Which trainer saddled the most winners in one day?
Dubbed ‘The Genius’ after saddling the first five home in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1983, former Champion National Hunt Trainer Michael W. Dickinson has many claims to fame. Following his retirement from the training ranks, for the first time, Dickinson invented and developed the Tapeta racing surface, which is now in use at Newcastle and Wolverhampton in Britain and various venues worldwide. However, even before the ‘Famous Five’ at Cheltenham, Dickinson had already written his name, possibly indelibly, into the Guiness Book of World Records.
On Boxing Day, 1982, Dickinson made a deliberate attempt – as discussed with his parents, Tony and Monica, months earlier – to break the world record for the number of winners trained in a single day. In fact, during a busy Bank Holiday programme, he sent out twenty runners, or over a third of his string, from his yard in Harewood, West Yorkshire, to six different meetings across the country. The highlight of the day was a win for Wayward Lad, ridden by John Francome, in the King George VI Chase at Kempton but, all told, twelve of the Dickinson-trained horses won and just one of the twenty finished unplaced.
As far as the Grand National is concerned, it was Jenny Pitman who first broke through the ‘glass ceiling’ when saddling Corbiere, who was still a novice, to victory in 1983. In 1995, ‘Mrs. P.’ won the Grand National again with the 12-year-old Royal Athlete and, in the meantime, has been joined by three more female trainers on the Grand National roll of honour.
In the history of the Grand National, three trainers have saddled four winners apiece. In chronological order of their first win, they are George Dockeray, Fred Rimmell and Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain. Dockeray was responsible for three of the first four ‘official’ National winners, namely Lottery (1839), Jerry (1840) and Gaylad (1842), before completing his quartet with Miss Mowbray (1852). Rimmell saddled unquestionably the luckiest National winner ever, E.S.B. (1956), who was the beneficiary when Devon Loch inexplicably collapsed on the run-in, but later added Nicolaus Silver (1961), Gay Trip (1970) and Rag Trade (1976) to his winning tally; the latter was one of just two horses to beat Red Rum in the National. Speaking of the incomparable Red Rum, the equally incomparable ‘Ginger’ McCain saddled ‘Rummie’ to his three victories (1973, 1974 and 1977) and, much latter in his career, won the National again with Amberleigh House (2004).
Tattersalls, formerly Tattersall’s, is nowadays the leading bloodstock auctioneer in Europe, offering 10,000 throughbreds for sale each year through its sales rings at Park Paddocks, Newmarket and Old Fairyhouse, Co. Meath. The business was founded, at Hyde Park Corner, London in 1766 by Richard Tattersall and became a meeting place for racing men, including the future King George IV.