Who is the most successful British Flat trainer?

The most successful British Flat trainer of all time is Mark Johnston who, since 1988, has been based in Middleham, North Yorkshire. On August 23, 2018, Johnston saddled Poet’s Society, ridden by Frankie Dettori, to victory in the Clipper Logistics Handicap at York; in so doing, he took his career total to 4,194 winners, thereby breaking the previous record set by Richard Hannon Snr., who retired from the training ranks in November, 2013.

Johnston began his training career in 1987 and saddled over a hundred winners in a season for the first time in 1994. Remarkably, he has achieved that feat in every season since, surpassing the 200-winner mark in 2009, 2010, 2012-2015 and 2017-2019. Indeed, in 2019, Johnston sent out 249 winners, thereby setting a new record for the number of winners trained in a single season – Flat or National Hunt – in Britain.

Johnston has never won the trainers’ championship, which is decided on prize money won during the season, and it would be fair to say that, compared with the likes of John Gosden and Aidan O’Brien, truly top class horses have been few and far between. Nevertheless, at the time of writing, Johnston has 26 Group 1 victories, in Britain, Ireland, France and Germany to his name. He won the 2,000 Guineas with Mister Baileys in 1994 and the 1,000 Guineas with Attraction in 2004.

Which were the only two horses to beat Golden Horn?

Owned by Anthony Oppenheimer, trained by John Gosden and ridden, on seven of his nine starts, by Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori, Golden Horn was named Cartier Horse of the Year in 2015. That year, his three-year-old record included wins in the Derby, Coral-Eclipse, Irish Champion Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. However, for all his success, he was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of just 133 and, therefore, adjudged to be 7lb inferior to the truly great horses of the Timeform era, such as Shergar, Dancing Brave and Sea The Stars.

All told, Golden Horn won seven of his nine starts and earned nearly £4.5 million in prize money. Unbeaten after five starts, he missed an intended engagement in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in late July because of unsuitably soft ground and waited, instead, for the Juddmonte International Stakes at York three weeks later. Sent off at 4/9, Golden Horn pulled too hard for his own good in the early stages and, although he drew upsides the front-running Arabian Queen inside the final furlong, he could find no extra close home and was beaten a neck.

Three starts later, fresh from a ready, 2-length win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe under a fine ride from Dettori, Golden Horn headed to Keeneland, Kentucky for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, for which he started hot favourite at 4/6. Once again, he took a keen hold in the early stages, but was driven into the lead coming off the home turn, only to be caught in the last half a furlong or so and beaten half a length by the filly, Found, whom he had previously beaten in the Irish Champion Stakes.

How Much Money do you Need to Buy a Racehorse?

I’m sure you have seen all these expensive racehorses bred from the most talented stallions and mares. They are the ones you hear about costing millions of pounds. It’s no wonder some of these foals and yearlings cost so much money. For example, the stallion fee for Frankel is £175,000. That’s what it costs irrespective of the horse having ability or not. There are no guarantees. In fact, many very expensive horses are so slow that they never race.

However, it is much more likely an expensive purchase will have ability than lets say a yearling which costs £500.

Stallion fees range from hundreds of pounds to the likes of super stallion Galileo, who is probably worth about £250,000. I say probably because you will only hear the price on application. It’s private.

From following two-year-old horse racing for thirty-plus years, I have seen many cheap purchases, often called bargain buys, win races. Some have proven themselves to be very talented and competing and winning at a high level.

Some have cost as little as £500.

That’s what you call a bargain buy.

You may be thinking that owning a racehorse is quite feasible. But don’t forget you will need someone to train your horse, feed, water and make sure it is kept in the best of health. All this comes at a price.

In fact, for many, the cost of training a horse far exceeds the cost of buying it in the first place.

With your average training bill of £20,000 per annum it’s an expensive hobby and you’ll be banking that your little star is a winner in waiting.

You’ll need that prize money and pay its way.

Very few horses make their owners a profit.

 

Where, and when, did Hollie Doyle ride her first winner under rules?

Standing just 5′ tall, capable of riding at 8st 0lb and nicknamed the ‘Pocket Rocket’, Hollie Doyle has taken the horse racing world by storm in recent years. In 2019, she rode 116 winners, thereby becoming just the third female jockey, after Hayley Turner and Josephine Gordon, to ride a hundred winners in a calendar year; she also broke the previous record, 106, set by Gordon in 2017. In 2020, even with 75 days of racing lost to the Covid-19 pandemic, Doyle increased her winning tally to 151, breaking her own record.

Indeed, 2020 proved to be something of a ‘breakthrough’ season. Doyle rode her first Royal Ascot winner, Scarlet Dragon, trained by Alan King, in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes and her first Group 1 winner, Glen Shiel, trained by Archie Watson, in the British Champion Sprint Stakes, back at Ascot later in the year. In 2021, so far, she has ridden 146 winners, at the same 15% strike rate she achieved in 2020, so is on schedule to break her own record again.

Of course, everyone starts somewhere and while it seems a very, very long time ago that Hollie Doyle rode The Mongoose, trained by David Evans, to a half-length victory in the Betfred Mobile Sports Lady Riders’ Handicap at Salisbury on May 5, 2013, that was he first success under rules. At that stage, she was a 16-year-old amateur rider and still at school.

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