Oliver ‘Ollie’ Sangster is the grandson of the late Robert Sangster, a legendary owner and breeder who, alongside John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien, effectively changed the face of thoroughbred horse racing in the seventies. In 1984, Robert Sangster purchased the 2,000-acre Manton Estate, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, for a reported £10 million. The majority of the estate, including all the gallops, was bought by former Newmarket trainer Martyn Meade in 2017, but it was at the Redpost Yard, Manton House that Ollie Sangster embarked on his training career in 2023.
Indeed, Sangster, 26, only narrowly missed out on a winner with his very first runner when the three-year-old Cruise was beaten just half a length, having repeatedly been denied a clear run, at Kempton Park on April 1, 2023. Nevertheless, he saddled his first winner, The Thunderer, at Wolverhampton on April 10, 2023 and in his first year, so far, has increased his tally to 10 winners from 52 runners, at a strike rate of 19%. His biggest winner to date was the two-year-old filly Shumwari, who, on July 27, 2023, beat subsequent Moyglare Stud Stakes winner – and current ante-post favourite for the 1,000 Guineas – Fallen Angel in the Listed European Bloodstock News EBF Star Stakes at Sandown Park.
Ollie Sangster may be a new name on the training roster, but he served a lengthy apprenticeship and learnt his trade from some of the best in the business. He joined Lambourn trainer Charles Hills as pupil assistant more or less straight out of school and subsequently spent two years – ‘probably my most formative time’, according to Sangster – as assistant trainer to Wesley Ward in America. On his return to home soil, he spent a year as assistant to Hugo Palmer in Newmarket and another two as assistant to Joseph O’Brien in Ireland before setting up on his own.
Ollie Sangster’s twitter account: https://twitter.com/olliesangster