THE 100TH WINNER

iPlus Group are very pleased, and proud, to support Fergal O’Brien Racing, especially during their exceptional 2020 - 2021 season as they join the coveted ‘hundred club’.

Fergal O’Brien Racing joined an exclusive club when Oscar Rose won at Kempton on Monday April 19.

It was our 100th winner of a fantastic season and we reached the milestone despite losing the first two months due to the Covid19 shutdown. We are just the 18th stable in National Hunt racing history to notch up a century of winners in a season. The first trainer to achieve the feat was Arthur Yates way back in 1892. Yates’ tally of 124 winners for the season stood for nearly 100 years until Martin Pipe came along, ripping up records as he went. His two Grand National victories were among a career total of more than 3,000 winners. Yates, who sported a rather dashing handlebar moustache, trained at ‘The Ruins’ in Bishop’s Sutton near Winchester. Zebras, llamas, emu and peacocks were among the animals and birds that were said to roam free in the gardens. We would like to think we have some equally impressive animals at Ravenswell Farm but, perhaps, not quite as exotic.

Michael Dickinson was the next to break a century of winners. He is, of course, famous for saddling the first five horses home in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Earlier that season he had trained 12 winners in a day. That Boxing Day haul is a record that still stands today. He was then followed into the hundred club by Martin Pipe, Arthur Stephenson and Gordon Richards. Mary Reveley was the first female trainer to win a hundred races in a jumps season. She achieved the feat four times. David Nicholson, who was based at Condicote near Stow-on the-Wold before moving to Jackdaws Castle, twice hit the century mark.

The current resident of Jackdaws Castle, Jonjo O’Neill, has also passed three figures on a number of occasions. He is joined on the list by Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson, Dan Skelton, Philip Hobbs, Alan King, David Pipe, Donald McCain, Neil Mulholland and Tim Vaughan. It’s clear we are in quite exalted company in the jumps trainers’ ‘hundred club’.

None of it could have been achieved without the support of all our loyal owners, staff and jockeys, who have been instrumental in our success from the early days at Cilldara Stud to Naunton and now at our superb Ravenswell home.

It’s to you all we owe a debt of thanks and you can guarantee we’ll be doing our very best to ensure we hit the century mark again in the new season.

From Fergal, Sally and all the team at Fergal OBrien Racing