Nowadays based at Cottage Field Stables near Woolhope, Herefordshire, began training in his own right in the 2012/13 National Hunt season with a string of a dozen or so horses. He saddled his first winner under Rules, Trouble Digger, ridden by Sam Drinkwater, in a maiden hunters’ chase at Lingfield on February 27, 2013.
After a modest start to his training career, Lacey gradually increased his seasonal tally, reaching the landmark of 50 winners in a season for the first, and so far only, time in 2021/22. In fact, his half century came from 275 runners, at a strike rate of 18%, and yielded just over £680,000 in prize money. The major contributors to his career-best bottom line that season were Glory And Fortune, who won three of his nine starts, including the valuable Betfair Hurdle at Newbury, and another son of Fame And Glory, Sebastopol, who ran 11 times, winning twice after finishing second on no fewer than six starts in a row.
More recently, Lacey enjoyed another major payday when Nocte Volatus, ridden by Stan Sheppard, won the £100,000 Veterans’ Handicap Chase Stayers’ Final at Sandown in January 2026. Reflecting on victory for the 11-year-old, he said, “I can’t put into words the importance of winning on days like today.”
Lacey has yet to saddle a Grade 1 winner, but does have five Grade 2 winners to his name, the first of which was Adrimel, ridden by Richard Johnson, in the Leamington Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick in 2021 and the last Montemares, ridden by Stan Sheppard, in the Premier Novices’ Hurdle at Kelso in 2026. Of the courses where he has saddled at least 20 runners, Lacey has his highest overall strike rates at Plumpton (28%), Newcastle (27%) and Huntingdon (26%). His hurdlers at Plumpton and Newcastle are always worth a second glance, as are those at Market Rasen and Newton Abbott, and a similar comment applies to his steeplechasers ar Huntingdon.
