Christian Williams: the trainer who works his horses on the beach

Last updated 10 September 2026. Career record verified against published racing sources.

Christian Williams trains on a beach. Ogmore Farm sits where the Vale of Glamorgan meets the sea, and the horses work on the sand, which is the sort of setup most trainers can only talk about.

The facts

The jockey years

Williams rode before he trained, and rode well. More than 100 winners for Paul Nicholls, champion trainer, and more than 100 for the Vale of Glamorgan yard at Llancarfan.

His best day in the saddle was also a near miss: second in the 2005 Grand National on Royal Auclair.

Potters Corner, 2019

The horse that made the yard’s name won both the Midlands Grand National and the Welsh Grand National in 2019, the Welsh leg under a 17-year-old Jack Tudor at Chepstow.

It ended a wait of more than half a century for a Welsh-trained winner of Wales’ own National, and it started a run: four Welsh-trained winners of the race in seven runnings, Williams first among them.

Ayr, 2022

February 2022 gave the yard a Saturday it will not forget, with Win My Wings taking the Eider Chase at Newcastle and Cap Du Nord the Coral Trophy at Kempton on the same afternoon.

Then in April came the one that put a small Welsh yard on the front pages: a one-two in the Scottish Grand National, Win My Wings first and Kitty’s Light second. Training the first two home in a race like that, from a beach in Glamorgan, is not something the big yards let happen often.

The 2021/22 season finished with 34 winners and more than £665,000 in prize money, the best of his training career to that point.

Training on sand

Ogmore Farm runs down to the beach, and the horses work on it. Sand is forgiving ground, which matters for jumpers carrying the mileage that staying chasers carry, and it lets a yard keep horses working through weather that would shut a grass gallop.

It also explains something about the type of horse the stable produces. Williams’ best have been tough, thorough stayers who improve for a battle, and they tend to arrive at the big spring handicaps fresh rather than raced into the ground.

Kitty’s Light

The horse who finished second in that Ayr one-two deserves his own line. Kitty’s Light became the yard’s standard-bearer in the seasons that followed, the kind of durable staying handicapper who turns up in every major staying prize and runs his race.

Between him, Win My Wings, Cap Du Nord and Potters Corner, Ogmore built a reputation for a specific job: getting a stayer ready for one enormous day.

The Welsh production line

Ogmore has become one of the places young Welsh riders pass through. Williams himself came up through David Brace’s Dunraven Stud at Pyle near Bridgend, the same stable that has had Sean and James Bowen, Ben Jones, Jack Tudor and Harry Cobden through the door.

Backing his horses

Williams targets the big staying handicaps and prepares specifically for them, which is exactly the profile that rewards paying attention to entries rather than to the market. Odds on every runner are on the DragonBet horse racing page, and the betting glossary covers anything unfamiliar.

More Welsh trainers: Rebecca Curtis and Peter Bowen. Our jockey profiles cover Sean Bowen, James Bowen and Ben Jones.

Sources: career record and race results per published racing sources. Correct as of 10 September 2026.