Sam's racing career began at David Evans only a few miles from his family home. It was here his love of horse racing was firmly established.

 

Here Sam gained valuable knowledge riding yearlings and youngsters as well as having a hand full of rides for Dave as an amateur jockey riding on the flat. The job also entailed taking horses to the races which took Sam to the majority of racecourses in the country. 

 

A year later, Sam then found himself at Venetia Williams to pursue his dream of becoming a jockey. Before really getting going in his desired career he had the opportunity to look after some very smart horses including BANKER COUNT. Sam travelled to japan with the horse to run in the richest steeple chase in the world, The Nakayama Grand Jump.

 

It was a couple of seasons later before Sam's riding career really took off, but by the age of 20 he had already ridden out his claim and soon found himself as number one jockey to a 100 strong team of horses. Together they had many success stories including a Lanzarote hurdle on LIMERICK BOY and a Midlands National on KOCK DE LA VESVRE. It's fair to say that Venetia Williams was the making of Sam's success.

 

It wasn't long before a top job was on offer and Sam jumped at the chance to take the position as number 2 rider to Champion trainer Paul Nicholls. Here he rode some of the best Horses in the country winning on KAUTO STAR, BIG BUCKS, WHAT A FRIEND, TWIST MAGIC and of course DENMAN who he rode to victory in the 2007 Hennessey Gold Cup and the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

 

It is this experience and knowledge which has given him the confidence to combine his own ideas alongside tried and tested training techniques learned through his past.