Racing: Expertise on a long rein

Who's who for 2002: James Given: The horse master

It is exactly a week short of three years since the day that James Given sent out the first runner of his career as a trainer, and since then the curve on the graph has been determinedly upwards.

And to say that the 35-year-old, formerly assistant to Mark Johnston, is happy enough with the way things are going is to say that there may be a couple of lager shandies drunk on Sauchiehall Street tomorrow night.

"I don't have a grand plan, only to do the best I can as I go along," he said. "But without wanting to sound cocky, there is no way I could have forecast that I would be at the stage I am at the moment."

Cockiness is a quality easily punctured and thus to be avoided in any activity that involves horses, as Given is perfectly – and probably, as a vet, more than most – aware. Confidence is a different matter, however, and he has more than justified his decision to enter the ranks of a profession precarious even for those with a silver spoon or an old-boy network.

In three years he has progressed from half-a-dozen horses in a shared barn at Wolverhampton racecourse to his own 56-box yard near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. And in 2001 he has had his best year in terms of winners (22), prize money (just short of £300,000) and big-race successes, having won the Cambridgeshire Handicap with I Cried For You, the Goodwood Stakes at the Glorious meeting with Hugs Dancer, a valuable handicap at Ascot's September Festival and an Italian Group Three contest with the progressive three-year-old filly Jessica's Dream.

Given was in practice for four years before joining Johnston, also a vet, as another pair of qualified eyes. While at Middleham he won the Alex Scott Memorial Scholarship, a prize open to assistant trainers, and spent time in Dubai as a result.

His present base, at the village of Willoughton, is not traditionally a thoroughbred hotbed but, with the help of his business partner, Andrew Clarke, he presides over an expanding, self-contained empire.

"If I had stopped and thought too long about the enormity of starting out, I would have paralysed myself with fear," he said. "But as a vet I suppose I was always conscious that I could go back to practice, and so had a safety net. And having a partner who takes care of the financial aspects means I can concentrate on the horses."

Stafford Yard, as well as the usual offices of a training establishment, has the priceless facility, to Given, of turn-out paddocks to relax and invigorate his charges. "We can tootle along in our own way here," he said. "We aren't in one of those goldfish-bowl centres where everyone is peering over your shoulder all the time or telling you that the gallops have shut at midday. We don't start until seven in the morning, which means we're not always fighting fatigue from having got up in what seems the middle of the night. And I feel that my staff, who are happy to live in a quiet village, maybe have a certain maturity."

Given goes into his fourth year with several ambitions, one of them lofty. "Although targets can be a noose, I hope Jessica's Dream might have the potential to be a Group One horse. There is a bit of a vacuum in the sprint division and I'd like to start by testing that in that $2 million race at the Dubai World Cup meeting in March."