TOM ELLIS, based in Marton, admitted that breaking the record for the number of winners by a trainer in a season has still “not sunk in” after he secured a double at the Kimblewick Hunt meeting.
Ellis headed into the Easter weekend on 48 winners – three adrift of Jack Barber’s total of 51 in 2014-15.
Precious Bounty added to his tally under Ellie Callwood at Dingley, before Fumet d’Oudairies brought up his half-century in the Waverton Ladies Open at Kimble with Ellis’s wife, Gina Andrews, on board.
Arctic Oscar in the Richardson’s Restricted and Good Boy at Sandon then won within seconds of each other to take the champion trainer to the record and 200 career point-to-point winners.
Ellis said: “I don’t know which was the record-breaker and which was the record-equaller.
“We have had a whirlwind of a week with Aintree. It will take a while for it to dawn on us what has happened. It’s not sunk in yet.
“Two milestones is amazing really. It is not a position I ever imagined myself to be in at an early stage of my career. I have only been doing this for six seasons with Gina.
“We’ve got a really good bunch of horses and more importantly an even better bunch of staff, and our owners are also exceptionally supportive, it wouldn’t be possible without all of them.”
