn't work for me, but I love getting a raw horse, and making it into something, helping it to perform.”

Further stints as assistant to Roger Varian and Charlie Hills followed, but while in Lambourn with the latter Keane decided that it was time to return to Newmarket and take the leap into branching out on his own.

“Lambourn wasn't for me, so I just decided I'd go for it,” he says. “So I went out and bought four horses on spec at Tattersalls between the HIT Sale and the November Online Sale, and just flogged them as I went. I was lucky, I got a bit of help off various bloodstock agents, they sold bits and pieces for me, which was great, and everything's sold in the yard now, all from nothing in the past six months. Ten grand and a dream I sat down with last May, that's what I had in the bank, and I sat down to write a business plan, and here we are now.”

A native of Collon, County Louth, Keane admits that he has looked across the water to the business model of some of his compatriots when it comes to formulating his own plans.

“There's no profit in training horses,” he says. “You've got to trade horses, and I think there's a gap in this country for a trading trainer. And that's not to say that every horse I have will be a trading horse, but I think, if you look at the Irish model, they all own bits and pieces of horses, and they all sell them out to America or whatever. It's almost taboo in this country.

“So I think if you can get a reputation for being a source of proven horses to be sold out to the export markets, why not? If you own 25, 50% of them yourself, that's where your profit margin is.”

Keane is training from Albert House Stables, “a beautiful yard at the foot of Warren Hill”, which has previously been the base for Charlie Clover, Alice Haynes and Chris Dwyer among others. 

“This is the nerve centre of horse racing in the UK. If you want to meet people, this is where you want to meet them, because they're all here for a couple of months of the year between sales and racing. Also, it's where I've spent the bulk of my professional career,” he says. 

“I know the gallops inside out. I feel that I can train on the gallops, and I know them well enough that I can say that with confidence. And the facilities are second to none, and that's not to knock the Jockey Club facilities at Lambourn, but even my yard, for example, I don't know if I would have got it elsewhere – 23 boxes, an apartment for me, staff accommodation, an office. It's a proper, compact, professional outfit, which is exactly the kind of brand I'm trying to put across.”

As the countdown ticks on to his first runner at Kempton on Wednesday, Keane admits that the pressure is mounting a little. He does however follow some notable graduates of the Flying Start course to have successfully made the crossover to the training ranks, including France's current champion Francis Graffard, Breeders' Cup-winning trainer Dan Blacker, and Jerome Reynier, who is doubly represented at this Saturday's prestigious Saudi Cup meeting.

“It wouldn't mean anything if I wasn't, but it's pressure I put on myself,” he says. “My owners are fantastic. There's no pressure from them. I haven't had one phone call. Actually, I don't think any of them have ever rung me at any time. I do all the ringing, which isn't a bad thing. They've very much left me to my own devices and said, do what you like, which is fantastic.”

The Time Test three-year-old Time To Sparkle, who will line up for the mile handicap at 5.05pm on Wednesday, will be the first runner from the Keane stable. Bought for 5,000gns from Eve Johnson Houghton's stable at the Horses-in-Training Sale, she is making her handicap debut for The Adventurers. 

“She needed the winter on her back and has improved dramatically as a physical,” the trainer says. “That's not necessarily going to make her any faster, but she's been working nicely. I'd be hoping that she's going to run into the frame and give a good account of herself.”

The following day Keane is planning to run five-year-old Miletus, a Magna Grecia half-brother to Emmaus (Invincible Spirit) at Lingfield. 

“I'd be disappointed if he's not there or thereabouts. I think he's well-treated. I'd hope he's the horse I can win two or three on the spin with, and all of a sudden, your name is out there.”

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