CAVALOR Trainer of the Quarter - Simon & Ed Crisford
In May 2020 Ed and his father Simon Crisford became the first trainers in Britain to be granted a joint licence. Now, thanks to an excellent winter in Dubai culminating with a win in the Gp.2 Dubai Gold Cup, they become our first joint Trainers of the Quarter. Their six runners on Dubai World Cup night earned €3.4m (£2.97m), doubling their British earnings gained in a highly successful 2025 campaign.
Telemark started proceedings with seventh place in the Gp.2 Godolphin Mile which earned him €8,500 (£7,400), Cover Up earned €12,800 (£11,100) finishing eighth in the Gp.1 Al Quoz Sprint, Quddwah picked up €851,900 (£740,700) with a second in the Gp.1 Dubai Turf, West Wind Blows got to within three-parts of a length of Calandagan in the Gp.1 Sheema Classic to net just over €1m (£888,900), and in the Gp.1 Dubai World Cup itself, Meydaan finished third to claim another €1m for the team.
Icing on the cake was a win, when progressive five-year-old mare Fairy Glen took some notable scalps when she landed the 3200m (two miles) Dubai Gold Cup, which was not only an unknown trip for her but a big step up from her successful prep race over 1800m (9f) in February’s Gp.2 Balanchine Stakes.
Speaking from Dubai on the night, Simon Crisford said of their winning mare, “She’s got a nice turn of foot and showed it tonight. She’s very honest, very brave, a good filly and now a dual Group Two winner. She’ll probably go back and run in the Middleton Stakes next. That’s back over a mile and a quarter and I wouldn’t rule out at all trips like this again, but I think we can pick and choose our spots from now on.”
Fairy Glen is certainly versatile, having won in Listed company in November in the 3000m (15f) River Eden Fillies Stakes, a distance she seemed to be suited to at three and four, although she had won at 2400m (12f) as a three-year-old. By coincidence, her dam, Natural Scenery, had also run in the Dubai Gold Cup, back in 2018.
Ed Crisford, a former pupil-assistant to John Gosden before joining his father, reflected, “She was coming off a win in the Balanchine over 1800m, a distance clearly short for her, but she has improved immensely since then.”
“I think we were stretching our luck going up to two miles but, the way the race set up, it worked really well for the closers,” Simon Crisford added.
The father and son team are based in Gainsborough Stables on Newmarket’s Hamilton Road, with excellent facilities such as an equine swimming pool, spa, treadmill, and sea walker; with access to 1,200 acres of grass gallops on Racecourse Side and the longest all-weather gallop in Newmarket, the Cambridge Road Polytrack.
Vandeek’s win the 2023 Prix Morny provided them with their first Gp.1 success. Ed Crisford said at the time, “It makes it more personal to have done it with Dad.”
They both acknowledge they are only as good as their team, their staff described as their “eyes and ears on the ground”, but they run a tight ship, and point out there is no substitute for good stable management. Nevertheless, as with Fairy Glen, they allow the horses to guide them to the right races, and Simon Crisford says, “That’s one of the best things about training horses. It becomes an adventure.”
