Not to be confused with Jim Snowden, who was a Classic-winning jockey who died in 1889, Jamie Snowden was a jockey who spent time in the army before turning his hand to training. Having worked with the likes of Nigel Twiston-Davies and Paul Nicholls, Snowden was both an amateur jockey and an assistant trainer for Nicky Henderson, so it’s fair to say that he has a bit of a sense of how the industry works.
He soon became a trainer in his own right and moved to Folly House in Lambourn in 2011, from where he has been based ever since taking ownership of the property.
About
There aren’t many horse racing trainers that have lived quite the life that Jamie Snowden has. He showed an interest in horse racing from an early age, joining the Pony Club before taking part in hunts and then hitting the point-to-point circuit. Whilst he was still at school, he rode out for Nigel Twiston-Davies, then travelled to New Zealand in his gap year in order to work as an assistant trainer and then returned to England to go to Newcastle University, also working for trainers whilst there. He then joined the army, remaining in demand with trainers because of the military races in Sandown.
He won 40 times under rules as an amateur jockey, becoming a pupil assistant for Paul Nicholls, then gaining further experience with Nicky Henderson. At that point, he began to train horses himself, taking on a small number of them at a rented yard in a village in Wiltshire. It was in 2011 that he moved to Lambourn’s Folly House, which proved to be an inspired move for him. That autumn, he enjoyed his first Cheltenham winner, then in 2014 he entered the Winners’ Enclosure at the Festival for the first time. In the years that followed, his stock has continued to grow as he’s added more and more winners.
Major Successes
There is no question that Snowden has seen some big wins come his way over the years, both as a rider and as a trainer. Of course, it is as a trainer that we’re most interested in here, which has seen him pick up some big prizes during the course of his career to date. He has been in the Winners’ Enclosure at the Cheltenham Festival numerous times, for example, which all started thanks to Present View’s victory in the Novice Handicap Chase. Other successes followed, not only at the Gloucestershire course but also up and down the country in various National Hunt events.
Here is a look at some of the races that Snowden has trained the winner of, with the list being far from exhaustive:
- Summer National
- Novice Handicap Chase
- Summer Hurdle
- Prelude Handicap
- Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices’ Chase
- Jack De Bromhead Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
- Future Champions Novice Chase
- Melton Mowbray Market Novices’ Handicap Chase
- Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
- Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle
Horses Trained
Having been training horses for more than a decade, it’s fair to say that Snowden has seen more than a few talented ones pass through his yard at one point or another. In 2025, for example, Hollygrove Cha Cha gave it a good go in the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle during the Cheltenham Festival, ultimately falling short but giving the yard something to shout about. Other names like Audacious Annie, Super Survivor and Bellas Bridge have all been on the list of Snowden’s horses at one point or another, whilst more successful horses have also made their way through his training.
Here is a look at some of the more noteworthy ones:
Present View
When you’re a relatively small and lesser-known trainer, you will always remember the first time that a horse of yours wins at the Cheltenham Festival. In the case of James Snowden, that horse was Present View, which won the Close Brothers Novice Handicap Chase on the Tuesday of the famous meeting back in 2014. By Presenting out of Carry Me, he was born in the United Kingdom and was owned by Sir Chips Keswick. When you consider the fact that horses like Hunt Ball and A Plus Tard have also won the event, it’s little wonder it was seen as such an exciting victory by his connections.
Pisgah Pike
It was during the 2022-2023 season that Pisgah Pike came to the fore for Snowden, winning the valuable race of the Summer Hurdle. The horse had already won the Maiden Hurdle run at Hexham as well as the Novices’ Hurdle at Plumpton Racecourse, going on to win two more events at Worcester, albeit against much smaller fields. That was certainly not the case in the Market Rasen race, however, with Pisgah Pike holding off the challenge of ten other horses as he made rapid headway when two out. He also won the Worcester Handicap Hurdles towards the end of the year.
Datsalrightgino
If you want a reason to talk about Datsalrightgino that is more than just the excellent name of the horse, you would do a lot worse than to talk about the horse’s success in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury back in the December of 2023. Ridden by Gavin Sheehan, Datsalrightgino was given odds of 16/1 before the race and managed to hold off the challenge posed by Mahler Mission and Monbeg Genus in order to get the prize won. Thanks to that win, there was a lot of hope for the horse entering the Grade 2 Cotswold Chase, only for the horse to fall at the ninth.
