FEATURE BEN PAULING
IF YOU’RE GOING TO DREAM, Dream Big
Trainer Ben Pauling talks to The Cotswolds Gent about how his dream of having his own yard just got bigger and bigger
I n 2013, a 29-year-old Ben Pauling left his Assistant Trainer role alongside Nicky Henderson with little more than determination, self-confidence and a big dream. In the same year, with just eight horses, owned mainly by family and friends, he moved to Bourton Hill Farm. “It was a really exciting time,” Ben explains. “The first horse I bought was Raven’s Tower for £2,000. He gave me my first winner and gave us some awesome days out. He’s a very special horse and still lives with us today.” Ben enjoyed a lot of notable success
never once did I think we were going to own a golf club.” Diggers arrived at the site on 4 January 2021, but it wasn’t until the middle of April 2022 that they started moving in. “We hacked all the horses over as we worked out that it was quicker than loading them into horse boxes.” The Naunton Downs Estate is about five miles from their old base as the crow flies. “It was exhausting but great fun, and there was a real sense of team spirit, too,” Ben continues. “We’re a very close-knit group and some of the team have been here since the early days, so the move was as big for them as it was for us. We go through the highs and lows together, and even on the long tiring days, we will make sure we try to have a laugh at the end of it.”
harboured ambitions of one day owning a yard of his own. After years of searching for the ‘perfect’ training establishment, nearby Naunton Downs Golf Club came up for sale, and Ben and his wife Sophie had a vision to create a sporting and lifestyle destination on the 200 acres of Cotswolds countryside. In typical undaunted fashion, plans were soon being put in place to create a brand-new yard, complete with 94 boxes, a six-furlong gallop straight through the middle of the golf course, an all-weather schooling lane, round gallop and loose schooling lane inspired by Henrietta Knight, as well as offices and an owners’ suite, designed by Sophie, that overlooks the stables. “They do say, if you’re going to dream, dream big,” jokes Ben. “But
at Bourton Hill, including three Cheltenham Festival winners:
Willoughby Court (2017), Le Breuil (2019) and last season’s Grand Annual winner, Global Citizen. However, he’d always
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