Category Archives: Trainers

Having worked as assistant trainer to two of the finest trainers in the history of the thoroughbred, Vincent O’Brien and Sir Noel Murless, John Harry Martin Gosden began training, in his own right, in California in 1979. In 1989, Gosden moved to Britain but, after spells at Stanley House Stables, Newmarket and Manton, Marlborough, didn’t become Champion Trainer on this side of the Atlantic until 2012, by which time he was firmly settled at Clarehaven Stables, also in Newmarket, where he’d moved in 2012.

The 2012 season was, in fact, the fourth time Gosden had trained over a hundred winners in a season, but his total of 119 winners was his best so far, as was, by some way, his prize money total of £3.74 million. His biggest winner of the season, in pecuniary terms, was Ghurair in the £500,000 Tattersalls Millions 2-Y-O Trophy at Newmarket, but he also landed three domestic Group 1 contests, courtesy of Fallen For You in the Coronation Stakes, Nathaniel in the Coral-Eclipse and The Fugue in the Nassau Stakes.

In 2015, Gosden was Champion Trainer again, with 133 winners and £5.28 million in prize money. His flag-bearer that season was Golden Horn, rated 133 by Timeform and the winner of the Derby and the Coral-Eclipse en route to victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Other success stories that year included top class sprinter Shalaa, who won five of her six races as a juvenile, culminating in the Middle Park Stakes and GM Hopkins, winner of the Royal Hunt Cup.

In 2018, Gosden had plenty of firepower at his disposal at Clarehaven Stables, but handled it with aplomb in an outstanding season that saw him saddle 162 winners from 647 runners in Britain, at a strike rate of 25%, but, more importantly, earn £8.4 million in prize money to become Champion Trainer for the third time. His domestic successes at the highest level came courtesy of Roaring Lion, in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes , the Juddmonte International Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Cracksman in the Coronation Cup and the Champion Stakes, Stradivarius in the Gold Cup and the Goodwood Cup, Without Parole in the St. James’s Palace Stakes and Too Darn Hot in the Dewhurst Stakes.

The late John Leeper Dunlop OBE, who died in July, 2018, at the age of 78, after a long illness, was one of the greatest racehorse trainers of his generation. Following National Service, in 1961, Dunlop accepted a job as general factotum to New Forest trainer Neville Dent and, two years later, became assistant trainer and secretary to Gordon Smyth, private trainer to the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk at Castle Stables in Arundel, West Sussex. In late 1965, following the retirement of Jack ‘Towser’ Gosden, Smyth moved to Heath House Stables in Lewes, East Sussex to become a public trainer and Dunlop took over the training licence at Castle Stables at the age of 26.

As he expanded his operation, Dunlop became the first British trainer to enjoy the patronage of the royal and ruling family of Dubai, the Al Maktoum family. All in all, in a career spanning nearly five decades, before retiring at the end of the 2012 season, Dunlop saddled over 3,500 winners, including 10 British Classic winners.

However, despite spending many years at the top of his profession, Dunlop was Champion Trainer just once, in 1995. His stable star that season was Bahri, winner of the St. James’s Palace Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes for Hamdan Al Maktoum, but, all told, Dunlop saddled 126 winners from 628 runners in Britain, at a strike rate of 20%, and collected over £2 million in prize money. Bahri aside, his only other domestic success at the highest level came courtesy of Beauchamp King in the Racing Post Trophy, but Dunlop also saddled Beauchamp Hero – owned, like Beauchamp King, by Erik Penser – to win three races, including the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket in a memorable season for the Swedish financier.