TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Noel Kelly

Article by Lissa Oliver

When six-year-old gelding Size Five landed the recent Join Racing TV Now Handicap Hurdle, a Go North Brindisi Breeze Series Qualifier at Perth, Scotland, he also landed his County Derry-based trainer Noel Kelly with our TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter award. It may not have appeared to be a significant win, but Size Five was returning from an injury that had kept him off the track since 26th December 2022, a break of 640 days.

It was a major gamble in more ways than one for Kelly, as the gelding had been well backed by punters and romped home by 20 lengths under amateur jockey Oran McGill. Despite earnings of just £105 from four previous starts and rated 92, Size Five  had been working well at home and Kelly had been confident with his first runner in Britain since December, at his lucky track Perth.

The Northern Ireland trainer said on the day, "He does nothing but stay, he just keeps galloping. He's not had much mileage but he shows a wee bit of class at home. I had seven others out and he would gallop all over them.”

Kelly’s base in Draperstown is perfectly positioned to access all of Ireland’s racecourses and allow for British raids. His first winner was Mighty Whitey in 2010 and the predominantly National Hunt stable has gone from strength to strength since then. 

Speaking of Size Five, Kelly tells us, “He’s a gorgeous big horse, 16.2, but last year he was still a bit weak and he needed time. He’s a lot of horse. We were gentle with him at four, but at five he had a wee bit of tendon trouble, not that big, but he did a bit of damage so we limited him to three or four months of just road work.”

Perth wasn’t a specific plan, but as Kelly says, “We knew we had him ready to come back and he had to run somewhere. We didn’t have a lot of summer racing options here in Ireland and some of the tracks were too tight for him and the ground was too firm. So we just waited for the rain to come and sent him over. I walked the track and we chanced him on it and it worked out well.”

Kelly doesn’t yet know if Size Five will be qualified for the Final of the series, having now gone up in the weights 17Ib, which also presents difficulties in planning the gelding’s next race, although he has come out of the Perth race sound and has been working well back at home. 

“He won very easily, but there wasn’t a lot of depth in the race and it’s a bit unfortunate the handicapper has put him up such a high mark, when what did he beat?” But Kelly remains full of praise for the imposing gelding and will be giving him plenty of time and patience to fill his frame, with the promise of more to come.

TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter – Brian Meehan

Article by Lissa Oliver

Royal Ascot provided Wiltshire-based Brian Meehan with two Group successes when the impressive two-year-old Rashabar held on bravely to deny late finishers and win the Group 2 Coventry Stakes by a nose. It was a well-deserved change in fortune, as only a head had denied the Meehan-trained Kathmandu Classic glory in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches three weeks earlier. The master of the historic Manton Stables then followed up at Royal Ascot when Jayarebe won the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes.

Of Rashabar, Meehan says, “He was always a very nice horse. He showed in his early work that he had enough speed to be a Royal Ascot juvenile, so we made a plan reasonably early to run him at Newbury for his debut. We knew the five furlongs would be a bit too sharp, but we wanted to get runs into him and he ran much better than we thought he would [third]. Then the Chester race was a £40,000 maiden, which was a no-brainer really, and he ran the fastest final furlong. The form has worked out really well since, the winner came out and won the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom, so we knew he would be good enough for Ascot.

“Sean Levey said to me after Chester that when a horse runs around Chester it’s like having two runs, they learn so much, especially for a two-year-old who had only run once. Rashabar had been training so well at home and the team have done a tremendous job.”

Meehan describes Rashabar as a very kind horse, very simple and straightforward to deal with. “The plan now would be to go to the Prix Morny next and then The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, a route we’ve done before. The preparation for The Breeders’ Cup is very straightforward, we’ll do a bit of bend work with him and a bit of stalls work with him when we get there.”

As every trainer knows, there’s no better joy than when a plan comes together, as was so nearly the case with Kathmandu at Longchamp, where she was beaten just a head by Rouhiya. “She will go to the Prix Jean Prat and will follow that up at Deauville in the Prix Rothschild or Prix Maurice du Gheest,” says Meehan. “It’s all about having nice horses. Planning is important and, like everyone I suppose, I start with the aimed race and work backwards from there.”

The facilities at Manton, one of Britain’s oldest and finest training centres, are second to none, with two grass gallops, a new polytrack and a woodchip, the gallops owned and maintained superbly by Freddie and Martyn Meade. There is also an equine pool. Since the 1860s, numerous Classic winners have been sent out from Manton, including two Triple Crown winners, and when Meehan took over the yard in 2006 he immediately added to the illustrious list, awarded International Trainer of the Year in his first season there.

Meehan remains grounded and ambitious. “The team are on a high, but one good week doesn’t make a season, we’ve got to keep up the effort for the whole year.”

TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter

Article by Lissa Oliver

This issue’s Top Spec Trainer of the Quarter boasts a quite unique fact – he is the third member of his family to claim the honour! Had our magazine been running longer, he could easily have been a fifth-family winner, but Christopher Head is unique in his own right and a worthy recipient, having sent out his first Classic winner Blue Rose Cen in May and backed that up in June with her win in the Prix de Diane, in only his fifth full season as a trainer.

"The plan was laid out last year in a very intelligent manner and it has been a case of executing it," said Head. "We have the good fortune that she is a filly who is ready every time we ask her, but the fact that she always shows up in these good races proves it is a good plan."

Head is now based at the former yard of his father Freddy, having previously rented some boxes at Chantilly when first taking out his licence at the end of 2018. The move bodes well, with some Classic magic already rubbing off on the new inmate. It is far from a case of a “silver spoon”, Head starting out with just a handful of horses, but nevertheless sending out his first Group winner last year, Sibila Spain, and champion two-year-old Blue Rose Cen, successfully nurturing her into a champion three-year-old. Add Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Big Rock into the mix, with promise still to come and it’s clear Head is a young trainer going places.

As well as the ability to draw upon vast family experience, and 12 years spent working with his father during a golden era, Head brings new innovations to his training methods, using the latest data-collection technology. Strapped to the girth, a box records stride pattern, speed and cardiovascular activity, which Head finds useful in assessing individual horses, alongside traditional training methods.

The combination of experience and technology has certainly paid off this season, Blue Rose Cen currently unbeaten since winning the Gp.3 Prix de la Grotte, comfortably stepping up in trip to 2000m and now heading to the Gp.1 Nassau Stakes to take on her elders. 

Big Rock, too, maintained a run of four wins this season, rising up from handicap ranks when rated 94, to starting favourite for the Prix du Jockey Club and finding only Ace Impact too good for him. His next target is the Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Jacques le Marois and potentially the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Qipco Champions Day. 

As to his star filly, Head said, "I'm excited about the programme and we will try her over 2400m because we need to know if she's capable of showing that turn of foot over the longer distance of the Arc. She'll be entered in the Vermeille and after that we'll decide whether to go for the Opera or to supplement her into the Arc."

To date, Head has won 19 races, including two Classics, with just 24 horses, a strike-rate that speaks for itself. It could prove to be a monumental season for Head, despite being a year filled with family loss and sadness.

TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter – SIR MARK PRESCOTT BT.

Article by Giles Anderson

Heath House Stables in Newmarket has been the only yard our deserved TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter, Sir Mark Prescott, has trained from during his fifty-three years with a training licence.

Britain’s longest serving trainer has produced many horses at the highest level. Consider the fact that he operates with a self imposed limit of fifty horses under his care at any given time and his record seems even more impressive.

Over time, Prescott has worked closely with many leading owner breeders - none more so than Kirsten Rausing. Over the years, they have produced the likes of Albanova and Alborada to score at the highest level.

In 2019 a filly named Alpinista, made her racecourse debut on July 18th at Epsom. The debut was a winning one. Prescott wouldn’t necessarily be a trainer you would associate with winning debutantes, so many took note of this performance. The Racing Post reported that Alpinista; “dwelt, in touch in 5th, slightly green when asked for effort over 2f out, soon closed to lead over 1f out, pushed clear, unchallenged after”.

It would be fair to say that the five horses who finished behind her, haven’t exactly set the form book alight since. The same can’t be said for Alpinista.

Her subsequent start at Goodwood in August (2019) proved to be her only start where she finished out of the first four - when finishing 6th in the Gp.3 Prestige Stakes.

Winning ways resumed the following August (2020) when scoring in the Listed Upavon Fillies Stakes at Salisbury.

In 2021 Alpinista simply dominated the German Gp.1 races, with victories in the Grosser Preis von Berlin, the 59th running of the Preis von Europa and the Grosser Preis von Bayern.

Prescott, has always been a devotee of the European Pattern, looking further afield to pick up (in his own words) “cheap black type” for the fillies in his care. But little did he know when Alpinista beat Torquator Tasso and Walton Street in the Grosser Preis von Berlin what impact this race would have and cement Alpanista as the filly of her generation.

Walton Street ran two places better on his next start in Toronto when a fascicle 5 3/4 length winner of the Gr.1 Pattison Canadian International.

Torquator Tasso went onto frank the form in a duo of Gp.1 races -  the prestigious Grosser Preis von Baden before a ‘shock’ win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The only person who probably wasn’t suffering from shock on the first Sunday in October 2021 was Sir Mark Prescott - he now knew he now had a serious filly in his care.

When the actual plan was hatched to aim Alpanista for the 2022 running of the Arc de Triomphe one will never know. But one can safely bet that by the time the 2022 Pattern Book dropped through the letterbox at Heath House Stables, Prescott had already worked out her plan for 2022.

Fast forward to the build up for the 2022 Arc and anyone who has enjoyed the shere entertainment of Prescott’s company will have enjoyed the build up for the race. With Prescott providing a level of light relief, regaling stories of previous voyages to France and the disappointment of defeat that most such ventures result in.

But in Alpanista’s victory in the 2022 Arc de Triomphe we got to celebrate the victory of two of the greatest proponents of the European Pattern in Sir Mark and Kirsten Rausing. 

Alpanista was retired in November to embark on her next career as a broodmare at Lanwades Stud. 

Her final race record reads as; 15 starts, 10 victories - with 6 in Gp.1 company - coming in three different countries. Quite a record.

TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter – Henk Grewe

The choice for Trainer of the Quarter was no easy one, with many notable successes, but it is Henk Grewe who takes the honours. Scooping both the colts’ and fillies’ BBAG auction races for two-year-olds in September, as well as adding his name to the roll of honour for the Deutsches Derby in July with Sisfahan, Grewe most recently won the Gr. 3 Premio Elena E Sergio Cumani in Rome with Flamingo Girl. 

Mister Applebee was an impressive runaway winner of the BBAG auction race at Düsseldorf, and Atomic Blonde fought bravely for her win in the BBAG Johanna and Hugo Memorial; both appear to have a bright future. “Mister Applebee looked very good and is now going to the Ferdinand Leisten Memorial,” Grewe says, hoping to replicate the success of his Horse of the Year, Rubaiyat.

Grewe has 100 boxes at his base in Weidenpescher Park in Cologne. His first notable success came in 2015 with the Austrian Derby, but in the short time since, he has built up a team that has seen him crowned Champion Trainer in 2019 and 2020. 

“It has been a good season, especially because of the Deutsches Derby, even though we haven’t had as many winners as last year,” Grewe says. “Winning the Derby was really special for me because I was under so much pressure. Everyone was expecting me to win it for the last three years and now that I have won it, that pressure is gone; it makes everything easier.”

Sisfahan made it look very easy indeed in Hamburg and was having his first start at Group level. “It's nice that Andrasch was on the horse, my parents are here, my brother is here with my niece, who is having a birthday today. He's a great horse and it's just a dream today,” Grewe said on the day. With Sisfahan’s win, Grewe not only enjoyed the greatest success of his career so far but also topped the meeting as leading trainer.

It hasn’t been all joy for Grewe during this time, and he recently lost the promising Preis der Diana runner-up Isfahani—a Gr. 3 winner at two. “It's incredibly sad; when I got the message from the clinic, I was absolutely shocked. Unfortunately, she never had the chance to show her true colours, and I am still convinced that she was the best horse that I have ever trained,” he says of the tragic filly.

“We have a lot of late horses who we hope will be very good for next year,” he says, looking ahead. “COVID has made everything much more difficult. There has been a lot more paperwork and travelling has been much harder, but my team have really handled it well. For me, our team is the most important thing; they work so hard and without them, none of this would be possible.”

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TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Richard Phillips

Britain's first ever National Racehorse Week will take place 12-19 September this year, thanks to the brainchild of Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire trainer, Richard Phillips. When fan pressure led to singer Taylor Swift withdrawing from performing at the Melbourne Cup, Phillips became aware how little people know about racing. ‘If they knew more about it, they would be more comfortable about racing’, he says.

Phillips has been training since 1993, enjoying success with star chasers Time Won’t Wait, Gnome’s Tycoon and Noble Lord, while La Landiere provided his first Cheltenham Festival winner. He has also won awards for his charity work, including the 2021 Community Award at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards, the 2014 Voluntary Award at the Animal Health Trust Awards and the 2011 Pride Of Racing Award from Racing Welfare.

‘I am delighted to see the idea of National Racehorse Week spring into life. It is a fantastic opportunity for our owners, staff, trainers and jockeys to come together for a common love of the racehorse. Racing can sometimes be divided, but the one thing we all agree on is our love of the horse. National Racehorse Week will be our chance to show the public and policy makers that racing has absolutely nothing to hide. We have a great story to tell, so let's get it out there and tell it’.

National Racehorse Week has gathered momentum and support from across the racing industry and is funded by the Racing Foundation, The Sir Peter O'Sullevan Charitable Trust and Great British Racing, in partnership with the National Trainers Federation. It is also the first public engagement of the Horse Welfare Board's Equine Welfare Communications Strategy, funded by the HBLB. Phillips is particularly keen to see MPs involved and visiting their local yards. ‘If racing is then discussed, they will be in a position to know more about it’.

As he points out, you never know who might walk into your yard and the influence that may have on them in the future. ‘The public sometimes thinks racing and racehorse ownership is not accessible, but it is and this is our opportunity to show that. So many of us do so much every day and put the health of our horses before our own. This is our chance to engage with local people, invite them into our yard to meet our staff and get into conversation with them’.

Rupert Arnold, Chief Executive of the National Trainers Federation, is equally enthusiastic. ‘There has been overwhelming and enthusiastic support from trainers. Everyone wants a chance to show their respect for the racehorses to whom they give such exceptional care. I am confident that trainers and their staff, who forge such a close bond with their horses, will grasp the opportunity provided by National Racehorse Week’.

It's not too great a leap of imagination to see National Racehorse Week becoming International Racehorse Week, or at the very least European Racehorse Week in years to come. It is a concept easily adopted by other countries and could work in tandem with existing stallion trail weekends, incorporating every aspect of the thoroughbred’s life— ‘from cradle to grave, a life well lived’, as Phillips says. 

‘It’s everybody’s duty to do something and it should be enjoyable, not a chore. We can show people how much we do for horses and how much they do for us. Celebrating the racehorse benefits everyone’.

If you are a trainer and interested in finding out more information please contact Harriet Rochester, harriet@nationalracehorseweek.com

To register visit www.nationalracehorseweek.uk

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TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Henry de Bromhead

By Lissa Oliver

At what could be described as the only Irish race meeting held in Britain, where 23 of the 28 Cheltenham Festival races fell to Irish trainers, one Irish trainer in particular led the way. County Waterford-based Henry de Bromhead became the first trainer to achieve the historic feat of winning the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Gold Cup in the same year.

Add to those the Triumph Hurdle, Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, and it’s little wonder de Bromhead is now looking forward to ‘catching his breath’ while quarantining back home in Ireland.

The amazing week began for the Knockeen team on day one of the Festival, when Honeysuckle powered away under Rachael Blackmore to land the Unibet Champion Hurdle. De Bromhead says of the mare, ‘She’s pretty laid back. She’s really straightforward; she likes her routine, and she’s lovely to have around the place.’

Having watched her success from the track, de Bromhead claimed it as his lucky spot and so it proved—cheering home two more winners on the Wednesday that Bob Olinger got the day’s Gr1 tally started in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, under jockey of the moment Rachael Blackmore. Then de Bromhead became the first trainer to send out a mare to win the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, with Put The Kettle On, under Aidan Coleman.

‘We are very lucky to have good mares like them,’ de Bromhead says, ‘and getting tremendous support from our owners. I thought she had a chance, but on ratings I thought she might struggle a bit; but I hoped she would have a squeak.’

The fairer sex again came up trumps for de Bromhead on the Thursday, Telmesomethinggirl, Rachael Blackmore up, leading home stablemate Magic Daze in the Grade 2 Mares’ Novices' Hurdle to give the stable a one-two. De Bromhead said on the day, ‘I’m delighted for Rachael. She is such a good rider and an ultimate professional, and she is brilliant to work with. She earns everything she gets.’

With the week just getting better and better, Quilixios became the fifth winner for the Knockeen team and the fourth Gr1 winner in the JCB Triumph Hurdle, again under Blackmore. ‘He jumped well and did everything right, de Bromhead enthused. ‘I'm delighted for the Thompsons and Cheveley Park—they're great supporters of ours. Rachael was brilliant on him and all credit to Gordon Elliott and his team—the horse looked amazing coming down to us, and we've done very little. It's more down to them than us. He's just a lovely horse to do anything with. He'll be a lovely chaser in time, I'd say.’

Then came the grand finale—the WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup, and another de Bromhead one-two. Minella Indo and young Jack Kennedy led home stablemate A Plus Tard and to complete an historic hat-trick. ‘It's massive,’ de Bromhead told the press. ‘I can't tell you what it means to win it, or just to win any of these races. I feel like I'm going to wake up and it will be Monday evening! To do this is a credit to everyone that's working with us; we couldn't do any of it without our clients supporting us. They give us the opportunity to buy these good horses, and I just feel extremely lucky.

‘We felt we had the team exactly where we wanted them heading over to Cheltenham, but I've thought that in other years, too, when we haven't done so well. I wasn't confident about any of them winning. They all seemed okay and happy in themselves, and I was just hoping that they would be able to do themselves justice. 

‘The whole week was just surreal from start to finish, from Honeysuckle to the Gold Cup and everything in between. It's magic, and I don't think it's going to sink in fully for quite some time. It's the stuff you dream about.’

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