How many Group 1, or Grade 1, winners has a Ralph Beckett trained?

Formerly assistant trainer to the late Peter Walwyn at Windsor House Stables in Lambourn, Berkshire, for three and a half years, Ralph Beckett began training in his own right in 1999. He saddled his first runner, John Company, in a maiden stakes race at Wolverhampton on November 27, 1999 and in the early years of his career lived hand-to-mouth existence.

However, after becoming a tenant at Whitsbury Manor Stud, near Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in 2006, Beckett saddled his first Group 1 winner, Look Here, in the Oaks at Epsom on June 6, 2008. In 2010, he bought his current base, Kimpton Down Stables, near Andover, and since then his career has continued to blossom.

Fast forward to 2024 and, at the time of writing, in the calendar year so far, Beckett has saddled 122 from 610 runners on British soil, at a strike rate of 20%, and amassed £3.79 million in total prize money. He currently lies sixth in the British Flat Trainers’ Championship, but he has enjoyed a standout season at home and abroad.

He has added four more to his Group 1 tally, courtesy of Bluestocking in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in June, the Prix Vermeille at Longchamp in September and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, also at Longchamp, in October and You Got To Me in the Irish Oaks, also at the Curragh, in July. Beckett also saddled his first Grade 1 winner in the United States, Starlust, in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar in November, thereby taking his career total of Group 1, or Grade 1, winners to 18.