Who won the 2021 Flat Owners’ Championship?

The 2021 Flat Owners’ Championship was decided, as is customary nowadays, on prize money won on turf and all-weather tracks between May 1, 2021 and October 16, 2021. It was won, for the fifth time in six years, and the fourteenth time in all, by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation. During the ‘Championship’ period, the famous royal blue silks were carried to victory 125 times and Godolphin won over £5.2 million in prize money, over £1.7 million ahead of their nearest rival, Shadwell Estates.

Godolphin’s biggest single earner was Adayar, trained by Charlie Appleby, who won the Derby at Epsom and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, before finishing fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. Other major money-spinners on British soil included Hurricane Lane, who won the St. Leger at Doncaster, Native Trail, who won the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket and Creative Force, who won the British Champion Sprint Stakes at Ascot. All three are trained by Charlie Appleby who, unsurprisingly, won the Flat Trainers’ Championship, ahead of John and Thady Gosden, Andrew Balding and William Haggas, all of whom won over £4 miilion in prize money.

William Buick, who is first-choice jockey for Appleby, eventually missed out 153-151 to Oisin Murphy in his quest to win the Flat Jockeys’ Championship. Reflecting on his nip-and-tuck battle for the jockeys’ title, he said, ‘I gave it everything I had, I left nothing on the table and I didn’t quite make it.’