Tag: trainer

Who is Saeed bin Suroor?

Dubai-born Saeed bin Suroor has been associated with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, founder of Godolphin, since 1992. He was officially appointed Godolphin trainer in 1995 and made an immediate impact, winning the first three of his twelve British Classics, the Derby, Oaks and St. Leger, with Lammtarra, Moonshell and Classic Cliche, respectively. Indeed, Lammtarra also won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp and was named Cartier Champion Three-year-old Colt.

Lammtarra was retired to Dalham Hall Stud, Newmarket at the end of his three-year-old campaign, but the following year, 1996, bin Suroor won another British Classic, the 2,000 Guineas, with Mark Of Esteem, who also won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot later in the year. All told that season, bin Suroor saddled just 48 winners, but a host of high-profile victories, including in the Coral-Eclipse and Juddmonte International with Halling and the Racing Post Trophy with Medaaly, yielded £1.96 million in prize money. In only his second year in charge, he became Champion Trainer for the first time and would win the trainers’ title again in 1988, 1999 and 2004.

Nowadays, the longest-serving Godolphin trainer splits his year between Al Quoz Stables in Dubai and Godolphin Stables, formerly Stanley House Stables, in Newmarket. Indeed, he has enjoyed spectactular success in one of the most prestigious and valuable races in the the world, the Dubai World Cup at Meydan, winning nine times between 1999 and 2019.

Who was Norah Wilmot?

Born in 1889, Norah Wilmot was the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Rodney Wilmot, Sixth Baronet of Osmaston, and had the distinction of being the first female trainer in Britain to ‘officially’ saddle a winner. She did so when her filly, Pat, won at Brighton on August 4, 1966, the day after the Jockey Club finally capitulated and granted a training licence to two women, the other being Florence Nagle. Ms. Wilmot was 77 years old.

Norah Wilmot had worked as assistant horse racing trainer to her father for twenty years prior to his death in 1931 and, thereafter, having inherited Binfield Grove Stud in Bracknell, Berkshire, continued to train racehorses in an ‘unofficial’ capacity with no little success. Although eminently capable, Ms. Wilmot was forbidden by the Jockey Club from holding a training licence in her own right so, as she was unmarried, the training licence was officially held by a series of head lads in her employment. Although not officially acknowledged as a trainer until her dotage, Ms. Wilmot completed the Goodwood Cup – Doncaster Cup double with Haulfryn in 1937 and, at one point, her owners included Queen Elizabeth II.

Who is Richard Hannon Jnr.?

Unsurprisingly, Richard Hannon Jnr. is the son of four-time Champion Trainer Richard Hannon Snr., from whom he officially took over the training licence on January 1, 2014. Hannon Jnr. is, in fact, one of triplets; his brother, Henry, is a property dealer and his sister, Elizabeth, is the wife of jockey-turned-trainer Richard Hughes.

Born on November 21, 1975, Hannon Jnr. worked as assistant trainer to his father for twelve years and made an immediate impact in his debut season as a trainer in his own right. His first runner, Unscripted, won a maiden stakes at Wolverhampton by ten lengths on January 3 and, buoyed by the patronage of leading owner Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, never really looked back. He won the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket with Night Of Thunder, the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury with Olympic Glory and the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot among many other high-profile races. At the end of the 2014 season, he had racked up 206 winners and earned £4.7 million in prize money, which was sufficient for him to succeed his father as Champion Trainer.

Hannon Jnr. has developed a reputation for his ability to produce precocious juveniles, but has continued to enjoy success across all age groups. In 2018, he won the 1,000 Guineas for the first time with Billesdon Brook – at 66/1, the longest-priced winner in the history of the first fillies’ Classic – and has won at least one Group One race in every season since taking over from his father

Who was John Dunlop?

John Dunlop, who retired from the training ranks at the end of the 2012 Flat season and died in July, 2018, at the age of 78, after a long illness, was a doyen of British horse racing for nearly half a century. Born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire on July 10, 1939, Dunlop became assistant trainer to Gordon Smyth at Castle Stables in Arundel, West Sussex in 1963. Two years later, in 1965, Smyth moved to Heath House Stables in Lewes, East Sussex, on the retirement of John ‘Towser’ Gosden and Dunlop took over the licence as private trainer to Bernard Fitzalan-Howard,16th Duke of Norfolk, and his wife, Lavinia.

Dunlop had the distinction of saddling Hatta, the first British winner in the now familiar maroon and white silks of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, at Brighton in 1977. In 1983, he also saddled British Horse of the Year Habibti to win the July Cup, William Hill Sprint Championship, Vernons Sprint Cup and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. Dunlop was Champion Trainer just once, in 1995, but, at the peak of his powers, had over 200 horses in his charge. All told, he trained over 3,500 winners, including ten British Classic winners. He never won the 2,000 Guineas, but won the 1,000 Guineas and the St. Leger three times apiece and the Derby and the Oaks twice apiece. Habibiti aside, arguably the best horse he ever trained was Shirley Heights, winner of the Derby and the Irish Derby in 1978.

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