Thoroughbreds love to run. They are smart athletes with great power and energy. Even if somebody never goes to a racetrack, they often tune in to watch the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in  May.

The road to victory at the racetrack is one paved with patience, understanding, consistency, attention to nutrition, and teaching to the individual horse’s needs and abilities. English-born, Neil Morris, does just that at the newly restored Middleburg Training Track in Middleburg, Virginia.

Neil credits his early exposure to horses and racing in England to his passion for working with horses today. ”Horse racing is a dominant sport in England. Everybody is exposed to it,” says Neil. “I had a little pony jumper as a child and got hooked on horses very young,” he continued. He is the only one in his family with the “horse fever.”

Morris’ passion grew from jumping  his pony and taking him on local fox hunts to attending agricultural college and studying equine science. “It was not my parents’ first choice for me but my passion persisted.” Over the years, Neil worked for horse owners and trainers in both the U.K. and the United States. Eventually, his success and business grew in the U.S. Today, in addition to being an effective and successful trainer, he is Joint Master for the Orange County Hounds.

Neil said that he chose Middleburg, Virginia because, “ I was fascinated by the vastness of the land where one can ride and train without coming to blacktop roads. It is no like that in the U.K.”

• 

Thoroughbreds race on the flat at racetracks as well as on grass and over timber and hurtles in steeplechases (point-to-point races). Neil trains horses for all of these disciplines. Typically, he rides steeplechasers in the hunt filed to build them up and keep them fit for racing. The Virginia hunt season begins in September and ends in March. Steeple chasing begins in February and ends in May, returning for several point-to-points in October.

In 2018, Neil Morris was “the only trainer on earth to win a four (4) mile race and 4 ½ furlongs race,” according to This is Horse Racing. His trainees have repeatedly won the Virginia Gold Cup races at Great Meadow in The Plains.  On October 26, 2019, Dapper Dan, owned by Donna T. Rogers and trained by Neil Morris won the 3 mile Steeplethon Stakes at the International Gold Cup Races at Great Meadow.

In addition to having more than 30 horses in training, Neil competes his trainees in races on tracks along the East Coast – from New York to Florida. He carefully selects venues and races that will showcase his trainees’ best skills.

To properly develop an athlete, Neil focuses on nutrition and fitness. He understands the importance of controlled growth and development – physical and mental.

His plans for 2020? “To win more races. I’ll go where my horses take me – hopefully to the winners’ circle,” says Neil Morris.