Karl Burke trained his first winner, Temporale, ridden by Robbie Supple, in a handicap hurdle at Towcester on October 10, 1990. However, it was not until nearly 19 years later, on July 5, 2009, that he saddled his first Group 1 winner, Lord Shanakil, ridden by Jim Crowley, in the Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly. Less than a month later, Burke was found guilty by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) of passing ‘inside’ information to former high-profile racehorse owner and prolific gambler Miles Rodgers, who was, at the time, disqualified, in 2004. Consequently, Burke, too, was ‘warned off’ for 12 months and, upon completion of his ban, served as assistant to his wife, Elaine, who is the daughter of former trainer Alan Jarvis, until his application for a training licence was approved by the BHA in August, 2013.
Fast forward a decade or so and Spigot Lodge, in Coverham, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, where Burke has been based since 2000, has recently been hitting the headlines because of the strength of its two-year-old talent. After an ‘annus mirabilis’ in 2022, Burke has continued the good work in 2023, most notably winning the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh with Fallen Angel, who is currently ante-post favourite for the 1,000 Guineas.
To answer the headline question, though, yes he has. In fact, at the time of writing, Burke has saddled at total of 14 Group 1 winners, four of which came on British soil. The first of them, domestically, was the three-year-old Quiet Reflection, who justified favouritism in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June, 2016, and did so again in the Haydock Sprint Cup the following September. Thereafter, the prolific Laurens, who went on to win six races at the highest level, opened her domestic Group 1 account in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket in October, 2017, and returned to the Rowley Mile to win the Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes a year later.