Christmas Day with Martin Keighley Racehorse Trainer in the Cotswolds

How do you celebrate Christmas Day as a family? Is it party time, or do you like the peace and quiet? 

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The majority of the team comes in, plus extras, and we all ride out often with a bit of Christmas fancy dress!  We aim to get the yard done as quickly as possible and get the team home. We have a relaxed Christmas at home with my parents and the boys and sometimes some friends. A few of the team come back to help at evening stables, and we all pitch in. It's actually a really fab day and we wouldn’t change it.

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Is it business as usual in the yard for you and the staff, or do you get a lie-in?

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It’s definitely business as usual. The team prefer to come in at 6am, so they can be gone by 9.30am.  We only ride out one or two quick lots - maybe just the upcoming runners.  We never have a lie-in on Christmas Day, there are always lists to be done for the team and horses to tend to.

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December is obviously an important month in the Jump race calendar. With the runners you have, what would be the best Christmas winner you could receive?

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Any winner is a brilliant winner, but a special Christmas winner would be our 16-year-old son, Freddie, getting his first winner under Rules. He's had some placings but hasn’t yet had that Rules winner to add to his Point-to-Point winner earlier in the year.

If the weather turns nasty, how does that affect your training at this time of year?   

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The weather apps are our most used apps, and we just have to work with whatever the weather throws at us, however frustrating that may be. It's the same story for everyone. Plus, the boys love snow, so if it snows and we can't go racing, we just get the sledges out, it’s brilliant.

How do you feel about the new year ahead, and do you set yourself targets and goals?

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Our targets are always to keep improving the quality of horses here and to win bigger and better races. And, of course, to keep solvent in these difficult times.

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