Trainers / Owners

Who was Sir Henry Cecil?

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At the time of his death, on June 13, 2013, Sir Henry Richard Amherst Cecil was hailed by ‘The Scotsman’ as ‘Britain’s greatest racehorse trainer of the past five decades’. Born in Aberdeen on January 11, 1943, Cecil nevertheless became the epitome of a quintessential English gentleman; calm, polite and softly spoken, he was as a universally popular as he was successful.

Cecil first took out a training licence at Freemason Lodge Stables on Bury Road, Newmarket, where he succeeded his step-father, Sir Cecil Boyd Rochford, in 1968. He saddled his first winner, Celestial Cloud, in an amateur riders’ maiden stakes race at Ripon, on May 17, 1969. By the time Cecil succeeded his father-in-law, Sir Noel Murless, at Warren Place on nearby Moulton Road at the end of the 1976 season, he had already won back-to-back renewals of the 2,000 Guineas, with Bolkonski in 1975 and Wollow in 1976. He sent out both winners from his interim base at Marriot Stables, now Chestnut Tree Stables, on the Hamilton Road, with Wollow also contributing the Eclipse Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Juddmonte International Stakes towards his first trainers’ title.

Cecil was crowned Champion Trainer again in his year at Warren Place, 1978, and would go on to win eight more trainers’ titles in 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1993. Indeed, between the late seventies and the early nineties, the name ‘H. R.A. Cecil’ on a racecard, alongside those of Joe Mercer, Lester Piggott and Steve Cauthen, who were successive stable jockeys at Warren Place, was guaranteed to quicken the blood of the average racegoer.

However, in 1995, the relationship between Cecil and leading owner Sheikh Mohammed deteriorated and, ultimately, broke down completely after a series of disagreements. The susbequent removal of 40 horses from Warren Place inevitably led to a downturn in the fortunes of the, by then, 10-time Champion Trainer and, for a period, his career looked to be in terminal decline. For a period of just over six years, between July 2000 and October 2006, Cecil failed to saddle a single Group 1 winner and, in 2005, his seasonal tally was just 12 winners, down from a career-best 119 winners back in 1991.

Furthermore, in 2006, it was revealed that Cecil was undergoing treatment for the stomach cancer that would, tragically, end his life on June 11, 1973. Nevertheless, despite constant ill health, it was testament to the courage and competitiveness of the man that, under the auspices of long-standing ally Khaled Abdullah, in particular, Cecil increased his seasonal tally to 25 winners in 2006, 45 in 2007 and, thereafter, saddled 52 or more winners for the next five seasons running.

A truly masterful horseman, particularly adept at training fillies, Cecil won the Oaks eight times – including with Fillies’ Triple Crown winner Oh So Sharp in 1985 – the 1,000 Guineas six times, The Derby and the St. Leger four times apiece and the 2,000 Guineas. Yet, for all his Classic success, it is likely that Sir Henry Cecil will likely always be best remembered for his association with one horse, Frankel, who completed his unbeaten 14-race career on British Champions Day at Ascot on October 21, 2012 and remains the highest-rated Flat horse in history of Timeform, which began shortly after World War II. By that stage, Cecil had become a ‘Sir’, having been knighted by Queen |Elizabeth II the previous year, and it was entirely fitting that he should enjoy a remarkable revival, late in his career, with a horse carrying the famous green, pink and white colours of his loyal supporter.

Who are the leading trainers in the history of the Peterborough Chase?

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For the uninitiated, the Peterborough Chase is a Grade 2 steeplechase, run over 2 miles, 3 furlongs and 189 yards at Huntingdon in December. The race was first run, in its current guise – that is, as a weight-for-age, conditions chase – in 1978 and, since then, two trainers, both veterans, have saddled eight winners apiece.

In chronological order, in terms of their first winners of the Peterborough Chase, the first of them is six-time champion trainer Nicky Henderson. Henderson opened his account with reigning champion chaser Remittance Man in 1992 and added two more victories in the nineties, courtesy of Arkle Challenge Trophy winner Travado in both 1993 and 1995. After a lengthy hiatus, the master of Seven Barrows has significantly increased his winning tally in the last decade or so, with further victories for Riverside Theatre (2013), Josses Hill (2016), Top Notch (2017 and 2019) and Mister Fisher (2020).

Henderson shares the mantle of leading trainer with Henrietta Knight, who officially retired in 2012, but announced in November 2023 that she would returning to training at the earliest opportunity in 2024, from her previous base at West Lockinge Farm near Wantage, Oxfordshire, where she has been running a successful livery yard. During her previous stint in the training ranks, Knight was responsible for the prolific, and versatile, Edredon Bleu, who had the distinction of winning the Peterbrough Chase four years running, in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. At the time of his retirement, in 2005, the Grand Tresor gelding had won 24 of his 47 starts over fences, including the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 2000 and King George VI Chase at Kempton Park in 2003. Knight also saddled Best Mate (2002), Impek (2005), and Racing Demon (2006 and 2007) to victory in the Peterborough Chase.

Who is the most successful trainer in the history of the Melbourne Cup?

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Nicknamed ‘The race that stops a nation’, the Melbourne Cup is a Group 1 handicap run over 3,200 metres, or approximately two miles, at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria, traditionally on the first Tuesday in November. Boasting total prize money of $A8,000,000, or just over £4,000,000 at the current exchange rate, the Melbourne Cup is the most valuable race of its kind run anywhere in the world. As such, it is the highlight of the four-day Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington, which, in turn, is a central part of the thre-month Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival.

The Melbourne Cup was established in 1861 and the inaugural running was won by Archer, owned and trained by the legendary Etienne de Mestre, who would saddle the same horse to win again in 1862, as well as Tim Whiffler in 1867, Chester in 1877 and Calamia in 1878. Far and away the most successful trainer in the long, rich history of the Melbourne Cup, though, remains the late James Bartholomew Cummings, generally known as ‘Bart’ or ‘J.B.’, who saddled a total of 12 winners, with 43 years between the first and the last.

Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Cummings began his training career in Glenelg, a suburb of the South Australian capital, in 1953. In 1968, he established stables in Flemington, by which time he had already won the Melbourne Cup three years running, with Light Fingers in 1965,

Galilee in 1966 and Red Handed in 1967. Later in his career, the ‘Cups King’, as he became known, also saddled Think Big (1974,1975), Gold and Black (1977), Hyperno (1979), Kingston Rule (1990), Let’s Elope (1991), Saintly (1996), Rogan Josh (1999) and Viewed (2008). Cummins died at his home, Princes Farm in Castlereagh, New South Wales on August 30, 2015, at the age of 87. Such was his iconic status in his native land that his family was offered, and accepted, a state funeral.

How many times has Sir Michael Stoute won the Breeders’ Cup Turf?

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At the time of writing, Ballydoyle trainer Aiden O’Brien has recently extended his already impressive record in the Breeders’ Cup Turf by saddling Auguste Rodin – who, like his namesake, has lived a life full of contrasts – to win the $4 million showpiece for the seventh time. The Breeders’ Cup Turf was inaugurated in 1984 and, not altogether surprisingly, the mile and a half contest has proved a happy hunting ground for European trainers, particularly those from Britain and Ireland, with the likes of Clive Brittain, Saeed bin Suroor, Brian Meehan, John Gosden and Charlie Appleby among the names on the roll of honour.

Aiden O’Brien aside, though, Sir Michael Stoute is the most successful trainer in the history of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, with four winners to his name. Based at Freemason Lodge on the Bury Road in Newmarket, Stoute, 78, is well into the veteran stage of his training career, having first taken out a licence in his own right in 1972. Of course, he will forever be associated with the brilliant, but ultimately ill-fated Shergar, but it should not be forgotten that he has saddled 16 British Classic winners, including six Derby winners, and won the trainers’ championship 10 times between 1981 and 2009.

As far as the Breeders’ Cup Turf is concerned, Stoute opened his account with the outstanding middle-distance colt Pilsudski, who beat stable companion Singspiel at Woodbine in Toronto, Canada in 1996. Two years later, Stoute was knighted for the promotion of sport tourism in his native Barbados and, in 2000, doubled his Breeders’ Cup Turf tally with Kalanisi – owned, like Shergar, by Aga Khan IV – at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Later the same decade, he completed his quartet of wins, courtesy of Conduit, who recorded back-to-back victories at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California in 2008 and 2009.