Michael Dods - his 36 years of training, the importance of family and his recent Gimcrack Stakes success with Arapaho Gold.
Preparation is key but training racehorses isn’t an exact science, there are always curveballs lurking. Just ask the Darlington-based trainer Michael Dods, the man responsible for saddling this year’s Gimcrack Stakes winner Arapaho Gold.
By Bayside Boy, the 42,000 euros yearling is the third foal from the capable Irish handicapper Call Of The Jungle. The juvenile making a smooth winning debut in a maiden at Thirsk in May, with Dods immediately formulating a plan,
“I had it in my mind, based upon what he’d shown us, that Arapaho Gold would go to Beverley next for the Brian Yeardley, and we fully expected he’d win that, and because of his pedigree, and the distance, it fitted that he could run in the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot.”
However, things took a sharp U-turn on the Westwood, when the 11-4 second favourite reared up, placed a leg over the top of his stall, and consequently was withdrawn. Dods explains,
“I hadn’t really made a Plan B. Craig Witherford and Connor Beasley did a lot of work with him in the stalls afterwards, and we decided that we didn’t want to travel far – thinking Ascot might be a bit much for him – for his next start.
Marcel Weiss - PANTIENCE REWARDED
It took one horse - compact in stature but big, big in character - to catapult Weiss into the top trainer ranks. His career had been steady up to that point, and he did display the one virtue essential to his training approach: patience.
Now firmly established as one of the go-to German handlers, his composed demeanour hides fierce competition and a deep passion. A lot meets the eye when it comes to Marcel Weiss - he was in fact nicknamed ‘the Englishman’ due to his flat cap and his smart riding attire - but that tells only half the story. England is well known for its north-south divide, and it is an open secret that Germany is still very much divided into east and west. Society may be a step ahead, but things take a bit longer in racing - a lot of things move very slowly in German racing - and certain tracks are still referred to as ‘east’.
FRANCIS-HENRI GRAFFARD -A FULL MEASURE OF SUCCESS
"Hasn't everyone seen and heard enough of me recently?" After a headline season which saw him set a new record for the number of Group 1 winners in a year by a French handler and a first title in the national trainers' championship, the 48-year-old is aware that the name "Graffard" has been among the most cited in the racing press over the past 12 months.