About Us

At 13 Paul Blockley was unsure whether to join the navy or become a jockey. Fortunately some sound advice from his classmates pointed him towards racing.

His first ride in public ended in disaster – not on a racecourse but on the farm where he lived. He put a racing saddle on the farm pony and attempted to adopt the Lester Piggott style of riding; unfortunately the pony dumped him in a hedge and galloped off into the next county. Two days later it still had the saddle on – they couldn’t catch it.

Paul’s first real taste of racing was working weekends for Henry Hutsby, who trained point-to-pointers. He went on to gain valuable experience at a number of yards as a stable lad, head lad and as a jockey, having a few unsuccessful rides under National Hunt rules – after his early adventures with the pony, this was a further reminder to Paul that he was not destined to become a jockey.

So in January 1986 he joined Tom Bill as assistant, taking over from David Evans, who had embarked on his own training career. Paul enjoyed notable success, taking the stables winners from five to 50, including two Cheltenham victories and a 100-1 shot at Aintree.

He eventually launched out on his own at Rise Park, near Hull and began impressively with a winner with his first runner - Slieve Bracken scoring at Sedgefield.

Paul took a break from racing but in 1996 he saw an advert for a private trainer in Cumbria. There he teamed up with Brian McNicoll, and subsequently met his partner and assistant trainer Jo Hughes.

In early 2000 the couple moved to Lincolnshire to train point-to-pointers, and then to Southwell where Paul was appointed assistant trainer to Rus Wilman. The success enjoyed with the Wilman string encouraged Paul to reapply for his licence in January 2003.Two months later he was back in the winner’s enclosure when his first runner Red Power landed the Brocklesby Stakes.

At Felstead Court he seems to have found the ideal training environment – to date Paul has chalked up more than 100 National Hunt winners and almost 200 on the Flat and if proof is need of his ability - for two consecutive seasons he was the leading trainer in the UK on the all-weather.

Add to that a pretty enviable strike rate over the sticks – currently standing at 34 per cent but at one time as high as 40 per cent, which compares favourably with some of the more fashionable stables and he’s even landed the Belgium Champion Hurdle, with a three-year-old, ridden by Trevor Wall, having its first run over obstacles.