Category: Trainers and Owners

Who owned Dawn Run?

Dawn Run etched her name, indelibly, into the annals of Cheltenham Festival history when, in 1986, she became the first and, so far, only horse to complete the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double. Trained by the late Paddy Mullins in Co. Kilkenny, Dawn Run was ridden to her two greatest triumphs by Jonjo O’Neill, but only after her regular partner Tony Mullins was ‘jocked off’ by owner Charmian Hill on both occasions.

At the age of 62, Hill, a.k.a. the ‘Galloping Granny’, had ridden Dawn Run on her first three starts, before being deemed too old to continue riding by the Turf Club. Nevertheless, she pulled no punches when it came to riding arrangements for her horse; Paddy Mullins made no secret of the fact that, ferocious as Dawn Run was, she was still easier to handle than her owner.

After missing most of the 1984/85 season through injury, Dawn Run took her career record to 3-3 over fences by winning at Punchestown and Leopardstown in December, 1985, before heading to Cheltenham for the Holsten Distributors Chase in January, 1986. Sent off at 4/9 favourite, Dawn Run made a mistake at the final open ditch and unseated Tony Mullins, leading to speculation that, despite winning 15 races on the mare, he would be replaced for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Sure enough, he was and the rest, as they say, is history.

Which thoroughbred horse trainer holds the record for winning races in the most countries?

This question was send from a reader and I must say, it’s high of the list of questions broad enough in their scope to draw a bit of a blank. Our esteemed writer certainly found it to be a challenging one. His estimation was that it could be former Newmarket maestro Cilve Brittain, who turns 90 next year. Aside from Great Britain and Ireland, he definitely saddled winners in France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and the US and possibly elsewhere, too. Of course, there’s a whole raft of foreign trainers to consider, and no easy way to research them all, so, interesting though it would be to know, I think we’ll have to swerve this one.

Later he added that on reflection, Sir Michael Stoute has also had winners all over the place, including Canada and Dubai, and may have done better than ol’ Clive! and then ‘On reflection of my reflection, Aidan O’Brien has trained winners in eight countries apart from Great Britain and Ireland.’ As you can well see this isn’t an easy one to answer! Racing fan R Gibson suggests Top Norwegian trainer Wido Neuroth  could be the winner.

For once we may throw this one open to readers. If anyone out there has any thought or feedback on this one, do feel free to email the site to let us know your take. Let’s make it a community effort :).

How many Cheltenham Festival winners has Alan King trained?

Assistant to twice champion trainer David Nicholson until his retirement in 1999, Alan King moved to his current base at Barbury Castle Stables in Wroughton, near Swindon, Wiltshire in 2000. Since then, he has sent out a total of 15 Cheltenham Festival winners, although the most recent of them was Uxizandre – who was, coincidentally, Tony McCoy’s last Festival winner – in the Ryanair Chase in 2015.

Of the four main ‘championship’ races at the Festival, King has won the Stayers’ Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle once apiece, with My Way De Solzen (2006), Voy Por Ustedes (2007) and Katchit (2008) respectively. Indeed, all three of those horses were, or became, multiple Cheltenham Festival winners; Voy Por Ustedes had won the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2006, Katchit had won the Triumph Hurdle in 2007 and My Way De Solzen went on to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy, again, in 2007.

Katchit was particularly notable, insofar as his victory in the Champion Hurdle was the first by a Triumph Hurdle winner since Kribensis in 1990 and the first by a five-year-old since See You Then in 1985. In 2013, in what is often one of the most competitive races of the entire Cheltenham Festival, the Coral Cup, King achieved a notable training feat by saddling the 33/1 winner, Medina, and the 14/1 second, Meister Eckhart.

Who was Charlie Hall?

To modern horse racing fans, the name ‘Charlie Hall’ is best known from the title of the Charlie Hall Chase, a Grade 2 steeplechase run over 3 miles at Wetherby in late October or early November. Inaugurated, as the Wetherby Pattern Chase, in 1969, the race was renamed to the Charlie Hall Memorial Wetherby Pattern Chase in 1978 and renamed, again, to the present title in 1990.

The titular William ‘Charlie’ Hall, who died in 1977, was a successful trainer based in Towton, near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. Towton is just 20 minutes’ drive from Wetherby Racecourse, where Hall saddled 169 winners during his career and is commemorated by what has become the traditional curtain-raiser for the National Hunt season.

Born in 1903, Charlie Hall was the elder brother of Sam Hall, who became a legendary trainer of handicappers on Flat, winning the November Handicap five times, the Ebor Handicap three times and the Lincoln Handicap and Wokingham Handicap twice apiece. Charlie Hall began his own training career shortly after the end of World War II and at the time of his retirement, in 1975, had saddled 584 winners under National Hunt Rules and a further 100 winners on the Flat. At that stage, he was succeeded by his stepson, Maurice Camacho. Hall was Champion National Hunt Trainer just once, in 1955/56, famously saddling Doorknocker, owned by Clifford Nicholson and ridden by Harry Sprague, to victory in the Champion Hurdle at the 1956 Cheltenham Festival.

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