Riding High

It’s a little-known industry fact that Frontline Bathrooms CEO Nick Hall (pictured) is a former race-winning professional flat jockey riding for such prestigious owners and trainers as Godolphin’s H.H Sheikh Mohammed / Geoff Wragg

Nick travelled extensively during his time as a professional jockey, riding at every race track in the UK including Royal Ascot, York and Newmarket and before ending his career in Dubai for seven years for H.H Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum. Nowadays he’s more at home in the boardroom than the tack room and would prefer to win new accounts than racing trophies.

Nick says, “although it was a hard, sometimes gruelling, career I have no regrets. The discipline and exhaustive training was an excellent grounding for any industry. Although I love horses I am a people person and I relish the role I have today which enables me to meet new people, network and innovate. I don’t like sitting still – and running Frontline means I never do. We are very much a team and when we do well, winning awards etc the entire organisation is buzzing. All of our staff are winners, not just those on the front line,­ excuse the pun!”

Of course, Nick has some stories to tell, especially about his time competing alongside Frankie Dettori and Willie Carson – not many people in the industry can “name drop” to that extent. Asked what was a highlight of his jockeying career Nick considers for a while before answering: “The effort behind the scenes that people don’t see is what makes it such a challenging sport, like traveling up and down the country, sometimes not eating for days but there are so many great parts, such as riding a winner, there’s no feeling like it! I was fortunate that I met some great friends along the way. A highlight has got to be when I rode three winners in three days – that was a very good run which I remember fondly.”

Anyone who has met Nick will appreciate his fun-loving persona but underneath he is a man of decision, intuition and resource. Sportsman tend to make good businessmen – planning, strategy, training are what makes the great – great! Arguably jockeying is perhaps one of the most disciplined sports around it is no coincidence that Frontline are leading the way in terms of innovation and customer pleasing initiatives.

Nick has some inspiring thoughts for those who may be interested in following in his footsteps: “Before I became a jockey I had never even seen a horse before! I am a big believer in having desire and passion in life, anything can be achieved whatever industry you are in, just go for it!”

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