Our team

The Team

• 

  Tim Palin

  Partner and Director of Racing

  

  Tim Palin

  Partner and Director of Racing

  Syndicate Manager for horses trained by: Conrad Allen, Michael Bell, Marco Botti, Robert Cowell, James Ferguson, Richard Hannon, Ben Haslam, Alice Haynes, Rod Millman, Nigel Tinkler, Sir Mark Prescott, Kevin Ryan, Roger Varian, Charlie Hills, Gary & Josh Moore, Olly Murphy and Ian Williams.

  Email: tim@middlehamparkracing.net or Tim.middlehamparkracing@gmail.com
  Telephone: 07785 745292  Instagram: @tpalin1  X: @TimPALIN1 

  The business strategy is shaped by Tim and fellow partner Mike Prince. Tim, by his own admission, lives and breathes MPR. His vision continues to drive the company forward on all fronts. Tim is not only determined to maintain MPR's status of the country's leading syndication company, but also to continue to strive for excellence and perfection wherever possible within all aspects of the company. To facilitate this, Tim keeps a keen eye on all the dimensions to Middleham Park Racing, ensuring that all areas are covered by the team to the very best of their ability. To be second best is simply not good enough in Tim's opinion. 

  Tim’s specific responsibility is the management of the horses in training with the above listed trainers. There are many things that fall under the ‘syndicate manager’ remit, far more than one may realise in truth. Here Tim describes what is involved for the team:

  “The most recurring role when managing one of our horses, is race placement. Entries will go in from both the trainer and ourselves, this way it’s very rare that we will miss a suitable race for a horse. Where possible we have various options covered for every horse and this has to be done even prior to the horse’s previous race.

  We assess each race option in great detail and run the horse in the most suitable race for them. Owners can attend the races safe in the knowledge that their horse is in the right race to do themselves justice, so we always explain our reasoning to them for declaring a horse.

  Whilst the trainer has a large say regarding whether a horse is declared or not, I would suggest that the ultimate run or no run is made by MPR. We only work with trainers who consult us when declaring a horse, a non-declaration may be slightly different in that we don’t always talk them through, but no horse will be declared without being given the green light by the syndicate manager.

  Once the declaration is made, we’ll re-assess the runners and riders that are confirmed and begin to make a race plan. On the morning of the race, a preview is sent out to the owners analysing the draw, where we think any pace will be coming from, the race tactics and where we expect the horse to finish. The idea is that if you cannot attend the race meeting, you will have all the information available to you, as if you were in the paddock.

  There is no easy way around this part of the job. The only way to ensure you find and put the horses in the right race, is to never stop looking; you will search for something you might not have done the day before and suddenly find a race for a horse. Devil’s Bridge for example, won his maiden in a race that Tom found, as it had been added to the fixtures list at a later date! Then we have the European race fixtures to consider, where the prize money can eclipse that of a similar grade race over here, so the studying never really stops.

  When we arrive at a racecourse for the day’s race we like to have an option in mind for the horse whatever the outcome. Clearly this isn’t always possible to have a specific race or two in mind, but we do always like our owners to know that the ship does have a rudder!”

  

   

   

• 

  Mike Prince

  Partner and Director of Operations

  

  Mike Prince

  Partner and Director of Operations

  Syndicate Manager for the horses trained by: George Boughey, Karl Burke, Ed Dunlop, Mick & David Easterby, Roger Fell, John & Thady Gosden, Charlie Johnston, David Loughnane, David O’Meara, Lucinda Russell and Gemma Tutty.
  Email: mike@middlehamparkracing.net or Mike.middlehamparkracing@gmail.com
  Telephone: 07883 095693
   X: @MiddlehamPark

  

• 

  Tom Palin

  Partner, Bloodstock and National Hunt Manager

  

  Tom Palin

  Partner, Bloodstock and National Hunt Manager

  Syndicate Manager for horses trained by: Clive Cox, Richard Fahey, Eve Johnson-Houghton, Hugo Palmer, William Knight, George Scott, Archie Watson and the National Hunt horses trained by: Harry Derham, Nicky Henderson OBE, Paul Nicholls OBE, Fergal O'Brien, Dan Skelton and Joe Tizzard. 

   

  Email: Tom.middlehamparkracing@gmail.com
  Telephone: 07909 915079
  Instagram: palin_mpr    X: @tpalin

  Tom says “I’ve been around Middleham Park Racing my whole life, going on stable visits with Dad instead of playing cricket matches, racing at Beverley after school and spending my October half term in a wonderful place called Newmarket. I joined the team full time after finishing University, where I studied sports marketing and public relations.

  The biggest learning curve for me in the early days was adjusting from being 'around' racing, to being 'in' racing. I soon understood that racing is not something you can pay lip service to, you are either fully invested in what you are doing or you won’t be having any success. You have to throw yourself head first into this game and spend your evenings looking through races, your weekend mornings on the gallops and then the afternoons at the racetrack.”

  As well as his Syndicate Manager role, Tom’s principal role is our Bloodstock Manager, which he describes for us: “Last year I attended every major sale in Europe in the attempt to see as many horses for sale as possible, so we can cover every base and not have to compromise one jot. I start several weeks before each sale on the catalogues and these sales probably total around 50 days in total selling, but the real work is done at home in the preparation, even before a horse enters the sales ring, and this is a year long task. The process of buying one of our horses is probably a good bit more detailed and extensive than one may originally think. Each horse has to undergo roughly six “filters” before they are deemed worthy enough to appear on our website. We go to such painstaking processes to ensure that what we offer to prospective owners, we believe to be the very best bloodstock pound for pound and those that we’d be proud to have carry our colours.

  I would estimate that my average yearly mileage is north of 40,000 and my job often involves long nights and early starts, but fear not, I love the role and seeing the smiles on owners faces when they have a winner makes it all worthwhile! I’ve been very lucky to not only meet and work with some of the biggest names in the industry and I’ve met some wonderfully interesting owners in my time as well. I very much look forward to what the future holds for everyone involved with MPR.”

  

• 

  Jamie Dent

  Social Media Editor & Marketing Assistant

  

  Jamie Dent

  Social Media Editor & Marketing Assistant

  Jamie runs our social media channels across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (these links can be seen below.) He also puts together our monthly newsletter, promotions and new horse notifications to those on our mailing list.

   

  Email: jamie@middlehamparkracing.net
  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/middlehampark/  X: https://twitter.com/MprUpdates Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/middlehamparkracing

  Jamie says: "My parents have worked within the racing industry for their entire careers so it was only natural that their passion for the sport was passed on to me. Racing has always been a major part of my life and I have been going racing for as long as I can remember. My favourite racing memory was in 2008 when Inglis Drever made Cheltenham Festival history by winning his third World Hurdle. I was only young at the time but I’d been to see him at the yard a few days before the race and the atmosphere he created on the day was something I’ll never forget. 

  In 2020, I finished my final year of university where I studied Sports Management and Marketing and was lucky enough to be part of the British Horseracing Authorities annual Graduate Development Programme. This gave me an amazing insight into all areas of the industry and only made me more passionate about the sport. I have always wanted to have a career in racing and when the chance to work for an organisation such as Middleham Park Racing presented itself, I couldn’t say no. It’s a fantastic opportunity and I can’t wait to see what the future holds."

• 

  Kat Irmer

  Website and Marketing Manager

  

  Kat Irmer

  Website and Marketing Manager

  Email: kat.middlehamparkracing@gmail.com 
  Telephone: 07720 380416
   

  Kat says “I have been around horses for as long as I can remember, starting out with ponies and showjumpers before heading off to university in Munich. But the love of equestrian sport, drew me right back in, and so I pursued a reasonably successful career as a jockey with rides and winners across Europe and South Africa.

  However, it was always the breeding and training side that appealed to me the most. Since I packed my bags and left Germany for good in 2014, I worked for the powerful outfit of Simon and Ed Crisford, completed the Irish National Stud Course, which provided me with a well-rounded understanding of the horse and led me to Australia to experience their breeding and sales season. After another stint in Ireland and in Surrey, at Grove Stud and Chasemore Farm respectively, I finally settled back in at Newmarket. 

  To gain a greater understanding of the purchasing of yearlings and racehorses, I worked for big name agents, such as Anthony Stroud, Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock, Amanda Skiffington and Joe Foley during my time at Clipper Logistics. 

  I still ride out each morning, which is a lovely way to start the day and keeps me fit. 

  I am very excited to be joining the team at MPR. It’s a huge honour to work for the UK’s most successful syndicate and the owners that I have met so far are very passionate and knowledgeable about their horses and I hope that with my many years of experience, I can be a great addition to the team."

• 

  Liam Spiby

  Administrative Manager

  

  Liam Spiby

  Administrative Manager

  Email: liam@middlehamparkracing.net or Liam.middlehamparkracing@gmail.com

  Liam takes care of all owner administration, including contract, direct debits and insurance. He also sends updates and media to owners from our syndicate managers and trainers as they come in.

  Liam sends out race entries and declaration emails and keeps the 'ENTRIES' page of the website up to date and accurate.

  He also deals with all 'Racing Admin' as well as syndicate and name registrations, sponsorship, ordering of silks and branded items for yards. Always lots to do in the racing world and Liam is on top of it! 

• 

  Dave Bourton

  Racecourse Representative

  

  Dave Bourton

  Racecourse Representative

  Dave has spent all is working life in racing! He was apprentice jockey to Ron Atkins, where had over one hundred rides on the flat. He then became travelling head lad for Oliver and Simon Sherwood in National Hunt racing for 12 years. He then moved to become travelling head lad for Mick Channon for 10 years and latterly travelling head lad to Richard Hannon for 6 years.

  He also had a one year contract training at Wolverhampton where Dave trained winners across both codes.

• 

  Sarah Davey

  Racing Administrator

  

  Sarah Davey

  Racing Administrator

  Email: sarah@middlehamparkracing.net or Sarah.middlehamparkracing@gmail.com

  Sarah joined MPR after being an owner with us since 2013 (in fact she still is, she can’t help herself!) Her background is from the service industry, having been Operations Director at Hobbs, the fashion company for many years. Her skills have been used to design and put together our website and set up our working systems that help us operate as an effective team for our owners. Sarah compiles and reports on our statistics to the team - an important aspect in racing! 

  Sarah says: “Horse racing has always been my number one passion, but working in a 7 day a week industry such as retail, I very rarely had the time to actually go or even watch! When I left Hobbs, I decided to take the step into ownership and after contacting all the ‘known’ syndicates, selected MPR and here I am now, six years later, with over 60 winners (yes, I keep a spreadsheet!) four at Listed level, plus a Group 3 and a Group 1 (and let's not forget the St Leger 2nd - we nearly did it!) so you could say I made the right choice..

  When Tim approached me about joining the team, I could hardly say no! Working in an industry I am fanatical about and for a syndicate especially, which, like retail has it’s ‘customers’ at its core, you could say I have found my ‘niche’. Like retail, horse racing is a constant and my role means I really have to have a holistic approach to our whole business and know what’s happening around all aspects, such as what are we buying, what’s taking place, what needs to be announced or shared; where and how, what achievements need highlighting and of course knowing all the horses and their plans, plus of course am I needed to go racing tomorrow?! When I was solely an owner, I had NO idea just how much goes on behind the scenes.”

  As with all of the MPR Management team, Sarah attends race days and open mornings for our horses. She describes that role here: “Going to the races with one of our horses, means we not only need to know everything about the race in advance (Tim described all the work that goes into that), know the owners who will be in attendance, let them know where to meet us and be ready to do any media interviews. (On my first week ‘on the other side of the fence’ I was asked lots of questions by Matt Chapman at Windsor, which was a test, but think I did alright!) We greet owners in the Owners and Trainers facility, make sure they all know where to go and answer any questions that they may have as well as being the liaison between the jockey/trainer and the owners at the track. Racing can be a daunting game even for the most seasoned of owners but with MPR welcoming so many first-time owners, it’s ever more important to help and guide new owners through the race day experience.

  On the face of it, going racing most days is good fun, but it’s the behind the scenes work that then takes a back seat, plus the miles of driving to and from racecourses, combined with not knowing where you will be racing sometimes until just 24 hours before and our social lives can suffer! But I think my friends are resigned to the fact that I am back in the land I was in at Hobbs, instead this time my life has been taken over by horses and not shoes and dresses!”