Category: Trainers and Owners

A graduate of the British Racing School in Newmarket, Richard Kingscote was apprenticed to Wiltshire trainer Roger Charlton, with 85 winners to his name, when Tom Dascombe came calling. Reflecting on those early days, Kingscote said later, ‘I was a bit dubious when Guy Jewell, my agent, told me Tom wanted me to ride all his horses. That just doesn’t happen, does it?’

Nevertheless, what followed would become one of the most enduring and successful partnerships of recent times. Kingscote is probably still best known for his association with the ill-fated Brown Panther, whom he rode to ten of his eleven career victories, including the Irish St. Leger at the Curragh in 2014. In September, 2019, he and Dascombe reached the career milestone of 500 winners with the victory of the two-year-old filly Brookside Banner at Haydock. At that point, Kingscote said, ‘Tom’s a lovely boss and all credit to him for giving me his support. Long may it continue.’

Despite that assertion, in early 2021, when invited by Sir Michael Stoute to pursue opportunities in Newmarket, Kingscote made the shock decision to relinquish his position as stable jockey to Tom Dascombe. Interviewed in August that year, Dascombe said, ‘He [Kingscote] hasn’t been our stable jockey basically for 2021.’ Kingscote has still ridden more often for Dascombe than any other trainer in 2021. However, his strike rate is a mediocre 7-120 (6%), compared with 19-97 (20%) for Sir Michael Stoute.

Nowadays, Richard Fahey is a highly successful trainer based at Musley Bank, near Malton, North Yorkshire. Fahey turned his hand to training, at nearby Butterworth, in 1993, but in his earlier years enjoyed a moderately successful career as conditional jockey to the late Jimmy Fitzgerald at Norton Grange Stables, also in Malton. Indeed, on June 3, 1989, he rode Wisconsin, trained by Michael Chapman, to victory in the final race of the 1988/1989 season, the Dove House Hospice Mares Only Novices’ Hurdle at Market Rasen, to secure a share of the conditional jockeys’ title with Derek Byrne and Stuart Turner.

Fahey continued to ride winners after losing his claim, but the last of them was Gymcrak Gamble, trained by Peter Easterby – whose daughter, Leila, he had married three years earlier – on May 20, 1992. Reflecting on his riding career, Fahey said, ‘I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t enjoying it and couldn’t see a future in it, so I gave it up before it gave me up.’

Fahey began his training career modestly enough, saddling just ten winners in his first three seasons and not breaking into double figures for a season until 1996. Thereafter, his record was one of steady improvement, season-by-season. He saddled 50 winners in a season for the first time in 2003 and 100 winners in a season for the first time in 2008. He enjoyed his most successful season ever, numerically and financially, in 2017, with 235 winners and £3.85 million in total prize money.

The short answer is no, he hasn’t. In fact, Robert ‘Rab’ Havlin has never ridden a Group 1 winner, not for John Gosden – who, since early 2021, has held a joint licence with his son, Thady – or any other trainer. That said, at the last count, Havlin had ridden a total of 583 winners for Gosden, including 45 for the recently established partnership in 2021. Those victories include 18 at Pattern Race level, the most recent of which was Megallan in the Group 3 Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury in August, 2021.

Havlin, 47, is into the veteran stage of his career, but was stable apprentice at Manton Park, Wiltshire when Gosden succeeded Peter Chapple-Hyam as private trainer to Robert Sangster in late 1999. In the interim, he has developed into a highly accomplished horseman and remains a pivotal member of the Gosdens’ staff at Clarehaven Stables in Newmarket. The Scotsman rode his one and only Royal Ascot winner, Ardad, in the Windsor Castle Stakes in June, 2016. Fittingly, he reached the career landmark of 1,000 winners on another Gosden-trained horse, Pitcher’s Point, at Lingfield in March, 2020.

At that point, Havlin paid tribute to Gosden, saying, ‘The second half of my career has been a lot better than the first! I’ve got John Gosden to thank for that, he’s been an unbelievable friend and supporter for a long time and it’s down to him.’