Category: Trainers and Owners

The 2021 Flat Owners’ Championship was decided, as is customary nowadays, on prize money won on turf and all-weather tracks between May 1, 2021 and October 16, 2021. It was won, for the fifth time in six years, and the fourteenth time in all, by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation. During the ‘Championship’ period, the famous royal blue silks were carried to victory 125 times and Godolphin won over £5.2 million in prize money, over £1.7 million ahead of their nearest rival, Shadwell Estates.

Godolphin’s biggest single earner was Adayar, trained by Charlie Appleby, who won the Derby at Epsom and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, before finishing fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. Other major money-spinners on British soil included Hurricane Lane, who won the St. Leger at Doncaster, Native Trail, who won the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket and Creative Force, who won the British Champion Sprint Stakes at Ascot. All three are trained by Charlie Appleby who, unsurprisingly, won the Flat Trainers’ Championship, ahead of John and Thady Gosden, Andrew Balding and William Haggas, all of whom won over £4 miilion in prize money.

William Buick, who is first-choice jockey for Appleby, eventually missed out 153-151 to Oisin Murphy in his quest to win the Flat Jockeys’ Championship. Reflecting on his nip-and-tuck battle for the jockeys’ title, he said, ‘I gave it everything I had, I left nothing on the table and I didn’t quite make it.’

Andrew Balding is, of course, the son of Ian Balding, who famously saddled Mill Reef to win the Derby in 1971. Balding Jnr. succeeded his father as the licensed trainer at Park House Stables in Kingsclere, near Newbury, in 2003 and, within six months of doing so, had saddled his first Classic winner. Indeed, the victory of Casual Look in the Oaks proved to an emotional affair for the whole Balding family. Clare Balding, who was anchoring BBC television coverage at Epsom, attempted to interview both her brother and her father, but none of them could manage much more than a tearful, stunned silence. Eventually she told viewers, ‘I’m sorry. The Balding family aren’t very communicative at the moment. We’ll be back to you in a minute.’

Andrew Balding had to wait a few years for his second Classic winner but, in 2020, identified Kameko as ‘the best we’ve had here [at Park House Stables] for a good long while’. His lofty opinion of the Kitten’s Joy colt was justified when he scored a narrow victory in the first Classic of the season, the 2,000 Guineas, which was staged a month later than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic. So, at the time of writing, Andrew Balding has saddled just two Classic winners. However, he does have six Group 1 victories to his name, the two most recent of which came courtesy of Alcohol Free, in the Coronation Stakes at Ascot and the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood in 2021.

John P. McManus, almost invariably known as ‘J.P.’ is, far and away, the largest owner in British National Hunt racing. The 2021/22 British Jump Owners’ Championship runs from May 1, 2021 to April 23, 2022 but, in late October, 2021, McManus is already the proverbial ‘country mile’ clear of his nearest rival. His current winning tally amounts to 37 winners from 197 runners, at a strike rate of 19% – marginally better than the 17% he achieved in 2020/21, as a whole – and over £353,000 in prize money.

In 2020/21, McManus increased his record total of Cheltenham Festival winners to 67, courtesy of Chantry House, trained by Nicky Henderson, in the Marsh Novices’ Chase. Of course, he also won his second Grand National, courtesy of Minella Times, trained by Henry de Bromhead and ridden by Rachael Blackmore.

Despite numerous high-profile victories on British soil, the McManus-owned horse that has achieved the highest Racing Post Rating (RPR) since April, 2017, is Anibale Fly. Trained by Tony Martin in Summerhill, Co. Meath, Anibale Fly has yet to win outside his native land, but earned an RPR of 174 when finishing second, beaten 2½ lengths, behind Al Boum Photo in the 2019 Cheltenham Gold Cup. In the same period, McManus’ highest-rated hurdler was Buveur D’Air, who earned an RPR of 171 when winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in 2018.

One of triplets born in November, 1975, Richard Hannon Jnr. is the son of Richard Hannon Snr., who won the British Flat Trainers’ Championship four times, in 1992, 2010, 2011 and 2013. Hannon Jnr. served as assistant trainer to his father for twelve years before finally taking over the training licence on January 1, 2014. He wasted little time in chalking up his first winner as a trainer, saddling debutante Unscripted – subsequently renamed Ho Lee Horse – to a 10-length victory in a maiden stakes race at Wolverhampton two days later.

Indeed, having inherited a formidable string of horses from his father, Hannon Jnr. enjoyed a stellar first season. He won his first British Classic, the 2,000 Guineas, at the first attempt with Night Of Thunder and went on to win four more Group 1 races, namely the Lockinge Stakes and the Prix de la Forest, both with Olympic Glory, the Queen Anne Stakes, with Toronado, and the Cheveley Park Stakes, with Tiggy Wiggy. All told, Hannon Jnr. Saddled 206 winners on British soil, 32 fewer than his father had done in his final, title-winning season, but still sufficient to take the trainers’ title at the first time of asking.

Nowadays, Hannon operates two separate yards, a couple of miles apart. He is based at the newer of the two, Herridge House, near Marlborough, with the original yard at East Everleigh acting as a ‘satellite’ yard. At the time of writing, in 2021 he has, so far, saddled 128 winners from 1,052 runners, at a strike rate of just over 12%.