Ramsden, Lim and Fitzsimmons granted trainers’ license

Joey Ramsden is Singapore bound.

The Singapore Turf Club has allocated stables to three newly-licensed trainers, Joey Ramsden, Jason Lim and Tim Fitzsimmons.

Joey Ramsden

Joey Ramsden

British-born Joey Ramsden, 50, has plied his trade with great success in South Africa in the last 24 years. After learning his craft in Kentucky and former trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith in Sydney, Australia, he moved back home to work for the late Michael Roberts and Vaughan Marshall, returned to UK in 1994 to train for his parents at Southwell, saddling around 16 winners before permanently returning to South Africa as a trainer in his own right in 1995.

Ramsden was quick to establish himself among the leading trainers on the South African log, especially in Cape Town where he is based at Milnerton. He is also regularly featured at the winner’s circles in Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

He was crowned Cape champion trainer four times, with a third place his highest finish on the national log. He has won all-up more than 1,750 races, including 26 at Group 1 level with top South African horses such as two-time South African Horse of the Year Variety Club, Attenborough, Just Sensual, Winter Solstice, Red Ray and The Conglomerate with whom he won the Durban July Handicap in 2016.

Ramsden also has 35 Group 2 winners, 56 Group 3 winners as well as 62 Listed winners to his name.

Overseas, Ramsden also made his mark with Variety Club’s all-the-way win in the 2014 Group 2 Godolphin Mile at Meydan in Dubai.

 

Jason Lim

Jason Lim.

A racing fan since young, Singaporean Jason Lim, 37, decided to make horse racing his career in 2004 when he went to New South Wales, Australia to take up a trackriding course at the Australian Racing Institute. One year later, Lim returned to Singapore where he began as a syce with trainers Tim Pinfield and Susumu Nigishi, while also riding work.

He then graduated to the Stable Supervisor rank with trainer Alwin Tan and Mok Zhan Lun from 2010 to 2013 before becoming assistant-trainer while he was with Mok in 2014.

Lim has been assistant-trainer to trainer David Hill since last year, and with the British trainer bowing out, he will be taking over the bulk of his current string of horses.

 

Tim Fitzsimmons

Tim Fitzsimmons.

Australian Tim Fitzsimmons, 37, joins the Kranji training ranks with the benefit of having a wealth of experience that spreads across both his native Victoria and Singapore.

Starting in the industry when he was 18, Fitzsimmons has built up an impressive CV gaining experience with several leading yards in Victoria, namely those of Bart Cummings, Lloyd Williams, Greg Eurell and Jim Conlan.

The Singapore adventure came when trainer Cliff Brown asked him to join him at his relocation from Australia to Kranji in 2007. He had just returned from Perth as the travelling foreman to Perth Cup runner-up Bay Story for UK trainer Brian Ellison when Brown approached him for the job in Singapore.

Then 25-year-old, Fitzsimmons accepted right away and has been an integral part of Team Brown Singapore since then, quickly climbing through the ranks to become Brown’s assistant-trainer in March 2014.

The pair have enjoyed many successes together along with racing manager Chris Bock, none bigger than Debt Collector’s numerous heroics and Gilt Complex’s win in the Group 1 Dester Singapore Gold Cup in 2017, among others.

iRace
Author: iRace