James Ferguson

Profile

Based in Newmarket, James Ferguson may still be in his early thirties, but he has packed a great deal into his relatively brief racing life since graduating from Reading University.

Already an accomplished amateur steeplechase jockey (he rode at both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals), he started off his training career alongside his father, the former Godolphin chief executive, John Ferguson, who notched over 200 wins over jumps including two at Grade 1 level.

James then switched his attention to the flat and gained valuable experience assisting Sir Mark Prescott, Brian Meehan, Jessica Harrington and, most notably, Charlie Appleby.

For a spell, while his boss was tied up with European affairs, James was in charge of a select team of Godolphin-owned horses campaigning under the Appleby banner in Australia, and he masterminded their training prior to landing some prestigious races Down Under, including the 2016 Sydney Cup with Polarisation.

He took out his training licence in late 2019 and has rapidly made a name for himself as a young handler destined for big things. He has maintained a remarkable strike rate of a close to one victory from every five runners and managed to notch his 50th success before his second full season had drawn to a close.

His first stakes race triumph came when Zoetic took the St Hugh’s Fillies Stakes at Newbury in August 2020 and he enjoyed his first Pattern win just a year later when Mise En Scene landed the Group 3 Prestige Stakes at Sandown.

But his real breakthrough horse has been the Kodiac colt, El Bodegon, who not only gave James his initial overseas victory when prevailing in the Group 3 Prix de Conde at Chantilly in September 2021, he returned to France less than a month later to open the Ferguson account at the very highest level by landing the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud.

Check out our whole list of horse trainers at RacehorseClub here.