TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Susan Corbett
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By Lissa Oliver
The TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Susan Corbett. Corbett will receive £1,000 worth of TopSpec feed, supplements and additives as well as a consultation with one of their senior nutritionists.
Susan Corbett trains over 20 National Hunt and Flat horses at Girsonfield Stud in Otterburn, Northumberland. On 19 December at Newcastle, Andante won the QuinnBet Quarterback “Junior” Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race and Hills Of Connemara brought up the double for the stable when winning a poignant QuinnBet Live Casino Novices’ Handicap Chase. “Andante was a bit of an accident,” Corbett confesses. “Micheál Conaghan asked if I’d make an offer on an unsold three-year-old gelding. I was giving my four-year-old granddaughter a riding lesson at the time and trying to hold her, the phone and the catalogue! I made a low offer, as I couldn’t afford the horse and didn’t want it! So Andante arrived five months ago and we broke him and kept waiting for him to tell us to back off a bit and give him a break, but instead he just kept strengthening all the time. “I took him for his first and only racecourse gallop at Newcastle and my husband Frank came to watch and said, ‘I know what I want for my birthday, I’d like that horse!’ And out he came out and won on debut at Newcastle, two days before Frank’s 70th birthday.”
Completing the stable double was Hills Of Connemara, highlighting Corbett’s patience and ability to bring back a horse from injury. “She was owned by Fred Chapman, who sadly lost his fight to cancer just two weeks ago,” Corbett reveals. “Fred liked to pay as little as possible for his horses and often just acquired them, so I was surprised when he rang to say he’d paid £17,000 for a filly at the Cheltenham Boutique Sale. “Hills Of Connemara ran with promise early in 2018 but then damaged a tendon. We got that fixed and then she damaged the other tendon.
So we spent two years trying to get her back to work, it’s a real tribute to Fred for his patience. She had been off the track for 885 days when we ran her at Hexham and she was pulled up when lack of fitness got to her. We were rushing to get her to the track while Fred could still enjoy her, but sadly he lost his battle before being able to see her repay the faith he had in her. His family were delighted by her win.”
At the age of 11, Corbett was told the stark reality by her parents that she couldn’t have a pony “because Dad only worked in a factory, he didn’t own it.” She has achieved her dream by sheer stubbornness and refusal to give up, which you could say reflects in her patient nursing back to winning ways of Hills Of Connemara. “Not coming from a family with any background in training, I have no preconceived ideas,” Corbett reflects. “I sometimes do random things, like putting Morning With Ivan back in training after her foal was weaned, and she won another five races. We’ve now done the same with Harrisons Promise. Once her filly was weaned she practically ran back into the training yard, she is better than ever.”
With son Jamie working as Assistant Trainer, having only recently retired as a jockey, and Frank managing the farm, which includes the supply of their own high-quality hay and haylage, it’s a real family affair, completed by eldest son Richard and his cousin Adam, who manage the website. They have a professional and ambitious team alongside. “I remember once reading in Trainer magazine that a trainer is only as good as the people who work for them and that has been something I’ve always kept in my mind,” Corbett says. “All the team here are a great bunch, really committed to the horses and they love their job.” In fact, last year the Girsonfield team were awarded 3-star Gold Accreditation in the Lycetts Team Champion Award and this year they made the shortlist of four, earning Gold accreditation.
