Charlie Marshall’s win on Horizontal Speed at Barbury Racecourse on Sunday cemented a new role he has been given at Alan Hill’s Oxfordshire stables.
Marshall (pictured above with Hill) has joined his sister Izzie and James King in riding the yard's horses in point-to-points, and Hill said: "I've now got three good riders. Charlie is working at the yard, James comes in to ride out on Tuesdays and Izzie is riding out when she can while completing her studies at Reading University. They will all get a share of the rides."
A former Foran Equine champion trainer for yards with eight or more horses, Hill has finished runner-up for the title in the past three seasons to Jack Barber, Phil Rowley and Tom Ellis respectively. Barber is now training under Rules, but Rowley and Ellis remain the most likely obstacles to another Hill championship, and he concedes: "The one advantage the other two big yards have over me is a very experienced rider who can do 10st [Alex Edwards for Rowley and Gina Andrews for Ellis]."
Speaking at Barbury after Charlie Marshall and Horizontal Speed had won the first Jockey Club & Retraining Of Racehorses Veteran Conditions race – part of a series that is new this season, and limited to horses aged ten and over when the next race is held in the New Year – and King had finished third in the Flat race for four- and five-year-olds, Hill admitted: "I'm the worst trainer in the world to ride for, because I used to ride, but I'm pleased Charlie's won and James gave our mare a peach of a ride in the Flat race."
James King, part of a trio of riders available to Oxfordshire trainer Alan Hill