Kim Bailey has been training and winning big races for more than 40 years. Son of jumps trainer Ken, he furthered his education under the great Fred Rimell and Tim Forster. His career has defied gravity in that after its first exciting phase when he won the 1990 Grand National with Mr Frisk, and the rarely-achieved Cheltenham Festival double in 1995 of the Gold Cup with Master Oats and the Champion Hurdle with Alderbrook, he has had to re-invent himself. The first phase occurred in the family yard in Northamptonshire and during his initial heyday he once recorded a best-ever 86 wins.
Then his fortunes slumped to the extent that in four seasons during the early 2000’s tallies of 6, 6, 9 and finally 3 signalled imminent disaster. Happily his move to his present base at Andoversford near Cheltenham has coincided with a wonderful revival.
Sensible re-stocking and imaginative marketing have brought a revival reminiscent of that achieved by the late Sir Henry Cecil when Frankel moved into Warren Place at a time of his lowest ebb. The always youthful and energetic Kim has retained all the talent of the old days and few trainers can match his ability to bring young novice chasers through the ranks from raw novice to the finished article. Over the past couple of seasons such as Vinndication, Imperial Aura and Youllnevercall have offered great promise for the future and we have found in our contact with him that Kim has an uncanny accuracy when assessing his horses’ chances on a day-to-day basis.