“Everyone thinks I’m a bloke! - I don’t really care.”
Meet the West Yorkshire trainer who saddles a live chance in Saturday’s staying marathon.
Guiseley-based handler Sam England sends on the up chaser Fenland Tiger to Newcastle on Saturday afternoon to tackle the stamina sapping Eider Chase.
Perhaps sometimes confused because of her unisex name, England began training in 2008 and has sent out 17 winners so far this season.
“Johnny’s (Jonathan England) like why don’t you train as Samantha England?” said England.
“But I was just like I don’t know, nobody ever really calls me it.”
An accomplished rider in the North before joining the training ranks, England rode winners at Wetherby, Hexham and Catterick, as well as Sedgefield - where she had a 23% strike rate, for an eyebrow raising +£81.00 profit to the £1 stake.
“When I packed in riding I started training really,” said England.
“I used to ride, yeah, for pretty much anyone. Jo Foster held my license.”
Saturday’s chance Fenland Tiger, like many from the stable, has thrived since jumping fences.
England boasts an impressive 17% strike rate with chasers in the last five years and has got 24 of the 41 horses who have tackled fences to win.
Bucking that trend, Fenland Tiger carried the Tote logo to victory for owners J C England and Valerie Beattie on his chasing debut at Carlisle in October, and the eight-year-old has improved 17lbs, racking up three wins in the process.
England said: “Oh he’s been a star yeah!
“He’s a tough horse and there’s no reason to suggest why he shouldn’t stay but obviously you don’t really know until you try it.”
Likely favourite Anglers Crag is much improved for joining Brian Ellison’s North Yorkshire outfit and got the better of England’s charge at Carlisle in December.
England said: “We gave him weight and now he’s got to give us weight.
“It’s going to be extreme distance, extreme going… less weight can only help, can’t it?”
One of the yard’s star attractions, Kinondo Kwetu hit new heights last season.
The eight-year-old began a sequence of winning in 2022 when he got off the mark under rules at Stratford and the trainer wasted no time going over the bigger obstacles.
Chase wins followed at Market Rasen, Uttoxeter, Southwell and Aintree to boot.
A winner of a good Aintree handicap in May, he hasn't been seen since pulling up at Cheltenham in October but England insists there are big targets for the 144 rated chaser this spring.
She said: “He’s in the Grand National. He’s number 61 so he’ll need a bit of luck and a few to come out but if he could get in, that’d be brilliant.
“He’s a spring ground horse, he might have a run at Doncaster in the Grimthorpe but obviously he’s ground dependent so if not we’ll just wait till it dries up.”
With the news of the BHA reducing the field size for the most prestigious handicap of the Jumps season, England’s Grand National hope will have to wait to see if he gets to run.
England said: “He (Kinondo Kwetu) would've got in the last ten years of a 40-runner National… they’ve chosen to make it 34, and that’s it.
“The best 34 will get in - he either gets in or he doesn’t. It’s a high class handicap isn’t it, you want the best horses in it.”
An interesting pick up for the yard last year was former flat performer Al Zaraqaan, who has been a revelation since the move to West Yorks.
Sharing a fairly modest view of her clear talent for getting horses to improve and having an appetite for Jumping fences, England said: “Oh we just claimed him out of a seller.
“He was an absolute star last summer, he’s a high class horse and taken to jumping fences well.
“We’ve looked after him, kept him fresh, well and happy… that’s all you need to do - there’s no secret to training horses.”
The shrewd operation are definitely one to keep on your side heading into the spring.
