Dai Williams

Dai Williams

David Lyndon Williams rode over jumps between the mid-70s and mid-80s, first as an amateur, riding 21 winners, then as a professional, adding another ten. 

His first success came at Worcester on May 23, 1977, when he steered Glen Don to a comfortable six-length win in the Blackthorn Novices’ Hunters’ Chase. It was to be more than four years before he next visited the winner’s enclosure, and it was not such an easy victory as his first, but at Catterick on February 13, 1982 his mount, Abersing, held off the challenge of Sandcliffe to land the Scorton Novices’ Chase by half a length.

There were two more wins on consecutive days before the season ended. He did far better in the 1982/83 campaign after teaming up with trainer Richard Perkins at Nether Hall, at Hartshorne, near Burton-on-Trent, resulting in a dozen wins. They included four on the staying chaser Flamenco Dancer and two on the novice chaser Greenbank Park. He also finished first on the latter at Ludlow on March 31 but was disqualified and placed second. Four days later the pair made partial amends by winning at Uttoxeter. 

Disappointingly, there were only two wins the next season, but Dai made a good start to 1984/85 with three victories on the novice chaser Good Trade in the opening weeks of the campaign. He then turned professional and had his first success in the paid ranks at Bangor on September 22 when Renrebo made all to land the Croxton Novices’ Chase by seven lengths. There were three more wins by the end of May, then six in the 1985/86 season. 

Having been assistant to Richard Perkins, Dai took out his own licence, and his last two wins as a jockey were on Lean Ort that he also trained. The second of those victories was at Sedgefield on May 23, 1986, when the eight-year-old made virtually all the running to beat Prince Sweet by a distance. Dai’s last ride was on Mayanncor, a well-beaten sixth in the Charles Lewis Cup Handicap Chase at Uttoxeter on April 20, 1987. 

After retiring from the saddle he turned his attentions to training, initially under permit until taking out a full licence in 1988, based at Branthill Farm Stables, Belbroughton, near Stourbridge. By 1990 he was ensconced at Buckland Racing Stables at Broadway but soon afterwards moved to Great Shefford, near Hungerford. His best-known horses were Folly Road, runner-up to Beau in the 2000 Whitbread Gold Cup, Symbol Of Success, Yorkshire, Noyan, Toskano and Mr Cospector.

He had three major health scares, suffering strokes in 1993 and 2002 and a heart attack on New Year’s Day in 2007. The latter occurred as he was saddling up to go hunting, near Brighton. He was unconscious when medics arrived and was on life support systems and in a coma in Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital. 

Having eventually recovered, he took a sabbatical before returning to the training ranks with a reduced string of ten horses in Lambourn. He trained West Of The Edge to land the Lincolnshire National at Market Rasen on Boxing Day 2015. That horse proved his versatility when switched backed to smaller obstacles five weeks later, grinding out a two-and-a-half-length victory in a three-mile-one-furlong conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle at Plumpton, giving Dai his fourth winner of the campaign.  

He ended his training career based at Broad Hinton, in Wiltshire. His last winner was Benny’s Girl in a mares’ handicap chase at Fakenham on New Year’s Day 2020, exactly thirteen years after suffering the heart attack. His final runner was Mighty Altogether, pulled up in the Queen’s Cup Open Hunters’ Chase at Fakenham on Easter Monday, April 18, 2022. 

Dai Williams’ wins were, in chronological order:

1. Glen Don, Worcester, May 23, 1977

2. Abersing, Catterick Bridge, February 13, 1982

3. Abersing, Wetherby, March 23, 1982

4. Abervanter, Southwell, March 24, 1982 

5. Banador, Fontwell Park, August 11, 1982

6. Flamenco Dancer, Uttoxeter, October 9, 1982

7. Flamenco Dancer, Uttoxeter, October 21, 1982

8. Flamenco Dancer, Nottingham, November 8, 1982

9. Arctic Slogan, Catterick Bridge, January 1, 1983

10. Flamenco Dancer, Nottingham, January 10, 1983

11. Arctic Slogan, Hereford, January 14, 1983

12. Ballet Master, Hereford, March 5, 1983

13. Greenbank Park, Warwick, March 8, 1983

14. Gill O’Whiskey, Bangor-on-Dee. March 9, 1983

15. Ballet Master, Lingfield Park, March 18, 1983

16. Greenbank Park, Uttoxeter, April 4, 1983

17. Isaac, Market Rasen, October 14, 1983

18. Greenbank Park, Wolverhampton, December 26, 1983

19. Good Trade, Market Rasen, August 18, 1984

20. Good Trade, Southwell, August 27, 1984

21. Good Trade, Stratford-on-Avon, September 8, 1984

22. Renrebo, Bangor-on-Dee, September 22, 1984

23. Good Trade, Stratford-on-Avon, October 20, 1984

24. Voyant, Wolverhampton, October 31, 1984

25. Ballygrooby, Southwell, December 13, 1984

26. Vino Vesta, Market Rasen, October 18, 1985

27. Vino Vesta, Newcastle, November 15, 1985

28. Vino Vesta, Haydock Park, December 11, 1985

29. Voyant, Towcester, March 31, 1986

30. Lean Ort, Southwell, May 5, 1986

31. Lean Ort, Sedgefield, May 23, 1986 

With thanks to Alan Trout for providing the bulk of this article and full list of winners.