In the absorbing battle between Izzie Marshall and Gina Andrews for last season’s women riders’ championship, a worthy effort by Ellie Callwood went largely unnoticed.
Callwood (pictured above) rode 11 winners and finished third to the big two, a position that marked her out as a progressive rider who could in time challenge for the top spot. She is no stranger to a title battle for in the 2021/22 season she rode seven winners and was in contention for the novice women’s championship until Olive Nicholls pulled away in the final month of the season.
At that time Callwood, now 21, was working in Warwickshire for Andrews and her husband Tom Ellis and learning plenty about race riding through an association with Precious Bounty, a partnership that won seven races over two seasons.
Yet by the start of last season Callwood and Precious Bounty had moved to Leicestershire to team up with Kelly Morgan, another high-quality practitioner in the art of racehorse training. The two women combined to win eight races, while rides for Oxfordshire-based Dawn Ball provided Callwood with an end-of-term hat-trick of wins.
Kelly Morgan, Leicstershire trainer who has shown faith in Callwood's ability (Ce)
Now she is among the many hundreds of people across Britain who are riding horses that have finished their summer break and are taking the first steps towards the 2024/25 season. Looking back she says: “Eleven winners was a lot more than I expected – I would have been happy with seven or eight.
“Last summer I went to the USA with [fellow amateur rider] Ellie Holder and we worked for trainer Graham Motion [at Fair Hills in Maryland], riding out eight lots by 11am and then working at the Maryland 5 Star international event, painting fences and strimming to earn a bit of extra money for travel on days off. They called us Ellie One and Ellie One-A. When we came back I did a month in Ireland with Henry De Bromhead, while this summer I’ve spent time in France with Emmanuel Clayeux.”
Clearly Callwood is someone who keeps active, a characteristic she displayed when, at the age of 14, she left home in Cheshire to join Warwickshire trainer Dan Skelton for work experience. A stay of one month, and another the following year convinced her that racing, rather than showing and showjumping, would be her destiny. On the advice of Skelton she joined the Ellises’ stable and bought Precious Bounty as a schoolmaster.
She says: “As soon as I left school I went to Tom and Gina’s, but also took a business studies course. It was the Covid year and therefore I couldn’t go to college, so would take lectures on my phone while riding out, being careful to keep listening in case I was asked a question.” This unusual method of learning paid off when she passed the course, and she says of her time while at the yard: “Gina and [her brother] Jack helped me a lot. They found Precious Bounty for me in Ireland and Jack is great at talking to you and watching videos of races back with you to give advice. We also did plenty of schooling which was a big help.”
Dawn Ball, who provided Callwood with a late-season hat-trick of wins (Ce)
However, having moved out of novice status, and with the Andrews’ siblings at the top of their game, Callwood recognised that race-riding opportunities would be limited. Upon hearing that Morgan was looking for a new stable rider following Alice Stevens’ decision to join the ranks of conditional jockeys, she made contact and moved to the Midlands.
The yard’s first two point-to-pointers came in from grass on Monday and the action will move up a gear when the rest of the string reports for duty on September 1. Meanwhile there are the usual mix of breakers and pre-trainers to handle.
Looking ahead to the new season Callwood says: “Fifteen winners would be a dream, so my goal is stay in one piece, to get more experience and be consistent, and, having completed my Cat B course last week, to try and get some rides under rules. Kelly’s sister Laura [who is a licensed trainer] suggested I go for it.”
Andrews and Marshall set the standard by women in the sport of point-to-pointing, but there is always room for more, and Callwood might one day join them.