Joseph Above Parr With Training Career

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00:00Joseph Parr has been training since 2020, but he is no stranger to Newmarket Heath,

00:08having spent many a year with his mentor and grandfather, Alan Bailey, who had a successful

00:12training business for nearly 40 years. Despite his family's best efforts, Joe was intent

00:18on becoming a trainer, and now with his yard in Hamilton Hill full, we paid him a visit.

00:24I only started getting into racing because my grandfather trained. Alan Bailey, he trained

00:29hundreds of winners through a training career of about, I think it was about 30, 40 years.

00:35Worked at Peter Warwinds as a kid, grew up there. He's been racing all his life, that's

00:42all he knows, and he's a good man to learn from. It's such a hard job to make things

00:47pay, and it's so hard to sort of keep the business going. It cost a fortune to rent

00:52here, I've never had the money to buy somewhere. You're always on the back foot, so they've

00:56always tried to say to me, don't do it. I went to university, pushed me that way. I

01:01thought, right, I'll go. Went to do it at Quarantines of Nottingham. Left, I still wanted

01:05to do it. I thought, right, I'll give it a crack. Almost, I've seen how not to do it,

01:11not to run a business, not to be, not saying soft, but not to be sort of, should be a bit

01:19sort of cutthroat, and without sounding a bit of a tyrant. I think you have to look

01:26after the pennies, and we started with nothing. We started with 12 horses, had to borrow some

01:30money for the deposit for the yard, had to borrow money for the horse's feed, and shavings.

01:37We just sort of looked after everything, and we've done well to get 33 horses in the yard,

01:43and a business that is, well, self-sustaining, so yeah, we're in a good place at the minute.

01:51I couldn't have asked for any better. When I first started, all I wanted to do was survive.

01:56I've been quite a mould through a few winners, and the owners are happy, and they continue

02:00to pay their training fees. Happy days. Luckily, we've had a bit of luck. We've had some winners.

02:07We're 11 the first year with 12 horses, and we had 25 last year with about 25 horses.

02:12We've gone to 33 now, so the yard's full. Slightly better quality as well. Trevor, he

02:20had a couple of horses from my grandfather. I met him at Dunlop's when I was there, and

02:25he gave me five horses to start with. We had 10 winners from him last year.

02:33He's invested plenty of time, money. He loves it. He comes down, and he'll have morning on the

02:41gallops, and we'll go for lunch. He's worked hard all his life, and now he's treating himself and

02:45his wife. They went and bought themselves a nice horse from Book One. He's a nice two-year-old.

02:51I'm hoping that could be that good horse. I've got some good relationships with some

02:56nice people in the industry that have helped me on the way. I'm incredibly lucky with staff.

03:01I've got some brilliant staff that obviously, I can't train horses without them. I've got some

03:05good riders, a good mix of old, young experience. When I first started, I was doing most of it

03:11myself, and I had a head gal at the time. Me and Emma, we basically did the lot really.

03:17Now, obviously, with 33 horses, you need more staff.

03:20My head lad's done, well, he makes life so much easier for me now where I can go away

03:26and not worry about it. Gordon's been doing this for as long as I've been alive. It's nice to have

03:32that experience there where I can go ask a few questions. It's nice to have someone work for

03:37you that knows more about horses than you do. I've got some confidence there with the staff.

03:42Yes, luckily enough, touch wood that they're all happy.

03:46The five-year plan when I started was to have the yard full. We got there in two and a half years,

03:51so I'm happy where we are at the minute. Obviously, whatever you have, you want more.

03:57You aspire to be like a John Godson, a Cornwall, a Michael Stout where you're competing in these

04:02good races. You've got staked horses in the yard and horses worth 100, 200,000 give you a chance

04:08of having that good horse. I'd like to think in a couple of years' time, I'd have that flagship

04:13horse there which can take me to the good meetings and get your name out there on a

04:17Saturday night TV and just give you a little boost that you need.

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