At 5am, the Agile Ability film crew arrive. Director Lee Mancini, camera A Jan William Bailey, camera B Nick Marrington, and producer Gillian Byrne set up for a full day of shooting.
This promo video is to be featured on the new website Agile Ability has built for up-and-coming racehorse trainer, Alice Haynes.
This is the beginning of a busy day, blessed with a stunning autumn sunrise pouring over Newmarket heath and gallops, home to over 2,000 racehorses.
We were here to capture the magic of racehorse training
For the promo video B-roll, we set about capturing as much content as we could, from shots of the horses in their stables getting tacked up and ready to go out for their training, to the horses and riders in the trotting rings warming up before their main work on the gallops.
We get some great shots of Alice at work, but . . .
There’s much more to it than you think
Besides her role as a trainer, she oversees the whole operation. We shoot footage of her interaction with her staff and her horses, giving instructions to her team about how to ride the horses, and assessing the horses as they progressed through their gallop workout.
The value of sending horses to her is evident. She gives tailor-made care to each and every horse. She considers each as an individual and customises their entire programme to ensure they are in optimal condition to perform to the best of their ability.
At the heart of horseracing
Things are a bit different in a town where racehorses have right of way over humans and traffic.
We are thrilled that we get to interview Alice in The Jockey Club Rooms in central Newmarket. The Rooms have been at the heart of British racing for over 250 years. We’re fortunate to conduct the interview in the original Stewards Room.
Alice has achieved impressive success in a short space of time, and we want to know why.
She speaks about her background and how she started working in racing. She reveals how being a jockey herself before taking out her training licence gives her a valuable insight into what a horse needs to win a race.
We discover what drove her to be interested in a career in horseracing. And, looking forward, her ambitions for the future.
We also interview the stable jockey Kieran O’Neill, head lass Jessie Welsh, and PA/Racing Secretary Hollie Hall. They speak about their roles and what sets Alice apart as a trainer.
The homestretch
All in all a very successful day with 5-6 hours’ worth of filming which produced a lovely promo video for the header of her website. We walk away exhausted, but content. It’s not every day you get to enjoy the company of such magnificent animals in such a beautiful setting … unless you’re Alice Haynes, of course.