A BEAUTY therapist with a love of horses struck gold when her horse won at Uttoxeter races.

Sheila Lewis, who runs the Beauty Mill, alongside her husband Peter’s petrol station in Three Cocks, has been training family-owned horses for 18 months. At the end of January, her horse Try it Sometime raced at Uttoxeter, Staffordshire and ran in as the winner.

Sheila, who started riding at three-years-old on a shetland pony called Judy said: "My father and I have been involved with harness racing for the last 30 years. We have trained over 250 winners and in the last six years I made the leap of faith into racing thoroughbreds in local point to points.

"I applied for my training permit 18 months ago which allows me to only train family owned horses but it means they can race against professionals. In order to have a full training licence, which will allow me to train any horse, I needed to have three winners, two of which I previously got at Towcester and Fos Las and then the third came at the end of January with Try it Sometime, who galloped the competition into submission and was the only finisher.

"It was quite a finish for him in awful gruelling conditions which made it a real attrition to finish alone having led most of the way. All the other entrants dropped like flies behind him and I think the fact that he is trained on the foothills of the Black Mountains helped as it meant he was used to those conditions."

Currently training five horses, Sheila added: "Once I have attended two further courses at the British Racing School in Newmarket I am hopeful I will have my full licence by early summer. After this I hope to add to my tally of horses and train more winners and eventually to have runners at the bigger tracks like Aintree and Cheltenham."