Meet Adam West, the Batman namesake who is the new star of the horse racing world
When Epsom-based Adam West sent out Live In The Dream to win the Nunthorpe Stakes at York nine days ago, it was regarded by racing as a timely breath of fresh air; new names in the horse, owner, trainer and jockey column experiencing victory at the highest level.
It was confirmation, not that he needed it, that West can do the job and that if you believe in something enough it will happen. But, personal satisfaction aside, his winning percentage (approximately ￡30,000) merely gives him a “breather” from the daily financial struggles of being a relatively small trainer.
“I’ve been so close to packing up,” he explains, “not because I wanted to but because I’m so close to the breadline, it [the Nunthorpe] is not going to be the answer. It just gets us a breather. The money will disappear straight into the yard.”
West, 34, had no family background in the sport. His father was a marketing consultant before switching to driving lorries but he developed a love of horses when he was growing up in Brighton and, aged 13, was sent to Gary Moore on work experience - he went back to work for him for two years after school.
He came up through the ranks of stable lad, amateur, head lad, had a sabbatical which involved going round Europe with a tent ‘thinking things out,’ and eventually returned to horses to help friends out with a difficult breaker which was, he concedes, as much to get him out of the house as anything else after the death of his father, and one thing led to another.
Having started with six horses six years ago, he now fluctuates between 40 and 50, jumpers and Flat. Four of his last seven runners have won.
He shares a car with his partner and his horse box, which he drives to the races most of the time, has done 380,000 miles. “When I drop it in for a service they look at me and ask how it’s still going,” he says. “My best strike-rate is a Hamilton and that’ll be me driving!”
He once spent time sleeping on his office floor so his three Bajan fisherman pals, who spend their summers working for him after fishing for marlin all winter, could stay in his flat.
His love of animals, which he puts down to being brought up in a household without pets, is not restricted to the horses. He has two Turkish Kengals, massive dogs which double as security in the yard at night, and a collection of ferrets.
“When I just had one, Mustard, he used to come racing with me,” he recalls. “He’d either be asleep in the lorry or, quite often, in my pocket. Now I’ve got a few more, he stays at home with his mates.”
Epsom is, he points out, the perfect spot for him to train; a few minutes one way and he can be out with his ferrets or in a country pub, the same time in the opposite direction he can be soaking up London culture and going to concerts.
‘I’m an outsider in racing but feel at home with horses’
In many ways he is slightly alternative as a trainer, not in his methods but in his interests and, he concedes, he feels uncomfortable among the “racing set” pointing out it is not all “gin and Jaguars”.
“I massively feel like an outsider in racing but that is balanced by feeling so at home with horses,” he explains. “I’ve never felt comfortable around the higher circles of the sport, I’m more at home in a punk jacket at a concert in London. I have a real love of art and music.”
When it was pointed out that Live In The Dream might just have earned him an invite to the Cartier Awards, he replies that hitherto his only connection with the luxury brand was when he worked in a pawn shop.
Live In The Dream, the barely 15 hands tall chestnut, is not the normal template of a sprinter. He does not have a backside on him like a bullock and he really would not look out of place pony racing.
“He’s just quick,” he says. “It’s all raw speed. He’s got a short back and two strides out of the stalls he’s at top speed. It’s all about being able to utilise that speed. On Group One tracks in a straight line they slipstream him and nab him. But on a track with a bend, he gets there first, has a breather, and is first to go again but York’s an easy five.
“I got sent photos from the start. He was three quarters of length up coming out of the stalls. The next photo, two strides out later, he’s a length up on a tight rein while everything else is on a slack rein chasing him. They are urging their horses to go but they don’t have it.”
Next the options are the Woodford Stakes in Keeneland (round a bend) on Oct 7 which leads into the Breeders Cup three weeks later, the Prix de L’Abbaye on Oct 1 or straight to the Breeders Cup.
Meanwhile the messages from his colleagues keep arriving. West, they say, has given them hope that the right horse will one day turn up for them too and, when it does, it will make the struggle all worthwhile.
