HWPA Derby Awards 2019

PATRON: EARL OF DERBY

PRESIDENT: MARCUS TOWNEND

THE DERBY

AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

MONDAY 2ND DECEMBER 2019 Lancaster London, Lancaster Terrace W2 2TY

FRANKEL

2008 b h Galileo - Kind (Danehill) 2020 Fee: £175,000 slf

figuratively speaking

Better than any

OTHER SIRE GROUP

WINNERS

to runners BLACKTYPE

WINNERS

to runners REACHED 30

GROUP

WINNERS

faster than any other

European stallion

IN H ISTORY

Juddmonte Farms is pleased to support The Horserace Writers’ and Photographers’ Association Derby Awards Lunch Contact Shane Horan, Claire Curry or Henry Bletsoe

+44 (0)1638 731115

nominations@juddmonte.co.uk www.juddmonte.com

®

WELCOME

By the President

Uncertainty seems the back-drop to so much currently in racing but just when you are about to reach for the Valium, something happens that gives you cause for optimism.

Financial uncertainty grips the sport as the racing industry waits to find out what will be the longer-term realities of betting shop closures following legislation surrounding FOBT stakes.

It’s another worry that two national newspapers are now operating without a full-time racing correspondent and racecourse press rooms away from the big meetings have more and more empty seats, reflecting the increasing struggle of the sport to command day-to-day coverage in the mainstream media.

For the first time we have multiple supporters of the Derby Awards. The HWPA would like to thank the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Coral, Ladbrokes and Vertem Asset Management.

But reading the work submitted by entries for the inaugural Alan Lee Trophy for Emerging Talent was a cure for racinginspired depression.

Without your backing this awards lunch would not be taking place.

The entries, and not just the six that made the shortlist of nominees, hailed from a range of backgrounds and they all worked for significantly different organisations.

As ever, the (hopefully) smooth running of this event is down to the hard work of a team who devote far too much of their own spare time without complaint to getting the show on the road.

However, the one thing they had in common and which shone through their work was an energetic, infectious enthusiasm and passion for the sport. I think Alan Lee, the late racing correspondent of The Times, would have thought so too.

I would like to thank David Cleary, Alan Crowhurst, Ben Cox, Graham Dench, Brian Goodwill and the unflappable Jennie Prest for ensuring things have slotted into place.

Our new Specialist Writer Award also attracted a strong entry, and I hope it has allowed the Derby Awards to better reflect the body of work created across the spectrum of racing media.

The new awards will hopefully help the HWPA to be more inclusive to the wider membership.

The next four hours (at least) are going to be a celebration of all that is good in the sport of racing, on and off the track, with a few laughs thrown in.

I hope you enjoy it.

Marcus Townend

I am delighted also to announce that we now have an agreement with Racing Welfare that our members can tap into their support structures on a range of problems from mental health issues to employment and financial worries.

Photographs by

Dan Abraham and www.cranhamphoto.com www.hwpa.org

@HorseraceMedia @HorseraceMedia

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One bank does more than support its clients.

Investec is proud to support the HWPA.

Private Banking I Wealth & Investment I Corporate & Investment Banking I Asset Management

investec.com

Investec Bank plc (Reg. no. 489604) is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registered at 30 Gresham Street, London, England, EC2V 7QP.Investec Wealth & Investment Limited (Reg. no. 2122340) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered at 30 Gresham Street, London, England, EC2V 7QN. Investec Asset Management Limited (Reg. no. 2036094) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered at Woolgate Exchange, 25 Basinghall Street, London, EC2V 5HA.

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HONG KONG

BY J A M C G R ATH

Hong Kong remains one of the great fascinations in world racing. The interest and excitement generated on major racedays at Sha Tin in the New Territories, or the weekly night meetings under lights in the midst of the city skyscrapers at Happy Valley, has never waned. The quality of thoroughbred purchased for Hong Kong, and the high standard of its racing, is ever on the increase.

Beauty Generation, voted local Horse Of The Year in 2018, is one of the modern day stars currently in action in Hong Kong. Last year, he was rated the fourth best horse in the world, after Cracksman, Winx and Accelerate. He is officially the joint-best ever to have run in Hong Kong.

World class jockeys, of the calibre of Joao Moreira and Zac Purton, are resident in Hong Kong, while champions such as Ryan Moore, Oisin Murphy, Silvestre de Sousa, Hugh Bowman, and Christophe Soumillon, are regular visitors for the big races throughout the season.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club was founded in 1884, and with the support of enthusiastic amateur riders, mainly from the British Army and the wealthy foreign companies being established on the China Coast, racing flourished at Happy Valley. Over decades, ponies were shipped in, gradually being replaced by thoroughbreds of a modest standard by the middle of the 20th Century.

However, the major turning point for Hong Kong racing came in 1971 when the game turned professional. In the 48 years since, racing has expanded and developed to the point that Hong Kong is now the envy of the racing world, with 88 racedays stretching from early September to mid-July, and now three racecourses under the Jockey Club’s control. Sha Tin opened in 1978, and last year, the finishing touches were applied to Conghua, a state-ofthe-art training centre on the outskirts of Guangzhou, China’s port city on the Pearl River.

The current season features 51 racedays at Sha Tin and 37 at Happy Valley. Sha Tin comfortably accommodates 70,000 racegoers, but the more intimate Valley track houses a maximum 42,000, and when the capacity is reached, red lights flash the message ‘House Full.’ The unique atmosphere of night racing at Happy Valley is hugely popular with locals and visitors alike.

Betting turnover in Hong Kong is astronomical by global standards, running to billions of dollars, and with growing interest in international racing, many of the world’s premier titles, such as the Arc, the Epsom Derby, the Melbourne Cup, as well as feature races from Royal Ascot, are also made available to punters.

The Hong Kong Derby has traditionally been the race most coveted by local owners. Scheduled to be run this season on March 22, it will attract the best-performed imports, most of whom will have enjoyed a season to settle into the local scene. For many years, the Derby has been exclusively for four-year-olds, and it is now the climax of the Hong Kong Classic Series, for which the first two legs are the Classic Mile and the Classic Cup, over 1m and 9f respectively.

But the showcase meeting of the entire season is the Hong Kong International Races fixture, run this year on Sunday at Sha Tin. Many of the world’s best will assemble to compete for huge prize money, in the 6f Sprint, the Mile, the 10f Cup and the mile-and-a-half Vase. Once a fledgling jurisdiction jostling for its place in the world order, Hong Kong is now firmly established as a racing capital of importance and influence.

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LANCASTER LONDON

MENU TWICE BAKED GRUYERE AND BLUE CHEESE SOUFFLÉ forest mushroom confit, grain mustard and arguala sauce

HONEY AND SZECHUAN PEPPER GLAZED DUCK BREAST parsnip puree, heritage carrots, potato croutons, crispy kale and Port wine sauce

ROASTED VEGETABLE WELLINGTON green asparagus, peas, broad beans and herb beurre blanc (V)

RASPBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE MACARON with chocolate sauce Coffee, tea, petit fours and miniature mince pies

WINES TREBBIANO CHARDONNAY 2016 LA PENSA CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2017

The Lancaster London has taken every possible step to ensure that no food served in the hotel contains genetically modified food and we have been assured by our suppliers that this is so.

Priority is given to those guests who have pre-ordered the vegetarian menu in advance.

Every effort will be made to accommodate last minute requests. However, we can not guarantee the above choice will be available.

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THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

Supported by

THE DERBY

AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon 9 .......................International Trainer of the Year 11.............................................Picture of the Year 19.............. Arabian Racing Achievement Award 21 ..........................................Reporter of the Year 25 ............................................Owner of the Year 30 ...................................... George Ennor Trophy 35 ............................................. Flat Jockey of the Year 39 ......................................................... Alan Lee Trophy 45 .........................................Jump Trainer of the Year 48 .................................. Gone But Not Forgotten 51....................................Flat Trainer of the Year 55 ..................................Jump Jockey of the Year 59 ............................Specialist Writer of the Year 63 ................................Photographer of the Year 73 .................................. Broadcaster of the Year 76 ........................................... President’s Award 79 ...............................Racing Writer of the Year

Toasts

THE QUEEN

By The Earl of Derby

Hosted by

CORNELIUS LYSAGHT 7

‘Serving the thoroughbred industry for more than 50 years’ The IRB are delighted to sponsor the International trainer category for the 39th year and send special congratulations to the four nominees for their international achievements in 2019

THIS YEAR’S NOMINATED TRAINERS ARE

Charlie Fellowes • John Gosden • David Menuisier • David Simcock • PR, marketing and event management for racecourses, trainers and industry stakeholders • Promotion of international races & development of new races around the globe • Services to many of the world’s top trainers, owners and breeders • Media service: provision of editorial copy and race data • Consultancy on international racecourse developments • Clients include Ascot Racecourse, Arlington Racecourse, Australian Turf Club, Bahrain Horse Racing Authority, Breeders’ Cup, British Champions Series, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, Dubai Racing Club, Epsom Racecourse, GBRI, Goodwood Racecourse, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Japan Racing Association, Jockey Club Of Saudi Arabia, Newmarket Racecourses, NYRA, Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club, Racing Victoria, Sandown Park Racecourse, Woodbine, York Racecourse & many of Europe’s leading trainers

01638 668881 EMAIL: enquiries@irbracing.com WEB: www.irbracing.com TEL:

ALTON HOUSE, 117 HIGH STREET, NEWMARKET, SUFFOLK, CB8 9WL 8

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

INTERNATIONAL TRAINER of the Year

CHARLIE FELLOWES

JOHN GOSDEN

DAVID MENUISIER

DAVID SIMCOCK

The overall tally of foreign prize money won by British horses in 2019 will be an unspectacular figure.

Provided some late season opportunities are grasped to see it sneak past the 2015 mark of £16.4 million, the total will be bigger than five of the previous ten. It will, however, come to little more than half of last year’s record of £29.7 million and, given the weakness of sterling and consequent greater lure of overseas targets, 2019 might fairly be described as a disappointing foreign campaign.

France continues to be the main port of call – we had over 500 runners there for the first time in 2017 and the final number of cross Channel raiders this year will be nearer the 600 mark. And while the odd destination loses its appeal – the Turkish International Racing Festival in Istanbul, off the agenda owing to an outbreak of glanders disease in 2018, attracted no British participation this year thanks to reduced purses and a change in travel allowance policy – at the same time fresh pastures are being discovered.

Only ten days ago, the Gulf state of Bahrain hosted the inaugural Bahrain International Trophy, and excitement is already beginning to build about the first running of the Saudi Cup Meeting in nearby Riyadh on February 29th 2020.

Who wouldn’t want to have a crack at the world’s first $20 million race or take part in its lucrative undercard?

Boundaries are being broken all the time – for instance, in September Jane Chapple-Hyam won over £90,000 in the Korea Cup in Seoul with a horse, Ambassadorial, with a British handicap mark of only 93 who she had picked up for a mere £21,000 at Tattersalls seven months earlier.

It is encouraging for the future that two of our contenders, Charlie Fellowes and David Menuisier, are both thirtysomethings making their debuts among the final four. Of those just missing out on a nomination, special mention should be made of Martyn Meade, winner of two French Groups 1s with Advertise and Technician; Roger Charlton, who plundered a pair of valuable Group 2 French prizes, including with Aspetar, one of three British-trained Group 1 scorers in Germany during the season; and David O’Meara, who scooped the not inconsiderable sum of £472,441 when Lord Glitters took third in the Dubai Turf at Meydan back in March.

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INTERNATIONAL TRAINER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY JAMES CRISPE, IRB

CHARLIE FELLOWES

JOHN GOSDEN

If there is one horse in training that deserves the mantle of ‘Britain’s Best Globetrotter’ it is surely Prince Of Arran. The son of Shirocco has been beaten on all 13 of his British outings since November 2016, yet during that three-year period his international exploits have become legendary.

There will be a certain irony should John Gosden win this award in a year when the magnificent Enable had finished ‘only’ second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the master of Clarehaven having missed out in each of Enable’s two previous, Arc triumphant, seasons.

They include two prolonged sojourns in both Australia and Dubai, one each to New York and Hong Kong, a pair of stunning placed efforts in the Melbourne Cup, and victories at Geelong, Flemington and Meydan. There is clearly something about air travel that gets his juices flowing, and he has acted as the perfect advertisement for the training talents of Charlie Fellowes, who had possessed a licence for under a year when Prince of Arran arrived as a yearling in late 2014.

However, there is no getting away from the fact that Gosden has enjoyed another fantastic overseas campaign and that the man who has already won this award on three occasions faced significantly weaker opposition in 2019.

Fellowes’ overseas season has not quite been a one-horse affair – he pouched over £100,000 worth of UAE prize money back in January and February thanks to a handicap win from Escalator and a Group 2 second from Mia Tesoro.

Aside from the £1 million cheque Enable earned when agonisingly denied her Parisian hat-trick, the performances of her stablemates when venturing across The Channel have been little short of scintillating.

Another five-year-old mare, Coronet, led the way with victories in both the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and the Prix Jean Romanet, while Anapurna, Star Catcher and Too Darn Hot enjoyed French Group 1 wins of their own to go with the French Group 2s annexed by Terebellum and Mehdaayih and Azano’s Group 3 score there.

Add Star Catcher’s Irish Oaks victory and Gosden must be in with a big chance of another International Trainer gong.

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THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

DAVID MENUISIER

DAVID SIMCOCK

Eighteen months ago, David Menuisier being one of our final four was about as likely as a universally well-received Brexit deal. At that point, the former Criquette Head and John Dunlop assistant had yet to win a single Pattern race.

It says much for David Simcock’s considerate training technique that, five years after he won this award partly through the achievements of Sheikhzayedroad, a horse who competed at the top level as a nine-year-old, he is again a contender via the exploits of Desert Encounter, seemingly better than ever in 2019 at the age of seven.

Then Thundering Blue popped up to land a Stockholm Cup and finish second in a Canadian International before Danceteria picked up the baton to become Menuisier’s international standard bearer in 2019.

Having begun the campaign as just a decent handicapper, Danceteria registered Listed and Group 3 triumphs at Maisons-Laffitte and Longchamp before giving his Sussex-based handler a first top level triumph in the Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in Munich in July.

Other big money foreign victories have come from even more unlikely sources. Menuisier saddled a pair of unheralded two-yearolds in an Arqana sales race at ParisLongchamp on Arc Saturday and returned to base £158,559 the richer after Into Faith and Luigi Vampa finished first and third.

Three weeks later Chief Ironside, winless in 15 months prior to joining the yard, landed a Group 2 event at Moonee Valley in Melbourne, and just a fortnight ago the stable enjoyed a double at Saint-Cloud.

Desert Encounter began his season in early March, with a Group 2 placing in Dubai, and he was still thriving seven months and seven races later when completing a Pattern race four-timer with a second win in the Grade 1 Canadian International in Toronto.

Simcock’s other primary contributor on the foreign stage has been Spanish Mission. Indeed, this three-year-old came up with the year’s most lucrative winning overseas performance by a British horse when landing the inaugural $1 million Jockey Club Derby at Belmont Park in early September.

The decision to choose this new American mile and a half contest ahead of the St Leger was fully vindicated when, despite jockey Jamie Spencer dropping his reins, Spanish Mission got up on the line to score by a nose.

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NEW EQTIDAAR

Invincible Spirit - Madany £6,500 (Jan 1st, SLF)

MUHAARAR

Oasis Dream - Tahrir £20,000 (Jan 1st, SLF)

MUKHADRAM

Shamardal - Magic Tree £6,000 (Jan 1st, SLF)

TASLEET

Showcasing - Bird Key £6,000 (Jan 1st, SLF)

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Discover more about the Shadwell Stallions at www.shadwellstud.com Or call Richard Lancaster, James O’Donnell or Tom Pennington on 01842 755913 Email us at: nominations@shadwellstud.co.uk

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

PICTURE of the Year

JOHN HOY

MEGAN RIDGWELL

PATRICK MCCANN

EDWARD WHITAKER

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PICTURE OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY PETER SCARGILL

PATRICK MCCANN This picture was taken at the first fence down the back straight Galway last October. It was a beginners’ chase and it was supposed to all be about Cheltenham Festival winner Blow By Blow, who was making his chasing debut. As it turned out it was a highly dramatic race in how it unfolded, with a loose horse from earlier cannoning into another horse and running along the apron of the fence, which caused all the problems.

Luke Dempsey is the jockey being jumped over and it’s a dramatic picture as you don’t see a jockey being jumped over everyday.

Fortunately everyone involved in the chaos was okay but I’ve never seen a picture like that before, which is why I chose it. To think Luke walked away unscathed is incredible really.

JOHN HOY The image is from Royal Ascot when it was belting down with rain on the second day. It is taken just after Crystal Ocean had won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and everyone is looking at the winning jockey Frankie Dettori, but I centred on the lad, who was clearly over the moon. I’ve brought him into focus, with Frankie in the distance.

Frankie was the main draw and everyone was taking pictures of him, but this lad is the one that looks after the horse all the time and has that close bond with him. His celebration is just as impressive and everybody knows what a tough job it is and that this is the pinnacle of the sport he’s celebrating at. The rain creates atmosphere and the emotion he is displaying shows everything we want to show about racing.

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THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

MEGAN RIDGWELL The picture is in the rain at Chelmsford under the floodlights. The horses are coming back after the race and the rain picked up massively at that point. I wanted to get the hot breath coming out of the nostrils of the horses and to show the rain, using a slow shutter speed against a black expanse, so went out knowing what I wanted.

It was a picture that I’d thought about, and I achieved what I wanted, so that’s why I entered it. I like to keep myself entertained by moving around to look for that right bit of background and atmosphere to get the right photograph. I’ve probably taken a photo from the same spot thousands of times, but the way it all came together made this one very satisfying.

EDWARD WHITAKER It was Lingfield Classic Trials day when I took this photo. It was the first race and you could see from the clouds that massive thunderstorms were brewing. They’re photographed coming down off the hill, as I love doing that for the Oaks and Derby trials, but you could see from that cloud that it was going to be something special - I mean, that cloud is epic.

This picture is all about the sky. It’s a particularly unusual angle and you can almost imagine seeing the bolts of lightning flashing around the sky. I take a lot of landscapes and skies, but I just felt this picture had everything going for it. The horses are really stretching at that point and that means there’s a lot of power in the image. It’s the drama of it and then 30 seconds later the heavens opened and it was gone.

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Congratulations to all the winners

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RACECOURSE UPDATE

HWPA

Results

Goodwood Golf Day

INDIVIDUAL 1ST Rob Earnshaw (44 points)

BY DAN ABRAHAM

2ND Paul Brown (43 pts) 3RD Robin Mounsey (41 pts) TEAM RESULTS 1ST Damien Mears, Rob Earnshaw, Jack O’Reilly & Ian Lowther (100 points)

They have gone close many times before, but the Racing Post team finally cracked it at the HWPA annual golf day at Goodwood with victory in the team competition.

Led home by Rob Earnshaw, who was the individual winner on the day with 44 pts, the team was completed by Damien Mears, Jack O’Reilly and Ian Lowther.

HWPA Champion Golfer of the Day was Steve Meehan, who with Dave Hoskyns, Darren Tilbury and Mark Gunning finished second in the team event.

One of the surprises of the day was third place in the individual competition for the BHA’s Robin Mounsey, who played one of the rounds of his life.

The Unibet Challenge for the best set of individual team scores on a specified hole went to the team of Nick Gifford, Andrew Barr, Andy Clifton and Sue Russell.

2ND David Hoskyns, Steve Meehan, Darren Tilbury & Mark Gunning (98 pts) 3RD Nigel Roddis, Martin Pickering, James Singer & Kevin Robertson (97 pts)

Additional Awards

Nearest the pin winner was Dan Abraham, while Adam Ward continued his domination of the race for the wooden spoon.

HWPA CHAMPION GOLFER OF THE YEAR Steve Meehan (36 points)

A big thanks to Qatar Racing and Unibet for sponsoring the event, and to Goodwood for allowing us to play at their wonderful golf course.

NEAREST THE PIN Dan Abraham

Thanks also to Stuart Gillett and his team, who made sure that everything ran smoothly and ended perfectly with a wonderful buffet.

WOODEN SPOON Adam Ward

TOURNAMENT PAST WINNERS 1996 .............Neil Morrice & guest, Dave Shopland 1997..............Monty Court, Jack Millan, Philip Mitchell 1998 .............Simon Clare, Jason Lock, Dave Paterson 1999 .............Rob Hartnett, Dave Haslett, Richard Weaver 2000............Brent Dolan & Dave Hoskyns 2001 .............Paul Ritchie, Mark Gunning & John Broadway 2002 ............Philip Mitchell, Richard Lytle, Steven Wilde 2003 ............Paul Ritchie, Mark Gunning & John Broadway 2004 ...........Bruce Jackson, Simon Clare, Andy Clifton, Rob Lester 2005 ............Paul Ritchie, Dave Hoskyns, Bev Ulrich and Ron Fruen 2006 ............Simon Wallis, Rishi Persad, Paul Hackshall, Sean Hackshall 2007 ...........Monty Court, Jeremy Chapman, Terry Probert, Philip Mitchell 2008 ............Josh Apiafi, Phil Martin, Mike Payne, Rowan Cope 2009 ............Dan Abraham, Josh Apiafi, Nathan Horrocks 2010 .............Jonathan Powell, Charles Fawcus, Merrick Haydon, Rod Kohl 2011 ..............Martin Pickering, Nick Mills, Simon Brydon, Steven Johnson 2012 .............Harry Walter, Sam Thomas, Will Kennedy, Mark Burridge 2013 .............Damian Mears, Kirk Flitton, Stuart Riley and Mick Riley 2014 .............Bellies In - Johnno Spence, Matt Frith, Gemma Waterhouse and Dan Abraham 2015 .............Short Arses - Mattie Bachelor, Graham Bradley and Paul Whiting 2016 .............Sandown - Richard Jacques, Will Petit, Tony Langenegger and Mark Burridge 2017..............Betfair - Martin Fisher, Tom Haslem, Jonathon Louden, Mathew Hopper 2018 .............Kieran O’Brien, John Rowe, Chris Piore and Richard Cosgrove 2019 .............Damien Mears, Rob Earnshaw, Jack O’Reilly & Ian Lowther

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A R A B I A N R A C I N G O R G A N I S A T I O N The Arabian Racing Organisation Limited (ARO) is the sole Arabian racing agency in the UK, operating under the regulatory authority of the British Horseracing Authority.

ARO runs a programme of full Arabian racedays and single Arabian races on thoroughbred cards from the spring through to autumn.

The 2019 UK International season featured eight PA Group races run at Doncaster, Goodwood, Newbury and Royal Windsor.

Now in it's sixth year, the Arabian Racing Achievement Award recognises the contribution to the sport of our champions and unsung heroes: 2019 - James Owen

2016 - HH Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum

- three times ARO Champion Trainer

- ARO patron & 18 times ARO Champion Owner

2018 - Gary Capewell - over 1000 ARO commentaries 2017 - The Royal Cavalry of Oman - long term sponsor and supporter of UK Arabian racing

Tel: 01635 524 445

2015 - Gill Duffield - 12 times ARO Champion Trainer 2014 - Notid - Arabian racehorse with over 100 starts

Email: info@aroracing.co.uk

www.aroracing.co.uk

The Arabian Racing Achievement Award

PRESENTED BY

JAMES OWEN Royal Cavalry of Oman Clarendon Stakes (Group 3PA) at Newbury. At the season’s close in September he regained the trainers’ title, which he has now won three times.

It is not just for his training achievements that Owen has been recognised. A former leading amateur rider with nine East Anglian point-to-point titles to his name and over 50 winning rides on Arabians, he is well aware of the importance of supporting young jockeys. He combines training Arabians in the summer and pointers in the winter with a successful pre-training yard, breaking yearlings for many of Newmarket’s thoroughbred trainers, and this steady yearround balance of riding opportunities has enabled him to develop a strong team of riders. Subsidising their gym membership, with the incentive of rides to reward gym attendance, has paid dividends, with all the 2019 jockey awards heading to his yard too.

After his career as a conditional jockey in Scotland stalled, Alex Chadwick returned to the amateur ranks, joining Owen’s yard hoping to pick up a few rides pointing. Not only did he taste success in that field, he became champion jockey in his first season riding Arabians.

Antonia Peck, who Owen had taught to ride, was champion lady jockey, whilst leading novice rider went to another Owen protégé in Hayley Lewis.

Though the majority of Owen’s winners have been for his principal patron, HH Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, he also champions the sport’s grassroots. Two years ago, he and his wife Jenny established the first multi-horse syndicate in Arabian racing, the James Owen Racing Club, with three horses. An instant success, the club has over 30 members, a number of whom attended almost every race this year, regardless of whether the club had a runner or not.

Saddling his first winner with his first runner back in 2015 and ending that season as leading newcomer, James Owen made an immediate impact as a trainer of Arabians. Trainers’ championships have followed, but it is this year that his career has fully blossomed.

It began well with his first overseas success, when Farhaa won in Belgium in April, and a steady stream of domestic winners has followed. At Dubai International Arabian Races at Newbury - UK Arabian racing’s equivalent of Champions Day - he trained the first three home in the opening contest and concluded the meeting as Baileys Horse Feeds leading trainer. In August, his first pattern victory arrived when Awzaan and Martin Dwyer were decisive winners of the

The club’s first winner in 2018 was My Boy Sam, a homebred of Owen’s parents, whilst in 2019 Tijaary has proved their flagship horse and was crowned champion Arabian. Following a career ending injury early last year, their Dolfina D’Ibos was retired to stud, so the club now also boasts its’ own breeding programme. A first foal was born this year, and another is on the way for 2020.

To further underline the work ethic at Green Ridge Stables, the comprehensive success of Owen’s team also extends to winning the Racing Welfare best turned out awards championship for the last two seasons.

by Debbie Burt 19

CONG RATUL ATIO NS TO AL L TODAY ’S HW PA DER BY AWA R DS NO M I NEE S A ND WI NNE RS F RO M EVERYO NE AT ASCOT.

Blue Point becomes the first horse since Choisir to land the King’s Stand / Diamond Jubilee double at Royal Ascot.

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

REPORTER

of the Year

BILL BARBER

LEE MOTTERSHEAD

CHRIS COOK

MARCUS TOWNEND

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REPORTER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS Issue No. 11,246

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discu mmented on Nick Rust co wins the day Brain Power Cheltenham Chris Cook at •

Stories are sometimes just handed to you. That’s how it was with the one about Cheltenham moving the second-last fence to reduce risk at the Festival, which someone unconnected with the track found out about and mentioned in the middle of a casual conversation.

Well, not absolutely correct. For those who think journalists exaggerate everything, the original story had spoken of a £15 million black hole, a figure which had come from one source and which another contact had subsequently told me was “in the right ballpark”.

It turned out I had pitched the figure £2m too low.

Officials feel powerless after

Tue 9 Jul 2019 13.44 BST

My story on racing’s shock £17 million levy drop came from a conversation with a contact who I had originally called about something else completely.

The story that appeared in the paper was not the original, as not long after it was published on the Racing Post website a statement appeared from British racing which confirmed my initial story had been correct.

•

Exclusive by Chris Cook

CHRIS COOK

For the next few days I made calls to various people, gleaning information but nothing I could attribute to anybody. However, by the end of the week I was happy I had enough to write a story and made contact with the relevant people to warn them to expect something on our website later that morning.

22

Concerns raised over deceptions at licensed stables case dropped in 2014

BILL BARBER

It was in the midst of that chat that the possibility of racing having received bad news over the levy was mentioned - as I recall the words “black hole” were used.

‘If you can make any

Exclusive by Chris Cook

TWO-M CHASE

BRITISH racing’s leaders have launched an urgent plan of action after receiving the bombshell news that income from the levy – the sport’s central funding system – has fallen unexpectedly

The birch goes flying at Taun the season. All ton the stories from during the first hunter chase yesterday in of Talk of the the Tr Track acks, ack s, page page 10

•

i

to row back on

As that conversation took place at the races, I feel it’s a point in favour of going racing as often as possible. You certainly have more chance of finding out things at the track than by working the phones and following Twitter, but it almost seems these days that going racing in midweek is a luxury for journalists, because we’re all under pressure of time and we have to keep the expenses down. Many press rooms aren’t nearly as busy as they should be.

The Cheltenham story was a pleasure to write because it shows effort and expertise being employed by a great racecourse in the cause of ensuring a fair test for horses and jockeys. Most of the time, getting a story means you’ll be annoying somebody and from time to time I end up annoying one or more people at the British Horseracing Authority, the focus of my other two stories.

I don’t like annoying anyone and the folk in their communications department are almost saintly in the patience they show me. But powerful folk must be held to account and I reckon the BHA isn’t subjected to enough oversight, so I’ll continue to take an interest in how power is wielded there and the impact it has on racing.

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

QQQ

Bloodstock bombshell: leaked BHA report calls for action to halt activities of ‘a small number of unscrupulous individuals who pose a real risk to the integrity and reputation of the entire industry’

By Lee Mottershead

practice is irrelevant irrelevant’

A DAMNING light has been shone on the buying and selling of bloodstock in Britain with a BHA report calling for changes to an industry that is barely regulated, tarnished by unscrupulous individuals and populated by some players who are engaged in impr practices that are potentially cr

Those were among the most stinging findings submitted to the BHA by former top policeman Justin Felice, who has urged key stakeholder groups to accept the bloodstoc should be regulated b

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threat due to the actions of a dangerous minority. According to the report, the major sales companies Tattersalls and nise the need for reform. he conclusions and ecommendations made in t 

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a review which culminated in a report that is most critical of bloodstock agents – five per cent of whom, it is

purpose”, with agents, in ef entirely unregulated  Many industry participants admitt they had been victims of unet practices – or kne been – of 

G N I Y R C E TH participants appear to display high standards of integrity.

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RACECOURSES are pressing for action over what they claim is the unauthorised flying of drones on their property.

Tracks claim that drones carrying cameras can stream pictures to their owners faster than conventional TV footage, which is delayed as it is beamed

EXCLUSIVE

By MARCUS TOWNEND Racing Correspondent

form of gambling called ‘in-running betting’, which takes place on betting exchanges, whose customers can place bets anywhere on computers or phones.

Drones have been seen at Leicester, Southwell and Wolverhampton.

A spokesman for leading

CALAMITY

The sales ring has to change. If it does, and it absolutely should, I would like to think reporting played a significant part.

Agony: Kane feels the pain after clash with Jones

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EXCLUSIVE

by MARCUS END nt TOWNrre sponde

Timing is everything in sport, and in journalism as well sometimes. Writing about drones on racecourses shortly after the disruption at Gatwick airport caused by them meant the story had a lot more interest than I had originally imagined!

As I type this three months later the report has still not been published. That underlines why it was crucial we lifted the lid when the opportunity arose.

FULL STORY — SEE p pA AgE 70

KANE R

One of the benefits of having been around for a while in journalism is that people tell you stuff. One of my great fortunes is that what they tell me is often very interesting.

The report needed to be read and interpreted rapidly. In one of the busiest but most exciting days I have experienced, the reading and interpreting led to the production of a big scoop and a series of pieces that told the racing and bloodstock world what Felice had found and recommended.

«

RACECOURSES VOW TO TA KE ACTION

MARCUS TOWNEND

Like many others, I had been keen to see Justin Felice’s report into bloodstock malpractice. We knew it had been submitted to the BHA and that a handful of individuals in the industry had read it. Such a hot document is always liable to be leaked. Fortunately, in mid-August it was leaked to me.

racecourse group ARC said: ‘The broadcast rights of our live action are a key part of our business, so we consider this unauthorised filming and broadcast as theft.’

unfair edge’ to satellites and back. This gives anyone receiving the pictures an edge over gamblers they are betting against. It is a

LEE MOTTERSHEAD

Two years ago people started to tell me about the shocking practices they regularly encountered when buying and selling horses. They confided in me because they felt unable to put their heads above the parapet but wanted their voices heard. With the help of a few brave people who were prepared to be quoted, I wrote about corruption, wrongdoing and unethical behaviour. This year I wrote about it again.

Daily Mail, Wednesday, January 16, 2019

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The story even made the Radio 4 Today Programme! There were a few follow-ups too surrounding how the top courses were preparing to counter drones at the major meetings.

My research got off to a bad start though. Arriving at Leicester, I went to the middle of the course with photographer Dan Abraham to get a closer look at the building on the back straight used by the drone operators with links to in-running betting.

They were there but when they did not fly a drone during the first race I thought we may have spooked them and that I may have had a wasted trip. However, when we retreated to the grandstand it was lift-off in the second race!

The story I entered about Kieran Shoemark failing a drugs test for cocaine was elevated by him having ridden for the Queen. Having heard rumours of the story, it took a bit of patience to confirm so the main worry was one of my fellow nominees finding out!

My third submitted story was about Mahmoud Al Zarooni, who has been exiled from the sport since admitting using anabolic steroids on his horses. His pleas for clemency came in the week of the St Leger, a race won by Encke, one of the horses he was found to have given the steroids.

As I said, it’s all about timing.

23

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

OWNER

Supported by

of the Year

KHALID ABDULLAH

KING POWER RACING

ANDREW GEMMELL

BJORN NIELSEN

25

OWNER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY BILL BARBER

KHALID ABDULLAH

ANDREW GEMMELL

To have one iconic racehorse is the dream of any racehorse owner but that dream has become a reality not just once but three times for KhalId Abdullah.

The third day of the 2019 Cheltenham Festival will never be forgotten by those privileged enough to have witnessed it first hand.

His green, white and pink silks have been carried by Frankel, Dancing Brave and now Enable, who may not have the same lofty rating as those two wonderful colts but over the last three years has cemented herself in the hearts of racing fans like few others.

The victory of Frodon and Bryony Frost in the Ryanair Chase raised the roof but was matched for emotion in the very next race by the success of Paisley Park for owner Andrew Gemmell in the Sun Racing Stayers’ Hurdle.

Her owner’s sporting decision to keep her in training rather than rush her away to the breeding shed has been key to that popularity and helped ignite the 2019 Flat season.

Gemmell has been blind from birth but that has not prevented him travelling the world to satisfy his love of sport, whether it be football, cricket, tennis or racing.

Enable’s victory over old rival Magical in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown and her narrow success in the King George, where she got the better of Crystal Ocean after the pair duelled down the Ascot straight, were among the chief highlights of the entire year.

In the Emma Lavelle-trained Paisley Park Gemmell has a horse who has also shrugged off adversity to provide him with sporting moments to cherish.

In October, the eyes of the racing world turned to Paris where Enable was a hot favourite to win an unprecedented third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

However, the mud at Longchamp proved her undoing as she faded close home and was beaten by Waldgeist.

Many thought that was the last time they would see Enable race but the wonderful news soon came that her owner had decided she would stay in training with John Gosden for another season.

However, 30 years on since Charming Native provided Abdullah with a first British winner, 2019 was not just about one horse for the ownerbreeder and his Juddmonte team.

Enable’s stablemate Logician looks as if he will himself be a force to be reckoned with in next season’s middle-distance highlights after a commanding success in the William Hill St Leger.

Connections had once feared the seven-year-old might not survive a bout of colic but, having been nursed back, he blossomed last jumps season.

Paisley Park began the campaign with handicap wins at Aintree and Haydock before stepping up successfully to Grade 1 company in the JLT Hurdle at Ascot. A 12-length romp in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham then set him up for a return to the course at the festival, where he was sent off the 11-8 favourite.

During the race Gemmell stood in the parade ring surrounded by friends and well-wishers, listening intently to the commentary while those around him began to go berserk as Aidan Coleman and Paisley Park drew away on the run-in.

“It’s wonderful, a real dream for me,” an emotional Gemmell said afterwards. “I can’t believe it’s happened.”

And the Juddmonte production line continued to deliver exciting horses with Quadrilateral a leading Classic contender after winning the bet365 Fillies’ Mile.

It promises to be another great year for them in 2020 and, who knows, Enable may yet win that third Arc. 26

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

KING POWER RACING

BJORN NIELSEN

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s tragic death in a helicopter crash in October 2018 robbed the sports of racing and football of a friend and benefactor.

Bjorn Nielsen enjoyed a year with Stradivarius which was in many ways a carbon copy of 2018 but for one detail - he lost a race.

Nevertheless, he was the dominant force in the staying division, and the sporting manner in which he was campaigned throughout sees Nielsen among the nominations for Owner of the Year once again.

It is a great sadness that he is not able to see how brilliantly his Leicester City are performing in the Premier League, nor how well the horses which run under the banner of the King Power Racing operation he created performed in 2019.

The Thai businessman swiftly built King Power into one of the leading forces within British racing and their blue and white colours were a familiar sight in the best races and at the best meetings throughout the season.

Morando, Fox Champion, Bangkok, Mystery Power, Shine So Bright and Beat The Bank all won Group races during the spring and summer, although the last-named sadly suffered fatal injuries in winning the Summer Mile at Ascot.

There was also victory in the valuable John Smith’s Diamond Jubilee Cup at York thanks to Pivoine and an emotional win at Royal Ascot, one of Srivaddhanaprabha’s favourite occasions, courtesy of Cleonte in the Queen Alexandra Stakes, after which the late owner’s family carried his picture into the winner’s enclosure.

However, it was in October that the most poignant success of the year came for King Power Racing.

The Andrew Balding-trained Donjuan Triumphant, the first horse bought by the man known affectionately as “The Chairman”, secured King Power Racing its debut Group 1 success with victory in the Qipco British Champions Sprint at Ascot at odds of 33-1.

Just as in 2018, Stradivarius warmed up for the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot with victory in the Yorkshire Cup in May. As ever the John Gosden-trained five-year-old did just what was required to win the highlight of the royal meeting, overcoming trouble in running to crown an incredible winning run for his jockey Frankie Dettori which caused palpitations in bookmaker trading rooms across the land.

From then on the £1 million bonus put up by Weatherbys Hamilton which the son of Sea The Stars had won for his owner in 2018 was the target again.

Stradivarius won a third Qatar Goodwood Cup, with Ascot runner-up Dee Ex Bee filling the same position again, although he got to within a neck this time.

At York in August Dee Ex Bee was again in opposition and was again the horse to chase Stradivarius home in the Lonsdale Cup, landing another seven-figure bonus for connections. Unsurprisingly the offer will not be on the table again in 2020.

Stradivarius then completed what was once regarded as the stayers’ triple crown with victory in the Doncaster Cup to make it ten wins on the trot.

That was to be Donjuan Triumphant’s final appearance on a racecourse as he is now preparing for his next career as a stallion in France.

However, all good things come to an end and, like his stablemate Enable, Stradivarius could not keep up his winning run, going down by a nose to Kew Gardens in Ascot’s Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup.

However, King Power Racing is set to continue, with Srivaddhanaprabha’s son Aiyawatt - known widely as “Top” - having chosen to maintain his father’s interests in both racing and football.

His owner breeder may be based in the United States, having got there via South Africa and Epsom, but he has made Britain the centre of his racing interests.

We wish them continued success.

And British racing can look forward to seeing Stradivarius back again next year.

27

NEW CUSTOMER OFFER

2 0 1 9 H W PA

SUPPORTED BY At a little before five o’clock on the Thursday of York’s Ebor meeting, the outcome of the 2019 RaceBets HWPA Tipping Competition was settled beyond much doubt.

Excellent Times’ success was a surprise to nearly all on the Knavesmire, but not to Tom Peacock. Excellent Times was 66-1, but Tom made him his nap of the day, and that gave him the York prize, to add to an earlier win in the Cheltenham leg.

It gave Tom a huge lead in the overall competition, one he maintained in the final leg at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting. His winning tally was a superb profit of £139.24 to a £1 stake after discarding his worst score.

Tom was one of 18 players who won a prize of some sort during the competition.

Jon Lees and Matt Brocklebank landed the inaugural ‘Slams’, for the best performances in the top Jumps races and the Classics respectively.

Jon was also victorious at Royal Ascot, edging out Ian Carnaby by little more than a pound over the 30 races.

The St Leger battle was similarly tight, Julian Armfield prevailing over Sue Russell, while Bill Selwyn (Aintree), Arthur Jones (Newmarket July) and last year’s overall winner Nigel Spencer (Guineas/Derby) were other winners of individual competitions.

Special mention should go to Ben Hutton, who landed the Goodwood round with a profit of £91.88 - excellent tipping over the five days, highlighted by napping 20-1 winner Deirdre in the Nassau Stakes.

The HWPA would once again like to thank RaceBets for their generous backing of the annual tipping competition, which was supported by more members than ever before.

It will be back next year, so watch out for details in January.

The George Ennor Trophy for Outstanding Achievement

LISA HANCOCK

BY BROUGH SCOTT IJF CHAIRMAN 2013-19

30

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

Today Lisa Hancock is being rightly celebrated for masterminding the opening of Peter O’Sullevan House in her role as chief executive of the Injured Jockeys Fund. But her achievements go back a long way, beginning with a horse named Richard Hunt on whom she won 24 point to points over six seasons, as well as a hunter chase at Ascot in March 1994.

A year later she and Richard Hunt parted company three out in the four-miler at Cheltenham, a race whose 16 other casualties included Andrew Balding, David Pipe and a 17- year old Richard Johnson. Lisa herself had begun point-to-pointing as a 16-year-old and only gave it up 12 years later when she became the first female clerk of the course at Newmarket at the ripe old age of 28.

She had been just 22 when she started in racing administration as clerk of the course at Warwick, where duties could stretch to cleaning the loos. Lisa soon stood out for her energy, intellect, friendliness and racing savvy, but for all her success at Warwick, and then during stints at Haydock, Chester and Aintree, her arrival at Newmarket was still something of a culture shock. After a few weeks she decided it was time for the carping to stop, summoned all the staff into a meeting and said: “I have two options for you. Either go on muttering behind my back and I will pick you off one by one, or we grow up and work together.” They chose the latter option.

Her eight years at Newmarket culminated in the design and delivery of the much-praised new layout of the July Course. By then she also had two children so this seemed a good point to take time out for motherhood. Fortunately for racing, and in particular for the Injured Jockeys Fund, this did not prove to be a permanent absence.

For after 40 years of involvement with the Injured Jockeys Fund, our chief executive, Jeremy Richardson, was soon due for retirement, and

his would be very big shoes to fill. With her CV, Lisa could go off and run Cheltenham or Longchamp, but after she helped me with a review of our activities, the thought occurred that she just might be able to fit the IJF into her schedule. I have made plenty of dud decisions in my life but getting Lisa Hancock to succeed Jeremy Richardson was not amongst them.

She took over soon after the 2009 opening of Oaksey House and was immediately confronted with the challenge of the inevitable teething troubles and the constant need for the 140-mile cross country drive from Newmarket. When we finally had the place into a settled pattern Lisa turned to me and said: “I don’t think I would want to do another of those anytime soon.” Jack Berry House opened in Malton in 2014 and Peter O’Sullevan House followed this summer!

But Lisa’s role has been much, much more than creating rehab centres. The clue to the Injured Jockeys Fund lies in the adjective in the title. Helping the short term and long term effects on riders and their families will always lie at the heart of our mission, and while it needs serious organisational ability to link up the work of the eight IJF almoners across the country, it above all needs sympathy and understanding. In her own riding career Lisa knew the wing-down feeling of a broken collar bone, the limp uselessness of the fractured wrist and the lingering fuzziness of concussion. She understands.

We are lucky to have her.

31

CONGRATULATIONS CHAMPION FLAT JOCKEY 2019

OISIN MURPHY

FLYING TO SAVE YOUNG LIVES We are an inter-hospital transfer service

Helping babies and children across the UK

Your support makes every mission possible

To donate or for more information visit

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Registered Company No. 4845905. Registered Charity No. 1098874.

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Supported by

FLAT JOCKEY of the Year

FRANKIE DETTORI

OISIN MURPHY

HOLLIE DOYLE

DANNY TUDHOPE

35

FLAT JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY LEE MOTTERSHEAD

FRANKIE DETTORI

HOLLIE DOYLE

There is no jockey like Frankie Dettori - and in 2019 no jockey enjoyed a year like Frankie Dettori.

By her own admission, Hollie Doyle did not make a particularly auspicious start to her career. Self-confidence was missing and so were winners. Doyle feared she was simply not good enough. She does not think that now. Nor does anyone else.

This was the season in which he soared higher than ever before.

On rare occasions he also sank low, but thanks to a wonderfully unexpected decision taken by Khalid Abdullah, there is every chance the year to come could be as memorable for Dettori as the one soon to end.

The entire European campaign was always leading to one moment, the point at which Enable would seek to become the first triple winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. A glorious piece of history was so nearly made, only for it to be snatched away in the final strides.

Dettori was left devastated, as he later was when coming agonisingly close to a first Melbourne Cup success. On so many other days the 48-year-old veteran ruled his sport.

In 2001, when very much a boy in blue, Dettori enjoyed 16 victories at the highest level. That represented his record total until he surpassed it when steering his Oaks winner Anapurna to Group 1 glory on Arc eve at Longchamp. In the preceding months he had mopped up massive prizes, three of them on Enable, who was never more magnificent than in that epic King George at Ascot, where just a few weeks earlier Dettori had won the first four races on Gold Cup day.

The show he put on that afternoon, and on so many other afternoons, gave us the season’s constant theme. The rider whose career once looked finished was a man reborn.

With Enable staying in training as a six-year-old, the renaissance and revival are set to continue. All roads may once again lead to the first Sunday in October. Watching Dettori’s journey to Paris should be thoroughly engrossing.

36

The daughter of former jockey Mark Doyle received her race-riding education aboard ponies and Arabian horses. When making the switch to thoroughbreds success was initially slow to come. Across her first three years on the track she rode just six winners, more than many do but not enough to make people sit up and take notice.

Everything changed in 2016. An alliance with Richard Hannon was instrumental in raising her profile and winner haul. She tasted victory on 33 occasions. The following year her tally had risen to 59, while in 2018 there were 54 triumphs, including one at the Shergar Cup. Midway through that year she joined forces with Archie Watson, while still maintaining a link with Hannon. By doing so she laid the foundations for a marvellous 2019.

Eleven days ago Doyle became only the third female Flat jockey to record a century of wins in a calendar year, her landmark success coming appropriately on a two-year-old of Watson’s on the allweather, where she excels. By the time you read this she might have eclipsed Josephine Gordon’s record 106. Watson listens to what she says, he trusts her advice and she repays that trust. Trainer and jockey have become a potent team.

Doyle and her jockey-partner Tom Marquand are very different characters. He is supremely laid-back. She is a worrier who frets about the extent to which she has cemented her status among the sport’s most respected riders.

She surely has no need to fret. After a slow start Doyle is speeding along.

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

OISIN MURPHY

DANNY TUDHOPE

British racing has a new Flat champion jockey. It was obvious in not just Oisin Murphy’s riding, but also the way he spoke, behaved and represented his sport, that the new champion is one more than worthy of wearing the crown.

Frankie Dettori was not the only jockey to enjoy a magnificent Royal Ascot. Just ask Danny Tudhope.

At some point Flat racing will need a new face. Frankie Dettori turns 49 later this month, and although riding better than ever, he cannot go on forever. Murphy, around half his rival’s age at just 24, has expressed a willingness to pick up the baton. “Regardless of being a good jockey, it’s important to me to be a good person,” he said in a Racing Post interview. Yes indeed. Murphy is more than good enough to fly the flag.

In 2019 he could not quite match the showpiece success he enjoyed in 2018, when the ill-fated Roaring Lion carried him to Group 1 delight on four occasions. The major wins were harder to find but winning in general was something Murphy did better than anyone, and just a week ago he added a Japan Cup on Suave Richard to the earlier Nassau Stakes success of the Japanese-trained Dierdre.

He had been honest in stating he yearned to become champion, and through talent and hard work he made it happen, eventually pulling clear of Danny Tudhope to take the title by a handsome margin.

On the day he lifted the trophy it was obvious the son of Killarney has amassed a sizeable fan base, perhaps in part because he has a sense of humour and an immense likeability. Qipco British Champions Day racegoers formed a long queue as they waited for an autograph and a picture with the table topper. One of them, Doncaster’s Cory Cole, had met Murphy once before and summed him up nicely.

“He is a good guy and a grafter,” she said. “What I find lovely is he always has time to talk. For me, he is what racing is all about.”

This was not a breakthrough year for Tudhope, for that happened some time ago. It was, however, the year in which the northern ace shone brighter than ever before on the sport’s biggest stages, where he was as regularly impressive as he is on a Monday afternoon at Ripon, Catterick or Redcar.

Multiple victories at those tracks - and at many others - ensured that for much of the title season Tudhope looked to be a real contender for the champion jockey’s crown. He was odds-on briefly, and while Oisin Murphy ultimately drew clear Tudhope still finished the campaign not only a clear second but also one of only two jockeys to bag a three-figure total of winners.

Four of his victories were landed at the royal meeting, the most important coming in the opening race on the opening day. Lord Glitters’ triumph in the Queen Anne Stakes came for long-time boss David O’Meara, but Tudhope is a man in demand, as was evident as the festival progressed. His next two Royal Ascot winners were posted on horses - Addeybb and Move Swiftly - trained by keen fan William Haggas, while Jersey Stakes glory aboard Space Traveller rewarded Clipper Logistics supremo Steve Parkin, who admires Tudhope enough to pay him a retainer.

Much later in the year there was further proof of how far Tudhope has come - and also his work ethic. On October’s last Tuesday he had two rides in minor races at Southwell. On November’s first Friday and Saturday he was in action at Santa Anita’s Breeders’ Cup. It was not a winning week. During most of the year’s other weeks Tudhope could not stop winning.

If so, racing is in very good hands.

37

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The Alan Lee Trophy for

EMERGING TALENT

N O M I N ATI O N S

The desire to recognise the work of younger members of the HWPA fuelled the creation of the Emerging Talent award, which is part of the Derby Awards for the first time in 2019, and the response to its introduction lived up to expectations.

The award is open to anyone working in the wide landscape of the racing media, be it broadcast, photography, social media or the traditional written forms.

HARRY ALLWOOD

RONAN GROOME

Entrants must be under 30 and from an excellent range of entries the only disappointment is that there can only be one winner.

The judges had the near impossible task of choosing between the likes Harry Allwood, Paddy Von Behr, Alayna Cullen, Oliver O’Donoghue, Jonathan Harding, Ronan Groome and Andrew Wilsher.

MARK BOYLAN

JONATHAN HARDING

Like the equally impressive Francesca Altoft, Mark Boylan, Brian Sheerin and James Stevens, the one common denominator from all entries was enthusiasm and passion for the sport which shone through the submissions.

The winner will receive the Alan Lee Trophy, named after the late racing correspondent of The Times, and we can be that certain Alan would have been both impressed by the form of the field for his award, and encouraged about the future health of the racing media.

ALAYNA CULLEN

PADDY VON BEHR

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EMERGING TALENT

THE NOMINATIONS

HARRY ALLWOOD MARK BOYLAN

ALAYNA CULLEN

How old are you? 24

How old are you? 22

How old are you? 27

What first sparked your interest in racing?

My dad used to have a share in a couple of horses when I was younger and he took me racing from an early age. I have been hooked ever since!

What first sparked your interest in racing?

I don’t have a racing background, but from as early as I can remember it’s been a massive passion. Plenty of my early childhood was spent re-enacting Gold Cups and Classics with toy horses, and unfortunately the footage of my hugely enthusiastic commentaries is on tape at home!

What first sparked your interest in racing?

I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm.

My grandparents have always had a few broodmares and my earliest memory of horses is ‘helping’ bring those mares in from the field by holding the end of the lead rope while my aunts did the actual work

What was your first job in racing?

I began working freelance with the online team at Racing UK (as it was at the time) in 2017 Where are you working now, and what do you do?

I still work for Racing TV, but I now have a full-time role working as a Website and Social Media Content Editor. I am responsible for the majority of Racing TV’s output on social media and write regularly for the website as well as keeping it up to date What are you particularly proud of having done in the last 12 months?

I feel incredibly lucky to work in the industry and to have secured the Website and Social Media Content Editor role when Racing UK changed over to Racing TV on January 1 is my career highlight so far Who are your racing heroes?

I have always had a soft spot for Sprinter Sacre, who had an incredible career, and Sir AP McCoy has always been my hero in racing.

What would be your dream job in racing?

The job I have now! Although I would love to be a regular pundit on Racing TV too.

40

What was your first job in racing?

After an interview about some songs I’d written about racing, The Sporting Post, a national horse racing newspaper in South Africa, were very kind to have me as a contributor on British/Irish racing when I was 15.

Where are you working now, and what do you do?

I’m delighted to be working as a full-time journalist for the Racing Post in Ireland. The job is fairly diverse, involving news shifts, raceday reporting, tipping and analysis work, feature writing, as well as podcast and video contributions. Separately, I’m also involved in the running of leading trainer Willie McCreery’s website.

What are you particularly proud of having done in the last 12 months?

Graduating from my four-year Journalism and New Media course at the University of Limerick Who are your racing heroes?

Kauto Star and Lie Forrit. Sir Henry Cecil and Sir AP McCoy What would be your dream job in racing?

When I appeared on The Morning Line as a 13-year-old I told Nick Luck that I’d love his job and the ambition to become a strong enough broadcaster to achieve even a fraction of what he’s done still exists

What was your first job in racing?

I spent a summer working for Paul Deegan when he was training on the Curragh. It was a completely different ball game to breeding stock but a great experience Where are you working now, and what do you do?

I am working at Thoroughbred Daily News as their marketing manager. My job encompasses advertising, marketing, videography, social media content, brand promotion and writing.

What are you particularly proud of having done in the last 12 months?

I have worked on some amazing video projects this year including On The Lead, where the people who work the sales circuit get to tell us their story, After The Winning Post, where I found out what ex-racehorses are doing in retirement, and Behind The Scenes at the British Racing School, which followed the journey of students as they navigated a course at the school Who are your racing heroes?

Enable and Mark Johnston What would be your dream job in racing?

I would love to be a racing presenter. In addition I have a dream to build a successful training business with my partner

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

RONAN GROOME JONATHAN HARDING How old are you? 29

What first sparked your interest in racing?

Red Marauder’s attritional 2001 Grand National. There’d be blue murder if it happened today but as a 10-year-old, the drama of the whole thing sucked me in

How old are you? 23

What first sparked your interest in racing?

My parents worked for David Barons, so I was exposed to racing at an early age, with photos of horses such as Seagram and Playschool on our kitchen wall. However, it was while training as a journalist that I began following the sport more closely

What was your first job in racing?

I spent some time on work experience at Ger Lyons’s yard one summer but it was too much hard work! I then had an internship position working for Donn McClean which got my racing journalism career moving

What was your first job in racing?

My first full-time job in racing was as an intern with the Racing Post, who I joined in 2018

Where are you working now, and what do you do?

I work as a racing journalist for the Irish Field in Dublin. I’m based in the office and operate as sub editor as well as writing features, previews and news

Where are you working now, and what do you do?

I am a trainee journalist with the Racing Post, dividing my time between production shifts drawing pages and subbing copy, reporting and producing features

What are you particularly proud of having done in the last 12 months?

I got to have a short one-to-one interview with Aidan O’Brien, which was something of a dream come true

What are you particularly proud of having done in the last 12 months?

I am particularly proud of being part of the team sent to Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Even though Enable finished second, the atmosphere was unforgettable

Who are your racing heroes?

Denman is the greatest 3m+ chaser of my lifetime so he is a hero to me. His second Hennessy is my favourite sporting moment. Sir AP McCoy was always my favourite jockey. So much so, when I was 12, I took Anthony for my confirmation name What would be your dream job in racing?

I like the job I have at the moment. A raceplanning/racing manager job could be the dream position but you can’t really complain when you get to watch and write about racing for a living

Who are your racing heroes?

I remember huddling around the TV to watch the titanic battles between Denman and Kauto Star at the Cheltenham Festival, and they were both chasing royalty. Richard Johnson for his consistency to ride at the highest level for so many years and for being so accommodating with the press. He is a great ambassador What would be your dream job in racing?

My dream job in racing would be as a senior writer, producing feature interviews, special reports and travelling abroad to report on big meetings such as the Breeders’ Cup

PADDY VON BEHR How old are you? 29

What first sparked your interest in racing?

Initially a penchant for a bet as a teenager; later, the epic duels between Denman, Kauto Star and their contemporaries – and the remarkable exploits of Big Buck’s What was your first job in racing?

Working behind the bar at Cheltenham after sixth form and offering up dodgy tips to the punters Where are you working now, and what do you do?

The Times. I joined as a sub-editor on the sports desk in early 2016 and still spend the majority of each week there. This year I also began writing racing features and covering big race days when the time allows it What are you particularly proud of having done in the last 12 months?

Writing and compiling our supplement for day one of this year’s Cheltenham Festival, which was a brilliant production. In the build-up, I also took a few trips to Ditcheat to chart how the best in the business prepare a Gold Cup contender – the result was very pleasing and formed part of my submission for this award Who are your racing heroes?

Paul Nicholls for training the horses that grabbed my attention; Frankie Dettori for transcending the sport like no one else in my lifetime; Thistlecrack for that breathtaking King George; Labaik for winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle despite being a mad bastard; Urban Sea for being the mother of all mothers What would be your dream job in racing?

Ed Chamberlin’s

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GREAT BRITISH RACING PROUD TO SPONSOR THE HWPA AWARDS CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL TODAY’S WINNERS AND NOMINEES

HWPA DERBY AWARDS

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF TODAY’S AWARD WINNERS

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Supported by

JUMP TRAINER of the Year

GORDON ELLIOTT

DAN SKELTON

PAUL NICHOLLS

WILLIE MULLINS

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JUMP TRAINER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY KEVIN BLAKE

GORDON ELLIOTT

PAUL NICHOLLS

Gordon Elliott’s rise up the National Hunt training ranks has been one of the most remarkable stories of recent decades in Irish National Hunt racing. The son of a panel beater who was no more than an average jockey at best, he clearly had his eyes and ears open when working for Tony Martin and Martin Pipe, as his fortunes were transformed in no uncertain terms when he turned to training.

Paul Nicholls has been at the top end of the British National Hunt training ranks for the better part of 20 years now, and one of the things that makes him so unique amongst top-class racehorse trainers is how unapologetically competitive he is.

Indeed, perhaps only a young Aidan O’Brien has enjoyed a rise through the ranks to compare to Elliott’s in terms of its speed and impact, for having burst onto the scene by saddling Silver Birch to win the Aintree Grand National in 2007, having not trained a single winner in Ireland at that point, he was firmly established as a top five trainer in Ireland by the 2010/11 campaign.

Elliott’s progression has been relentless and he soon emerged as the biggest challenger to the dominance of Willie Mullins. Indeed, he pushed Mullins all the way to the final day of the season in the trainer’s championship in both 2016/17 and 2017/18, training a remarkable 210 winners in Ireland in the latter campaign. While he came up just short of Mullins in the championship on those occasions, he did have the satisfaction of getting the better of him at the Cheltenham Festival, where he was top trainer both years.

Last season saw Elliott secure multiple accolades, but without question the highlight of his campaign was the remarkable achievement of Tiger Roll. Not only did Tiger Roll gain his second win in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, and fourth Festival win in all, he made history by becoming the first horse since Red Rum to win two Grand Nationals on a day that will never be forgotten at Aintree.

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There is no other trainer on the Flat or over jumps that is so open with how much he wants to win and beat his rival trainers. The drawnout and often fiery battle he had to wrestle the trainers’ title away from Martin Pipe was the stuff of legend and when he finally did it in 2005/6, there was no hiding just how much it meant to him.

Since then, Nicholls has added 10 more trainers’ titles to his tally and has made no secret of the fact that beating Pipe’s record of 15 is something that drives him on. Since Pipe has retired, Nicholls’ main rival has been Nicky Henderson and they have engaged in some terrific battles in recent seasons.

It is those more recent seasons that have perhaps illustrated Nicholls’ talents better than any other. He hasn’t had the same sort of horse power that he had from 2007 to 2013, but despite a lack of stars, he absolutely maximised what he had and has been champion in four of the last six seasons.

Last season saw Nicholls return to something like his pomp at the highest level, saddling six individual Grade 1 winners, with the most memorable of them perhaps being Frodon in the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. He has an array of talent to go to war with in 2019/20, and promises to be hard to knock off his perch at the top.

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

DAN SKELTON

WILLIE MULLINS

As a son of legendary showjumper Nick Skelton, Dan Skelton was always an odds-on shot to be involved in the horse business, but while many with his pedigree may have rushed into a training career, Skelton didn’t rush his education. He spent nine years learning his trade as assistant trainer to Paul Nicholls at the height of his most dominant years, and it is paying off.

Willie Mullins is simply a phenomenon of the National Hunt training ranks. While he has been considered a top trainer for well over two decades, claiming the first of 13 Irish Champion National Hunt Trainer titles in 2000/01, it has been since 2007/08 that Mullins has taken his performance to previously unheard-of levels.

Since he was first licensed in the 2013/14 season, Skelton has risen relentlessly through the ranks, registering increased tallies of winners and prize money each season. This culminated in him saddling no fewer than 205 winners for over £2.3m in prize money last season.

He is only the second trainer to saddle more than 200 winners in a jumps season, after Martin Pipe of course.

Last season was also notable for Skelton in that it saw him secure the first Grade 1 win of his career when Roksana won the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. As if that wasn’t enough, he went on to enjoy yet another County Hurdle success at the Festival with Ch’tibello.

A notable feature of Skelton’s operation is how much of a family affair it is, with his brother Harry and Harry’s wife Bridget Andrews riding over 90% of the winners that Dan has saddled under National Hunt rules in his career.

All the evidence suggests that Skelton, who is still just in his mid-30s, will continue to rise up the National Hunt ranks for many years to come.

In February 2013, with over two months of the season remaining, he broke Aidan O’Brien’s record haul of winners in a season of 156 in 1995/6, and he eventually went on to record a remarkable total of 193.

Not content with dominating the domestic scene, Mullins came within a whisker of becoming champion in Britain too in 2015/16, when he was foiled only narrowly by Paul Nicholls.

The emergence of Gordon Elliott as a serious challenger to his dominance has only served to drive Mullins on to even greater levels of achievement, with him raising the bar for winners in an Irish season with a sensational record-breaking tally of 212 winners in 2017/18.

After seeing off a very serious challenge from Elliott for his crown in 2016/17 and 2017/18, Mullins reasserted his position as the clear top National Hunt trainer in Ireland last season despite struggling with the health of his horses for a significant part of the winter months. He trained 207 winners and broke his previous record for domestic prize money by securing over €6.2m.

Besides his success in Ireland, he underlined his position as the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival by securing another leading trainer title at a meeting highlighted by a long-awaited first win in the Gold Cup with Al Boum Photo.

47

GONE BUT

Not Forgotten

BY GRAHAM DENCH

JOHN MCCRIRICK

HUGH MCILVANNEY

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LUCY HORNER

FERDY MURPHY

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

GODFREY TABINER

Racing lost perhaps its most recognisable face when JOHN MCCRIRICK succumbed to a long illness in July, aged 79.

TREVOR JONES

As a broadcaster McCririck was known throughout the racing world as much for his eccentricity as his expertise. Yet behind the larger than life facade he presented to the cameras on ITV, Channel 4 and At The Races - not to mention Celebrity Big Brother - was a kind and generous man with a vast knowledge of the sport’s history and politics, an unrivalled understanding of the betting world, and a huge passion for the game.

For decades McCririck was the ‘go to’ racing expert that the wider news media would turn to when a racing-related story broke, and it should not be forgotten that in his Sporting Life days he was renowned as an investigative journalist and earned national awards as both specialist writer of the year and campaigning journalist of the year.

Earlier in the year we lost another giant of the sports media world when HUGH MCILVANNEY died, aged 84. Described by John Gosden as “the greatest sports writer of his generation”, McIlvanney wrote brilliantly on a wide range of sports, and in racing he will be remembered for his acclaimed book McIlvanney on Horseracing, which had a foreword by his great friend Sir Peter O’Sullevan, and for memorable interviews with legends of the sport, including Lester Piggott.

In the last 12 months we have lost far too many from the racing media.

BOB BUTCHERS, a former jockey and the original Newsboy in the Daily Mirror, passed away at the age of 94, and DOUG MOSCROP, a racing journalist on Tyneside for 50 years and the 2003 HWPA Writer of the Year, died at 77.

ANDREW LONGMORE, a former chief sports writer for the Sunday Times who retired only in 2018, died in his sleep at 65 on a walking holiday in France. KEN JONES, who had been chief sports writer at the Sunday Mirror and Independent, died in September aged 87. Both frequently wrote about horse racing. GODFREY TABINER, a familiar face for decades as a racecourse presenter, died aged 68, far too soon after his retirement.

The hugely respected and well liked racing and bloodstock photographer TREVOR JONES passed away at the age of 72, and we lost another popular snapper when LES HURLEY died recently at 70.

TED ALLEN, a journalist and racereader for the Press Association and Sporting life, died in hospital at the age of 88. More recently we lost DAVE MITCHELL, a passionate owner, albeit on a small scale, and a stalwart of the Daily Mirror, having been formerly with the Sun and Weatherbys. He was only 62.

MILES NAPIER (84), who died at the end of 2018, was a Jockey Club handicapper, author and journalist who was noted for his works on pedigrees and breeding and brought his expertise to the pages of The Irish Field for more than four decades under the nom de plume ‘Reynoldstown’.

News from France at the beginning of September that we had lost FERDY MURPHY at the age of 70 was greeted with sadness by all who knew him and drew a host of heartfelt tributes.

Murphy saddled 12 Festival winners in his own name and also guided the career of the brilliant two-miler Anaglogs Daughter. Besides being a great target trainer - French Holly, Sibton Abbey and Gold Cup second Truckers Tavern were among the others he had, plus the winners of three Scottish Nationals - Murphy was also a great man.

The year was only two days old when we lost St Leger and Oaks-winning trainer BILL ELSEY at the grand old age of 97. Others who passed from the training ranks include PETER BAILEY (81), who will be remembered for Canasta Lad and Zeta’s Son; RICHARD BARBER (77), who saddled the winners of four Cheltenham Foxhunters and had a huge influence on some of jumping’s biggest names; SUE BRADBURNE (70), trainer of 1999 Grand National runner-up Blue Charm and mother of jockeys Mark and Lorna; KEN SLACK (51) a former livestock farmer who plainly knew what he was doing and had an exceptional strike rate in his short career with a trainer’s licence; and JOHN HONEYBALL (85), father of trainer Anthony and the man who tamed Gold Cup winner The Dikler.

Among the prominent owners and breeders who passed were the

DUKE OF ROXBURGHE (64), who will be remembered best in racing circles for his brilliant five-times Group 1 winning filly Attraction, and LADY ROTHSCHILD (84), who owned and bred King George and Eclipse winner Nathaniel, as well as Irish Oaks winner Great Heavens.

We also lost BOB MICHAELSON (72), owner of Border Arrow and Hoh Magic and a sponsor of both Guineas through his company Sagitta, and STAN RILEY (92), owner-breeder of chasing great Burrough Hill Lad, successful in 1984 in the Gold Cup, the Hennessy and the King George.

A colourful owner who departed was Australian gambler PAUL MAKIN (82), whose brilliant globetrotter Starcraft enjoyed two Group 1 wins at a mile in a short spell with Luca Cumani.

We also lost DAVID SIEFF (80), a former president of the Racehorse Owners Association, member of the Jockey Club, founder of Racing Welfare, director of Newbury racecourse, and successful owner, principally with the Dunlop family; SULTAN AHMED SHAH (88), who cut a distinctive figure on the racecourse in his tartan cap and whose many smart horses included Sri Pekan and Quest For More; and Group 1-winning breeder CLAUDE BERRY (80), also a steward and father of Newmarket trainer John.

STAN COSGROVE (91), a pioneering veterinary surgeon and a stalwart of Moyglare Stud for more than half a century, died in August. He was also Shergar’s vet and a shareholder in him as a stallion, and he was closely involved in the unsuccessful efforts to have him returned following his kidnapping by the IRA. MARY BROMILEY (88), described by Martin Pipe as ‘the best equine physio in the world’, died in September. She ‘rebuilt’ the giant Carvill’s Hill after his racing days were thought to be over, and successfully treated many other top horses, both at Pond House and elsewhere.

Jockeys lost include former champion apprentice WILLIE SNAITH (91), who won the Sussex Stakes for the Queen on Landau; Epsom dual purpose rider GEORDIE RAMSHAW (81), who rode Blarney Beacon to win the first Triumph Hurdle run at Cheltenham; LUCY HORNER (42), who had been women’s champion amateur; and WAYNE KNOX (56), who was unfeasibly tall for a jockey but enjoyed a particularly good rapport with Rusty Roc. Inevitably there were also significant losses among racing’s administrators, among them ANGUS CHRICHTON-MILLER (79), the former Racecourse Association chairman and a director of the old BHB; STANLEY JACKSON (83), a former managing director of the Racecourse Association and chief executive of the Horse Racing Advisory Council; and HARRY LOTT (85), a pivotal figure at Weatherbys where he was a former managing director.

We also lost former Thirsk chairman PATRICK HIBBERT-FOY (76), who like so many of his era moved into racing administration from the Army and officiated at 50 Classics as a stewards’ secretary, and MICHAEL YEADON (88), who did the sport a great service as a founder of Greatwood.

49

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Supported by

FLAT TRAINER of the Year

CHARLIE APPLEBY

ANDREW BALDING

JOHN GOSDEN

MARK JOHNSTON

51

FLAT TRAINER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY CHRIS MCGRATH

CHARLIE APPLEBY

ANDREW BALDING

This time last year, there was no mistaking a sense that Charlie Appleby had made a definitive breakthrough. After five seasons of quietly consolidating his status, following his promotion from relative obscurity to replace a disgraced predecessor at Godolphin, in 2018 he vindicated the faith of his employer Sheikh Mohammed in spectacular fashion – first with a homebred Derby winner, and then with international success in the autumn, his third Breeders’ Cup success from just six starters followed by a first ever Melbourne Cup winner trained in Britain. There was only one obvious problem now. How on earth was he was supposed to follow that?

Living up to the heritage of Kingsclere, home to so many great horses over the years, was never going to be easy. But Andrew has met the challenge impressively in the 16 years since he took over the historic stable, gradually building up his string into one of the most powerful in the country.

Step forward Pinatubo, the most exciting juvenile so far to have entered Charlie’s care – so exciting, in fact, that even the official handicappers have been able to encourage wary references to the “F” word. Clearly the way Frankel built on his own unbeaten start at two still sets the bar very high, but it’s perfectly defensible to propose Pinatubo as the more accomplished of the pair at this stage. His first season was both longer and more demanding than Frankel’s, and featured an eye-watering highlight in that nine-length success in the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.

Charlie and his team know perfectly well that nothing can be taken for granted for Pinatubo’s Classic campaign. But their achievements over the past couple of seasons – not least Blue Point’s four-day Group 1 double at Royal Ascot this year, also part of a stellar year for Pinatubo’s sire Shamardal – leave no doubt that the young champion is in hands eligible to deliver every ounce of his potential.

And while Charlie, having worked his way through the ranks, grows ever more comfortable with his rise to the top, he remains reliably immune to airs and – in common with his three fellow nominees – remains ever receptive and helpful to HWPA members.

52

In 2019, for the third year running, he achieved his personal best in terms of domestic prizemoney – in fact making something of a quantum leap, by advancing fully £1 million to £3.6 million. In the process, unsurprisingly, he also reached a new high in terms of winners.

Yet it is barely a year since morale at the stable was devastated by the shocking helicopter accident that claimed the life of Andrew’s valued patron and friend, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. How fitting, then, that the heirs to ‘the Chairman’, as he was affectionately known, should have been rewarded for their continued commitment to Kingsclere with a Group 1 success, on his final start, for the very first horse bought to run in the blue and white silks of King Power: Donjuan Triumphant, a shock winner of the big sprint on Qipco Champions’ Day. Andrew and his team could hardly have finished the campaign more positively, coming up with a second elite winner just a couple of weeks later. A stylish performance in the Vertem Futurity Stakes, transferred to Newcastle, gave Kameko the distinct look of a Classic colt.

There had also been Royal Ascot success, with Dashing Willoughby in the Queen’s Vase, but it was the breadth and consistency of his stable’s output that elevated Andrew into the top five in the trainers’ championship for the first time.

Having famously landed running with Casual Look in the Oaks, Andrew’s next ambition will doubtless be to renew the Classic profile of Kingsclere – and, who knows, maybe Kameko can do just that.

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

JOHN GOSDEN

MARK JOHNSTON

The premier British trainer of his generation maintained corresponding standards in 2019. While his fourth championship is not formally secure until the end of the year, at time of going to press John certainly appeared to have seen off the challenge of Aidan O’Brien. He also promised to post his highest ever tally of winners, though quantity is pretty incidental to the extraordinary quality measurable, in 2019, by another 13 Group 1 prizes.

If there are one or two trainers around who have had more champions through their hands, none of Mark’s contemporaries – and, indeed, very few in generations past – can claim to have had a more ground-breaking career. Quite apart from the business model he has simultaneously pioneered, his accumulation of records has become so relentless that the only danger is that they might be taken for granted.

Two of those came at Classic level, through Anapurna in the Oaks and Logician in the St Leger, while the older champions Enable and Stradivarius contributed five elite wins on home soil between them.

Star Catcher and Coronet meanwhile plundered a pair of overseas Group 1s apiece. The diversity of their ownership reiterates John’s status, notwithstanding the importance of his counsel to Sheikh Mohammed himself, as the man whose services are probably sought by a wider spread of the elite breeders and investors than any other trainer in Europe.

Already Britain’s most prolific trainer of all time, in 2019 Mark has continued to explore uncharted heights. Ten years after becoming our first Flat trainer to win 200 Flat races in a year, ending up with 216, he reclaimed the record (which had meanwhile been eclipsed jointly by Richard Fahey and Richard Hannon) when Bavardages became his 236th winner at Kempton in October. Three weeks later he passed the 243 benchmark set over jumps by Martin Pipe, courtesy of fellow juvenile Dark Regard at Southwell, both scoring in trademark style from the front.

Happily, the consistency of Clarehaven’s impact on the top races over recent seasons has also been shared by Frankie Dettori. As such, John can also be thanked for sustaining the motivation and animation of a man so critical to the image of the whole sport. But members of the HWPA will also warmly reiterate their debt to John himself, for such reliable and articulate engagement with the public.

There is an obvious echo of Pipe to a man who analysed the traditions of their vocation with a fresh intelligence; and even in the way so many of Mark’s horses, after being ridden positively, manage to find extra reserves.

Whether the attention of the wider world has been drawn for good or ill, there is no better man to communicate the sport’s position.

But that natural air of authority is founded, first and foremost, in his professional achievements. What a privilege for us all, then, to be recording the deeds and thoughts of a master in his pomp, a man guaranteed a chapter of his own in future histories of the Turf.

And it was a record he shared with Pipe that Mark this year claimed outright when registering the ninth double century of his career. But he is increasingly having to break records of his own, as he did when saddling 50 winners in July, surpassing the mark of 47 he had set in the same month in 2015.

That is an apt measure of the way he has set his own standards, and marched to his own beat. Moreover by matching the independence and acuity of his Kingsley Klarion editorials with the coherence and energy of their expression, Mark would perhaps be just as eligible a nominee for Racing Writer of the Year as he is for this award.

53

The smart money’s on

HWPA DERBY AWARDS

CONGRATULATIONS

TO ALL OF TODAY’S AWARD WINNERS

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Supported by

JUMP JOCKEY of the Year

HARRY COBDEN

RICHARD JOHNSON

BRYONY FROST

DAVY RUSSELL

55

JUMP JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY CHRIS COOK

HARRY COBDEN

BRYONY FROST

Though only recently turned 21, Harry is already well established as one of the senior talents in the weighing room. A graduate of pony racing, he had his first ride under rules more than four years ago and all that accumulated experience was put to good use last season, his first in the high-pressure role as Paul Nicholls’ main jockey.

This was the year that the world beyond racing heard the good news about Bryony, when her Ryanair success on Frodon made her front-page news. She became the first woman to ride a Grade 1 winner over jumps at the Festival, which is not the snappiest description of how someone made history and rather technical, but fortunately the non-racing media still managed to twig that Something Big had happened.

He had something less than an ideal beginning to the job when a summer fall at Market Rasen caused a fracture straight through his C2 vertebra. Four months on the sidelines when there’s a new employer to impress would worry most jockeys, but Harry is evidently not one to let a setback gnaw at his peace of mind. “It wasn’t that bad,” he said. “I had a great summer.”

Once back in the saddle Harry was relentlessly productive and the winners he rode helped to make his boss champion once more. The best moment of his young career came on Boxing Day, when he delivered a 12-1 shock in the King George aboard Clan Des Obeaux, who had beaten just one rival in the Betfair Chase a month before.

Politologue, sent off at 5-1, seemed to have a more obvious chance, so it speaks well of Harry’s judgement that he never wavered in his commitment to riding Clan Des Obeaux, on whom he took a pull to race alongside his last remaining rival on the run to the second-last in an act of precocious coolness.

There were three other Grade 1 wins for the new trainer/jockey combination last winter, notably with Topofthegame in the RSA Novices’ Chase, when in a clash of three big-name horses Topofthegame prevailed under what the Racing Post’s analyst described as “a masterful ride”.

None of it seems to go to Harry’s head. “I don’t think I’m qualified to work in McDonald’s because you need a C in English and Maths for that,” he told the Telegraph. “On the day I should have been taking an English paper, mother got a call asking where I was. She didn’t know but I’d gone to Leicester to ride a 33-1 winner, my first under rules, in a hunter chase.”

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Thus, ordinary people were introduced to the world’s most effervescent jockey. She went on BBC’s Breakfast the next morning to tell the nation’s grannies about the importance of a rider’s bond with a steeplechaser: “You’ve got to think the same thing. If you think differently, it can all go tits up...”It will be no more than justice if Bryony should be honoured with an award by horserace writers. The job has never been easier than when she wins a big race; quotable sentences pour from her and, if you’re fast enough to jot them all down, there might not be room in the paper for anything else.

More than anyone in the game, Bryony tackles the tricky but critical task of explaining to the wider audience what makes one brown horse different from another. Some insiders are inclined to take the mickey when she eulogises her mounts, but they should ask themselves if they do as much good work for the sport. Thanks to Bryony, armchair fans feel they have come to know the characteristics of Frodon and Black Corton quite well, and she will hopefully be explaining many other animals to us for years to come.

All of which should not distract from the serious riding talent that helped win the Ryanair and other competitive steeplechases over the past couple of years. Bryony’s motionless poise makes her easy to spot in a race as she fills her horses with confidence and gets them jumping.

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

RICHARD JOHNSON

DAVY RUSSELL

How long can this show run? It is more than a quarter of a century since he rode his first winner but our champion jockey keeps on rolling, with no hint of decline in either his skills or his bravery.

Softly spoken, increasingly craggy about the face, and always doing his own thing, there is quite a lot of the western gunfighter about Davy’s image. Or possibly, if he has to be a type from popular fiction, he would be the detective who lives by his own rules, a man whose greatest triumphs follow soon after being fired

At the age of 42, there is something remarkable about the thirst for action that still carries him to Perth and Plumpton. The 200 winners he rode last season made for the second-highest tally of his career.

Very few jump jockeys have lasted so long and none of those had been as busy. AP McCoy was not quite 41 when he called it quits.

Ruby Walsh, 40, has had enough. So too has Wayne Hutchinson, 38.

Noel Fehily made it to 43 before drawing stumps. Johnson will reach that age in July and it is becoming difficult to imagine him stopping at that point, whether or not he manages to fend off Brian Hughes to retain his title.

After all, why should he, when there is still such demand for his services from trainers as established as Philip Hobbs and as trendy as Olly Murphy? And he continues to reward them with the unstoppable determination that has brought him more than 3,600 victories, the first of them all the way back in the month before Four Weddings And A Funeral showed up in cinemas.

Could it be that AP’s record of 4,348 wins is under threat? Getting there would take at least another three years but that no longer seem an impossible length of time. Johnson has been champion for the last four seasons and his relish for the job is, if anything, greater since his great rival quit.

“For me, to get to 4,000 would be a realistic target, and realistic is what I’d like to be,” Johnson told The Guardian in the spring. But he didn’t sound like someone who was wondering if perhaps they had had enough. “I couldn’t even begin to explain the feeling of riding a winner,” he added. “For me, there’s nothing to compare. If I go a week without a winner, it feels like a year. You can never have enough, you always want more.”

His skills in the saddle have long been admired, back to the days 15 years ago when he was riding in England for the late, missed Ferdy Murphy. Recent seasons have brought the 40-year-old success in some of the sport’s biggest prizes, giving him a measure of fame beyond racing’s borders.

Most notably, he has won the last two Grand Nationals through his partnership with the extraordinary Tiger Roll. The 2018 finish became a little desperate as the pair clung on by a rapidly diminishing head, having struck for home perhaps a few seconds earlier than was really wise. But there were no late dramas in the most recent National, during which the pair seemed entirely at ease in each other’s company throughout and coasted to success.

Until a couple of weeks ago it looked unlikely that the pair would be reunited at Aintree in April, as Tiger Roll’s owners were favouring other jockeys. Davy has been there before, of course, having lost his position as Gigginstown’s first jockey at the end of 2013 before grafting his way back to the top, but happily he is back in the fold once again and will ride Tiger Roll again at Aintree - if he runs.

Gigginstown may blow hot and cold where Davy is concerned, but there will always be new employers for a jockey with his instinctive feel for how to ride a big race. This year, they have included Isabelle Pacault, who hired him to ride Carriacou in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris and was rewarded with a 13-1 success, Davy emulating Fred Winter in winning the Auteuil race just weeks after the National.

Another rider might have sought advice from jockeys with experience of taking part in the “Grand Steep”, with its fearsome obstacles and disorientating loops, but Davy is not that guy. “I took my own view on it, if I’m being brutally honest,” he told the Racing Post. It has always been his way.

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

SPECIALIST WRITER of the Year

The Specialist Writer award is the second of two new categories we have introduced this year.

Few sports lend themselves better to such forensic analysis as horseracing, and those who specialise in this area have been overlooked for too long when it comes to these awards.

MATT BISOGNO

KEVIN BLAKE

PAUL KEALY

SIMON ROWLANDS

The response from the membership since the new award was announced has been most gratifying, and the entries received from some of the best brains in the racing media reflected a broad range of expertise with ground-breaking analysis of new and exciting fields featuring alongside more traditional areas of investigation in the worlds of betting, bloodstock, international racing and tipping. Narrowing the final field to just four proved invidious.

In addition to the final quartet, about whom you will learn more overleaf, the HWPA would like to commend the excellent work submitted by Ben Hutton, Keith Melrose, Andrew Mount, Simon Nott, Tom Peacock, Tom Richmond and James Thomas, plus former finalists in other categories Emma Berry, Nick Godfrey and Lissa Oliver, and multiple former Clive Graham Trophy winner Chris McGrath.

They will have further opportunities, for this award is here to stay.

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SPECIALIST WRITER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

MATT BISOGNO

KEVIN BLAKE

What’s your background in racing/ racing journalism? No formal background. I love to write and I love racing, so I set up a little blog 13 years ago. Things progressed from there: the internet has democratised journalism as it has most things Where do we go to find your current output? Though I’ve written for the Irish Field, ATR and a handful of others, almost everything I’ve scribbled can be found on geegeez.co.uk Suggest one or two aspects of form study and racing analysis that you think most of us underplay? An invitation to preach eggsucking to granny is this! With apologies in advance, then, I’d suggest projecting how a race is likely to be run is fundamental. Who wants to be on the best horse in the race at a short price if he probably doesn’t get his setup? Marking up rarity - form on firm or heavy going when the race is on similar, marathon, nine-furlong race form etc - is another frequently underplayed opportunity What 2019 winner are you particularly pleased to have tipped or backed through such an angle? Too fearful of the aftertime police to answer this!

What new data would you most like to see readily accessible to punters? I’m a firm believer in ‘more data’, so I’m in favour of sectionals, horses’ weights, details on stride and cadence and so on, but presentation and education is everything. Data is a fundamental engagement tool in most other mainstream sports, and yet racing still seems to shy away from it. I’d primarily like to see a greater effort to make existing data more consumable. We should be aiming to step beyond legacy formbook hieroglyphics towards a more visual world What change to racing’s rules or presentation would you most like to see in 2020? I’d love to see graphic pace maps in TV broadcasts, and potentially form profiles as well. These kinds of on-screen visuals empower viewers to bet in a way that the usual ‘racing chat’ cannot

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What’s your background in racing/ racing journalism? I don’t have any background in racing. I started to take an interest in my early teens when my father, who knew nothing about horses, bought a broodmare on a whim for £500 off a man in a pub! That interest soon grew into an obsession and after being very lucky to get a chance with the Irish Field when I was 19, I was off and running.

Where do we go to find your current output? I write weekly columns for AtTheRaces.com and Betfair. I also appear as a pundit on ITV Racing and Sky Sports Racing and write bloodstock analysis pieces for the Thoroughbred Daily News.

Suggest one or two aspects of form study and racing analysis that you think most of us underplay? I probably put a lot more emphasis on the first half of the race than most. How well the horses started, how much work they had to do to establish a position, how well they settled etc... All of those things have a significant bearing on results, but don’t seem to get emphasised as much as what happens in the second half of races.

What 2019 winner are you particularly pleased to have tipped or backed through such an angle? Aftertiming is a scourge on our sport and I refuse to contribute to that particular mire!

What new data would you most like to see readily accessible to punters? The case for sectionals/stride data has been well made at this stage and I am fully on board with it. I would also be very much in favour of recording/publishing the height and weight of every horse that runs. That is readily achievable, affordable, and would have great benefits from the most basic level right up to more advanced analysis.

What change to racing’s rules or presentation would you most like to see in 2020? The interference rules in Britain are far too lenient.

They need to be tightened up significantly before there is a tragic accident brought about by reckless riding.

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

Paul Kealy

g \ column The Irish Field, Saturday

Theatre Guide appeals with plenty in his favour

THERE are plenty of old favourites in the William Hill Supporting Greatwood Veterans’ Handicap Chase at Newbury on Saturday, but the one who stands out given likely conditions is Theatre Guide, who has great form at the track and loves decent ground.

Theatre Guide was third in the Hennessy on good ground in 2013 and second two years later when the going was soft, although given the distances beaten his better run was the first.

Indeed, the vast majority of his best form has been when

encountering a decent surface.

That includes a ten-length win off 139 in what used to be the Racing Post Chase in February 2016, a win at Cheltenham off 149 ten months later and third places, again in the old Racing Post Chase and the bet365 Gold Cup, off marks of 153 and 152.

He is obviously not the force of old, but last month’s second to Houblon Des Obeaux in the final of this series at Sandown (good to soft) was a step back in the right direction and, given his Newbury form and the weather forecast, he really should be stepping up on that.

It helps that he is going to be 7lb better off with Houblon Des Obeaux and I think he’ll go close even though he is conceding a year or two to most of his rivals.

Doing Fine is also of interest for this race as well as the Grimthorpe at Doncaster as he

is another who wants decent ground and is now 6lb lo than when fourth in last season’s Scottish Grand National.

He hasn’t exactly been running brilliantly, though, Theatre Guide has alway much classier.

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Time Will Tell

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PAUL KEALY What’s your background in racing/ racing journalism? My dad used to watch racing on a Saturday, but other than that, none. I left school with no qualifications and when I joined the Racing Post as a copytaker in 1987 I could barely write a sentence, but I had some great mentors Where do we go to find your current output? In the Weekender every Wednesday and in the Racing Post on Thursday, Friday and Saturday Suggest one or two aspects of form study and racing analysis that you think most of us underplay? I tend to focus more on what is overplayed, such as last-time-out form. Forgive a horse a bad run assuming you can find a logical reason - and you can get some real value. Other than that, form figures, especially winning runs, can be hugely overplayed by the general punter. I prefer to look at what has actually been achieved What 2019 winner are you particularly pleased to have tipped or backed through such an angle? San Benedeto was stone last before winning the Greatwood Gold Cup but he had become seriously well treated and had been given a short break. I thought he was huge at 25-1 ante-post for a race Paul Nicholls had farmed. I laid Laurina for a place in the Champion Hurdle as I’m always be wary of a ‘big’ performance in an uncompetitive race and she’d done nothing in proper company What new data would you most like to see readily accessible to punters?

Sectionals are not something I have ever paid much attention to, but I know I should, and there’s enough clamour for them to suggest they should be rolled out across the board. Simon Rowlands’ pieces on stride length and cadence have been fascinating What change to racing’s rules or presentation would you most like to see in 2020? I’m not an advocate of banning the whip, but if we have rules it is incumbent upon the jockeys to obey them and for the authorities to police them. Disqualification of winning horses would alienate punters, but we can’t continue with so many bad headlines and if the jockeys don’t get their house in order, someone outside racing will do it for them - and they won’t like the results

SIMON ROWLANDS What’s your background in racing/ racing journalism? Timeform, including as a handicapper, race-reader and editor; punting; The Sportsman (Racing Editor); Timeform again; and currently a freelancer Where do we go to find your current output? Sectional Spotlights and Big-Race/Tipping Previews on At The Races, where I am also responsible for the sectional pars and methodology which drives the colour-coded Sectional Results; weekly time-based column ‘Time Will Tell’ at The Irish Field; datadriven race previews, and occasional pieces on fundamental form and betting analysis, for Timeform; ratings reviews at International Thoroughbred; data-driven bloodstock analysis at The Stallion Guide; bespoke sectional/striding analysis for owners, bloodstock agents, jockeys, trainers, punters and others Suggest one or two aspects of form study and racing analysis that you think most of us underplay? Ratings, both form-based and timebased, and pace analysis as measured through sectionals. But the goal should always be to assess probabilities/odds as well as you can at the end of whatever approach you use What 2019 winner are you particularly pleased to have tipped or backed through such an angle? Sangarius at Royal Ascot through striding, and Al Boum Photo in the Cheltenham Gold Cup through times/sectionals What new data would you most like to see readily accessible to punters? Sectionals and striding are becoming more and more available thanks to the likes of Total Performance Data, and it is possible to calculate your own of both. I would like to see a pilot project into the race-day weighing of horses. Yardage travelled and ‘lane’ position on bends could well become more influential before long What change to racing’s rules or presentation would you most like to see in 2020? Quantitative assessment is something horseracing is capable of being very good at, and it has the potential to drive engagement and understanding if presented appropriately. Immediate semi-automated post-race ratings’ assessments and ‘finishing speed’ percentages would tell you so much about what has just happened in a race and could be carried forward into future races

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IN 2020 SALES

January Horses of All Ages Sale JANUARY 13-16, 2020

April Two-Year-Olds in Training & Horses of Racing Age Sale APRIL 7, 2020

September Yearling Sale SEPTEMBER 14-26, 2020

November Breeding Stock Sale NOVEMBER 9-21, 2020 RACING

April Race Meeting APRIL 2-24, 2020

October Race Meeting OCTOBER 2-24, 2020

2020 Breeders’ Cup World Championships NOV 6 AND 7, 2020

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Ed Prosser • Keeneland European Representative First Floor, 239 Kensington High Street, London W8 6SA Tel: +44 (0) 207 316 3060 • Mob: +44 (0) 7808 477827 eprosser@keeneland.co.uk

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

PHOTOGRAPHER

of the Year

PATRICK MCCANN

DAN ABRAHAM

MEGAN RIDGWELL

EDWARD WHITAKER

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PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR by Tom Peacock THE NOMINATIONS

PATRICK MCCANN One shot in particular will jump out from Patrick McCann’s portfolio, for it captured the moment rider Katie O’Farrell removed her goggles to reveal her battle scars.

“I knew it would make a picture,” Patrick says. “It’s unusual to see these iron jockeys with visible injuries and still riding - seeing her bruised and battered face conveys the risks they go through daily and how tough they have to be.”

Such dangers are also exemplified by Luke Dempsey escaping the flying hooves by a whisker in a novice chase at Galway.

Patrick, a past recipient of Picture of the Year, travels around Ireland for his job with the Racing Post and always enjoys a trip west in the summer to Ballinrobe, where the stone walls invited the opportunity for another entry on this page.

He comes into contact with some of the greats of the sport, with the crisp winter light on a visit to Gordon Elliott’s Cullentra House allowing the intimate portrait of dual Grand National hero Tiger Roll and rider Simon McGonagle.

“He might be diminutive in stature but a few months before his second win in the world’s biggest jumps race, he seemed to grow in confidence leading Elliott’s array of stars through the natural spring,” he recalls.

“I knew it would make a picture” 64

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

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PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR THE NOMINATIONS

MEGAN RIDGWELL While some photographs are instinctive, others involve advance planning. Megan Ridgwell, a former winner of Picture of the Year, was on racecourse duty on the hottest day of the summer at Sandown Park when she had an idea to stand in the post-race wash-down area.

“I worked out where the best hose was and stood close to that knowing it would give off the best amount of water to make the most impressive shot,” she explains. “The horse was standing so calmly and just staring down the camera, so gave me the opportunity to compose the photo with the horse’s face to one side and the tree in the background, with the water forming an interesting effect in the background.”

Many of Megan’s images are from Chelmsford and it can be painstaking work, waiting for the right shadows or for a horse to walk across the foggy surface.

One, taken in particularly miserable weather at the Essex track, is her favourite.

“It was after the race and it was raining so badly, I should have gone back in but I wanted that shot,” she says.

“I lowered my shutter speed and started shooting the horses heading back, I knew I wanted the hot breath coming out the horses’ nostrils and the rain with loads of movement, but it’s a shot that you need the jockey and horse to be close together, and it all just happened perfectly!”

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THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

“I worked out where the best hose was and stood close to that knowing it would give off the best amount of water to make the most impressive shot”

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PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR THE NOMINATIONS

DAN ABRAHAM Many in this room will have been on the end of a bear-hug or a wisecrack from Dan Abraham, whose sense of humour comes across particularly in an image of Recoletos baring his teeth behind his trainer, Carlos Laffon-Parias at his Chantilly stable.

“We had finished, but TV wanted an interview with Carlos and Recoletos popped his head over the door and started pulling faces in the back of shot,” he says. “This one was quite funny, it made Recoletos look like a vampire about to take a chunk out of Carlos.”

The freelancer and long-serving HWPA committee member has claimed this title four times before and it is easy to see why, with his repartee with jockey Silvestre De Sousa forcing a smile out of the former champion jockey despite the muddy conditions at the Chester May Meeting.

Even more dramatic are Harry Skelton’s acrobatics to stay aboard Anytime Will Do at Huntingdon. “Harry was on the favourite and going well coming into the last when the horse jumped short, throwing Harry up the neck,” Dan recalls. “How he managed to stay on, god only knows.”

“This one was quite funny, it made Recoletos look like a vampire about to take a chunk out of Carlos.”

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THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

69

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR THE NOMINATIONS

EDWARD WHITAKER It is for good reason that Edward Whitaker is regarded as a master of his profession; he has won this award a record eight times and swept the board with both prizes last year.

His three decades at the Racing Post has also seen his work featured in numerous books, and he has been recognised at events like this one in the wider sporting world, too.

The six shots here are from a range of locations, with clouds a running theme, from the evocative rising sun behind one of Philip Hobbs’ horses on its way to the gallops, to the ominous grey shapes above the runners on Lingfield Derby Trial day.

Grand National winner Tiger Roll makes another appearance, this time as he takes the water jump en route to Aintree glory. “I loved this picture,” says Edward. “I think the late afternoon sunlight and the birch splashing in the water adds to the drama.”

Adam Wedge is caught managing a lucky escape from a fall at Newbury, while a more playful example is how Edward captured the racing action along the flint wall at Glorious Goodwood. “It reminded me of spectators watching the Tour de France, which was taking place at the time.”

“I think the late afternoon sunlight and the birch splashing in the water adds to the drama”

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THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

71

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72

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Peter O’Sullevan Trophy

BROADCASTER of the Year

ED CHAMBERLIN

LYDIA HISLOP

FRANCESCA CUMANI

NICK LUCK

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BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY MIKE VINCE

ED CHAMBERLIN

FRANCESCA CUMANI

That Ed Chamberlin admits to having been a racing enthusiast since childhood should come as no surprise. He was, after all, born in Shepton Mallet - a village a stone’s throw from Ditcheat.

A CV that includes working as a key presenter at both Royal Ascot and the Melbourne Cup tells you everything about Francesca Cumani - she’s a broadcaster in demand the world over.

And he’ll admit too that he backed Spartan Missile to beat Aldaniti in the 1981 Grand National!

Unlike the other three finalists, Francesca was born and bred in the world of racing and then graduated to broadcasting. She has, to say the least, done it naturally.

That, many years ago, was a rare blip for a terrific professional whose transfer from Sky Sports Football to the anchor role on ITV Sport in 2017 must rank as one of the best pieces of broadcasting business in years.

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A successful amateur rider herself - she won the Queen Mother Cup at York on Idealistic in 2005 and on Soulacroix a year later, having had a distant view from sixth place of her mother winning it on Mephisto in 2004 - Francesca has a vast and first-hand knowledge of the horse that has stood her well in her role.

Ed has become the face of racing on ITV and has spent many hours off screen travelling the length and breadth of the land getting to know what makes the sport tick. In a role not dissimilar to conducting an orchestra, he brings out the best in the diverse team around him - Weaver and Harvey to name but two - and has an amazing ability to convey the magic of live sport. The increase in ITV viewing figures, welcomed by us all, can in no small way be laid at his door.

The sight of her walking, microphone in hand, round the paddock, getting as close as she dare to the horses, has become a familiar one on racecourses in Britain. That she has become an astute judge is no surprise given she grew up in a household where probably Derby winners were recited before times tables.

Ed first appeared on Sky in his bookmaker days alongside Jeff Stelling on The Full SP. Since then he has conquered serious illness, become a top football presenter, and is now in the hot seat for racing.

He also makes time for charity work in recognition and support of those who treated him. Some CV.

Francesca has a degree in French and Spanish, and her broadcasting career began ‘down under’, where two years after she had taken a couple of horses to the Melbourne Cup she was invited to join the Network coverage of the Spring Carnival - where she was to be found again early last month.

If the players of Ed’s beloved Southampton could match his own passion and work ethic he would be less of a nervous wreck at full time. He has yet to win this award, but it’s surely only a matter of time.

Perhaps it will be today.

Little more than a decade later, Francesca is a key member of the ITV Racing team and the perfect on-screen accomplice to fellow nominee Ed Chamberlin - a deserved finalist today.

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

LYDIA HISLOP

NICK LUCK

Winning broadcaster of the year would be another significant achievement for Lydia, who has graduated with conspicuous success from newspaper racing correspondent to leading presenter on Racing TV and on the way has won the respect of colleagues and racing professionals alike.

Nick Luck has already climbed the podium here on no fewer than seven occasions, and if you were to see his diary for the past month you would know why. From Santa Anita to Sandown he is admired by racing professionals, punters and his peers - talking about a sport he loves with authority, warmth, and total respect for those around him. It’s no surprise that his Frequent Flyer account gets such regular top-ups.

She once wrote that ‘the NHS should prescribe racing as dramatised sudoku’ as she mused on a sport she described as ‘my love, my livelihood, my life’. Watch her at work either from close quarters on track or on screen and you will see how skillfully she has transferred her unique talents from Fleet Street, where her time included a spell as racing correspondent of The Times.

Lydia possesses an admirable ability in assessing races, which has made her ‘Road to Cheltenham’ series a must read in the build up to the Festival, but it is as an interviewer that she excels. She thinks on her feet and is comfortable without a sub editor or safety net. She is not afraid to ask the difficult questions, and those not deserving of an easy time most certainly do not get one.

She is meticulous in her preparation, be it on the train to a midweek fixture at Nottingham or in the press room at a festival or on a big Saturday, and if you read her Twitter profile she says she is ‘prone to obsessions with staying horses’.

Nick leads from the front and is professional to his finger tips. He is equally at home fronting a mid-week jump meeting in the middle of winter as he is the Breeders’ Cup in the sunshine at Santa Anita, and he excels in his own in his Luck on Sunday Racing TV show, on which he has mastered one of the great broadcasting challenges by making his interviewees feel completely at home and thus invariably getting the very best out of them.

Nick is at his best - to this pair of eyes and ears, at least - when the special challenge of live sport comes around, watching a race knowing that he’ll have to question the winners and the losers whoever they are, and often at just a few seconds notice. He never seems to be found wanting.

The unlucky one at the time of the demise of Channel 4 Racing, Nick has proved time and time again that class and talent rises to the top, and an eighth award would come as no surprise to anyone.

Her talents have not been lost on the BHA, for whom she has had a key role in the Flat Pattern Committee. She has brought the same passion and professionalism to that role as she has to broadcasting talents for which she is rightly acknowledged today.

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HWPA President’s Award

RUBY WALSH

BY MARCUS TOWNEND

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THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

Who’s the best? It’s a question every sports journalist gets asked with no possible objective answer.

Messi or Ronaldo? Hamilton or Schumacher? Woods or Nicklaus?

Federer or Sampras? You pay your money and make your choice.

The only certainty is that to be the subject of one of these questions makes you pretty special.

Where racing was concerned, Ruby Walsh’s name was often in the question. Better than McCoy? Dunwoody? It’s that impossible question again.

But where there was certainty was that any jumps finish in which Ruby was involved guaranteed a mixture of sporting excellence and sporting art.

It made him one of the few public figures – and not just in sport – recognisable just by his christian name.

Ruby’s record is out there for all to see. A winner of 213 Grade 1 races.

Champion jockey in Ireland 12 times. Leading rider at the Cheltenham Festival 11 times.

A dual winner of both the Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup, the latter thanks to a hugely rewarding partnership with the iconic Kauto Star, who also delivered him five wins in the King George VI Chase.

A full list of the top horses he was associated with would fill most of this brochure on its own: Annie Power, Big Buck’s, Denman, Faugheen, Hurricane Fly, Master Minded - where do you stop?

Here was a jockey so good that champion trainers on either side of the Irish Sea – Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins – were prepared to share his services rather than go without.

or the Grand National, sports editors were happy if you could tell them you had an interview planned with Ruby Walsh and his picture to put on the front page of the supplement.

That wasn’t just because Ruby was likely to be riding some of the best horses.

His eloquence in the saddle was matched by his eloquence out of it.

Sure, he could occasionally be a moody so-and-so – he’ll admit that – but more often than not he developed into a dream interviewee.

In an increasingly sanitised world, he was a sportsman who was prepared to take a view and express it. An interviewer grabbing time with Ruby Walsh could count upon coming away with something in their notebook worth writing about.

Then there were the injuries that increased the fascination with him, especially outside the sport.

From fracturing his leg in the 1999 Pardubice to aggravating another leg fracture on the second day of the 2018 Cheltenham Festival having only just won a race to be fit enough to ride - Ruby’s body took such a battering that many wondered where he found the resolve to keep putting it on the line.

When Ruby announced his retirement at the Punchestown Festival in May after winning the Gold Cup on Kemboy, the celebration was mixed with sadness.

Ruby literally did it all in jump racing, but what made even more special was the way he did it.

The joy was that Ruby had exited his stage on top, winning another iconic race at his local track, surrounded by his friends and family.

But there was also the realisation that a defining era in our sporting memories was close to an end.

There’s no question he could get tough in the saddle when he wanted to, but his style was more often understated. Patient.

Thoughtful. In the blood and thunder of battle, as the mud and birch flew all around him, Ruby would exude calmness under pressure.

Barry Geraghty and Dicky Johnson still fly the flag for their generation, but Ruby has followed McCoy into retirement. The guard is changing and with it the names that have commanded miles of column inches over the last two decades.

He looked in control of his situation, empathetic with his mounts and seemingly with a second-sight as to how events might unfold.

It will seem strange when the big meetings come around and Ruby Walsh’s name is not on the racecard, but at least his voice and views will still be heard on ITV and Racing TV.

It helped make him the man for the big occasion, the player on the major stages. When the Cheltenham Festival came round every year,

Knowing Ruby, it will not be boring.

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

The Clive Graham Trophy

RACING WRITER

of the Year

KEVIN BLAKE

LEE MOTTERSHEAD

CHRIS MCGRATH

PETER SCARGILL

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RACING WRITER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY DAVID CARR

By CHRIS MCGRATH

By CHRIS McGRATH

If there is somebody up there who has granted Ted Bassett long life, then it’s not hard to see why. Because who would the

KEVIN BLAKE

CHRIS MCGRATH

No wonder Kevin Blake is so good at throwing punches - he’s the Floyd Mayweather of the press room, a boxer who retired undefeated.

Racing journalism rarely gets closer to literature than when Chris McGrath is weaving word pictures at the keyboard.

It may be only metaphorical blows that he lands on the powers that be nowadays but they’re none the less weighty for the fact they’re delivered with the pen or the mic, rather than a pair of gloves.

The man who used to fight at around 2st below his natural body weight reckons his ring career, which began with a 30-second knockout of his opponent in a charity bout, gives him a valuable insight into a jockey’s battle with the scales.

He’s also a firm believer that boxing breeds self confidence, the sort of inner strength that allows him to deliver the hard-hitting words which have earned him his second nomination for this trophy.

Blake, 33, was an outsider, who only stumbled into racing when his father bought a mare from a man in a pub and he was grabbed by the challenge of figuring out the great puzzle the game offers.

That no doubt helps him speak out, such as in his pieces on the At The Races website questioning the BHA’s view on the whip and their very lack of confidence in themselves.

That should be no surprise, given that he is actually a ‘proper writer’ the man whose evocatively penned ‘Mr Darley’s Arabian’ was short-listed for Sports Book of the Year.

It is his way with words and eye for subject matter that has won him this award three times previously, twice when writing for the Independent and most recently when Bloodstock Editor at the Racing Post In 2017.

And the man who started out with the Press Association, the Sporting Life and then the Times is still at it, treating Thoroughbred Daily News readers to his insights into the racing world.

Where else will you find veteran owner/breeder Arthur Hancock likening himself to Thomas Hardy’s frugal shepherd Gabriel Oak and explaining how Pythagoras’ Theorem won him the Kentucky Derby?

Or hear Peter Brant, a huge success in the worlds of art and racing, explain how ‘horses make you humble’ - if only he could have passed that quality on to his humility-light childhood friend Donald Trump…

“Always pay attention to your critics, because they care,” he stresses, though that was in reference to his own television career - this is a man with many, many hats.

There’s no danger of arrogance overcoming McGrath, who has also squeezed time as an assistant trainer and a jockeys’ agent into his 52 years and has more right than most to claim he knows what racing is all about.

The familiar face and authoritative voice of ITV and Sky Sports Racing tips on the Betfair website and is a resident guest on the Final Furlong podcast, a laid-back offering whose aim is to sound ‘as if you were hearing three lads bantering in the pub’.

He says of his time with TDN: “Though it’s an opportunity that really has made me feel more ignorant than ever, I’m hugely grateful to Sue Finley and her team for the chance to make something of a fresh start at this stage of my career.”

He plays a key part in another success story as an adviser to Joseph O’Brien and he has also been a successful breeder since the day he used winnings from Back In Front in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle to buy his first mare.

Of the pieces that earned this nomination, McGrath says: “What an honour, just to meet Arthur Hancock, never mind to hear him reflect on his life with such candour and charm. I knew that I could never do justice to my subject, and the same applied to Ted Bassett, wounded on Okinawa but still, at 98, such an upright figure in every sense. And the rare interview with Peter Brant was likewise all about the richness of the material, rather than anything I might have done to present it.”

“I don’t like to confine myself too much,” suggests the man who lives ten minutes from Ballydoyle and would be the first Irish-based winner of this award.

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friend

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

HAPPY DAYS

THE MOST EXPENSIVE CLUB IN THE WORLD?

Trainer Mick Appleby has known dark times, he doesn’t mind telling you, but they’re INSIDE THE FLUhim CRISIS well behind now

Mike Smith celebrates after winning the US Triple Crown on Justify in the club’s colours

S

primarily a six-race all-weather card but a meeting with RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood.

The BHA leaders were keen to give Sherwood Sher wood and advisers David Muir and Mark Kennedy a b e h i n d -t behind - t he-scenes h e - s c e n e s raceday ra ce da y experience. In the very first race, Beehaar, a John Gosden-trained filly having her fourth outing, clipped heels, fell and suffered a fatal injury.

It was not exactly what Rust and co had wanted their guests to witness. What happened as the day developed was on nobody’s wishlist, either.

Rust left Kempton in a car he was due to sell that evening. The car had belonged to his late wife Margarita, who died in November following a long and brave battle with multiple sclerosis. The car had been parked at Kempton since Rust returned from a trip the previous week to Lambourn. He was now driving it for the final time, first to see jockeys’ agent Dave Roberts at his home near Guildford, and then on to Herne Bay, the Kent seaside home of the woman set to be the car’s new owner.

Sykes and Dunshea lef t From page 15 at Aintree’s Kempton by train but not together. emotional day Richard It was to Sykes that Newton father’s. On an meeting in 2017 in love with ered the bad news. The Grand National how he fell

Lee Mottershead looks back on the day that brought the sport to a standstill

IT WAS on the 4.48pm to London Waterloo that British racing first discovered it had caught the flu.

David Sykes was one of the passengers on that train, heading away from Kempton Park station, when he heard the news. Brant Dunshea was on a platform at Clapham Junction, Nick Rust was in his car and Donald McCain, a figure unluckily central to this story, was in a petrol station on the A49.

That Wednesday afternoon McCain had been travelling back f r o m L u d l o w, w h e r e D r y Lightening contested the track’s maiden hurdle. Prior to being declared on Tuesday morning the horse was scoped, as has been McCain’s recent policy. A clean bill of health was given. All was not right, however, with three other member h bits

a former Woollacot t explained he saw him. Richard, for Lalor the moment oint jockey, had yearned champion point-to-p taking out a full training since came, he was such an animal when the horse licence. Tragically, this year on the not enough. world earlier Richard left this January 22. Publications d evening of Monday, readers the 40-year-ol such as this informedand that his death was suddenly” for “died code are had . Those phrases reality behind not suspicious but it is rare the clearly. It something else more else is stated decided that something t who quickly was Kayley Woollacotmade public. She wanted truth she wanted the died by suicide, husband had wants to it known her she wanted and principally becausemental illness. of raise awareness sitting room of Big Brook We speak in the training facility in South and Park, the home built. Bella, whose Richard that ip, Molton, Devon, from a previous relationsh sister, Steph. father had twins after by Kayley’s is being looked there are occasional shouts mummy s mummy’s Outside the room who wants her from a little girl in awe being of attention.

Kayley talks Inside the room spoke so bravely Enright, who of jockey Mark

to go home but I s af

runners. Dunshea also phoned BHA directors, including former metropolitan police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson.

McCain learned the news from Topp, who messaged him to say they needed to speak immediately.

McCain pulled off the A49 and dialled Topp’s number.

“He told me there and then we h a d t h ree re e ca s es e s o f eq equ u in ine influenza,” says McCain. “Those two words sounded terrible. I was shell-shocked. Not in a million years did I think it was going to be equine flu.

“Alasdair told me he would pass on my number to David Sykes, who rang me and talked me through the whole situation. He explained what would happen with immediate effect. He told me I would definitely be shut for at least two weeks and that Alasdair would come in on Thursday to blood test and swab every horse in the place.”

McCain resumed his journey home. Rust was a long way from home and a long way from finishing his day. After saying goodbye to Roberts and switching on his phone he was confronted with 11 messages. While driving to Kent, Rust spoke with Dunshea and Sykes, discussing options and the best way forward.

hout

“To buy it I needed someone to back

“By Thursday morning I was starving,” he recalls. “I confess I went to a dreadful McDonald’s just along from the BHA’s High Holborn office. I manage to avoid it most mornings, but given I hadn’t eaten since the Kempton lunch I decided I needed breakfast.”

Dunshea was in High Holborn soon after the door of the BHA’s office building was unlocked at 7.30am “I realised we needed to set up a control centre and coordinate everything from there,” he says.

Briefing the government

A meeting room named Frankel was chosen to be that room.

Senior executives gathered for a 9am update, while all trainers with horses who might have come into contact with McCain’s were advised of biosecurity measures and asked not to move horses. As the BHA began to organise a new veterinary committee meeting, corporate affairs manager Ross Hamilton briefed government and parliamentarians.

For M c C a i n , i t w a s a l l somewhat surreal. Topp and a colleague had begun testing every ho r se , whi l e g roo ms we re working in a racing yard now closed to outsiders. A television cameraman ensconced himself outside the main entrance. He would have to stay there.

“To be honest, the gate is broken but nobody was coming in anyway,” says McCain.

For Dunshea, who was working ia when k his ience

rid of that t

THE KEY PLAYERS

Nick Rust BHA chief executive

David Sykes, director of equine health and welfare Sykes and Dunshea agreed. It was clear horses from stables across the breadth of the country would have to be tested for a disease whose symptoms can take three days to become visible. With the swabs then needing to be processed at the Animal Health Trust’s Newmarket headquarters, there was no way an operation of such scale could be completed quickly.

Putting out a bushfire

An unrelated meeting of the s industry-wide Racing oup had begun at 2pm. A

‘AN ILLNESS GOT HOLD OF HIM AND WE DIDN ’T T UNDERSTAND WHA DONE’ NEEDED TO BE next end his life the made plans to by breaking about having only to be saved Mark time he got home, a cup of tea with friend over on, she down in tears -hour conversati

LEE MOTTERSHEAD

Brant Dunshea, BHA chief regulatory officer

ing If you are suffer depression or from Donald McCain, trainerto talk about your want races with that problem. , call l health menta “Early on Thursday morning on his temperature was 0.2Cre above g Welfa Racin normal. By the afternoon it was 443, back to normal.

Soon enough he Pieta 6300 0800 was flying around his box like a 247 maniac, just as he always does.247 1800 on House There was no discharge. There was nothing.

Samaritans on the or“That doesn’t make me feel better, but I do know I could bring 123. anyone and nobody would 116 here say from looking at him he couldn’t race. I was also andering around thinking there ould be dirtier hospitals than . The place is immaculate ywhere you go there’s eat smell of disinfectant

Kayley’s achieved under start over fences, good reason to look to that is tutelage, there t. she says. “I was future with excitemen was amazing,” “Cheltenham and, I suppose, horse, the team times when I so proud of the There were pro of myself. doing? Cheltenha also proud Cheltenh m told I was wondered what at me why.

Dollars beat us Dynamite “The day after Novices’ Chase], the Henry VIII Sandown [in saying he hoped sent me a text, still win th Paul Nicholls and that we would Lalor was okay dream and you have to drea our of a lifeti Arkle. That’s been my horse “Lalor has already light on bad days that so much loves him and He has shone our hero. Bella w will forever be a fascination have to seems in the field adores her. He person. If he was come from o this small, loud there he would knew Bella was see her and then put his h to side of the field her stroke him. All I ever w let and sound fr right down to come home safe is for Lalor to legend.” is an absolute his races. He Be visit to Lalor, a paid AVING Amber the d currently chasing Once that so around the yard. there is a over of pleasure is to put up. Chr Christmas tree

H

Not many racing writers of the year have ridden a nine-time Grade 1 winner but not many have had the career that Lee Mottershead has enjoyed.

Enjoyed is the right word. The 2011 Clive Graham Award winner is someone who even at the age of 44 is still marvelling at where racing has taken him.

That includes a place in the saddle on King George VI Chase winner Florida Pearl while training for a charity race - a memory he recalled in conversation in Australia on his annual visit to the Melbourne Cup. Which is quite a paragraph to have written about someone from a less-than-privileged background in Blackburn.

“I had no background in racing but my mum and dad used to watch it on TV,” he recalls. “I pretty much learned to read from the racing pages of newspapers.

“We didn’t have a video back then and I can remember getting home from school and my mum had tape recorded commentaries so I could listen back to the Cheltenham festival on an old audio cassette!”

The York University graduate’s start in the sport came in the advertising department at the Racing Post.

Having worked his way up through classified and bloodstock advertising to the news desk, Mottershead is now ‘senior writer’.

“I’m principally attached to the features department and I’m very lucky as I get to do a mix of feature work, racecourse reporting, interviews and news,” he says.

That work includes a focus on the first 24 hours of the equine flu crisis, from Herne Bay to High Holborn, which helped earn him this nomination.

“There are few jobs I’ve enjoyed more,” he says. “It’s the small details that are as fascinating as the big issues. It gives people character, shows they are not just machines doing jobs.”

FACES OF THE WORLD’S ’ NtoOr.m1 s e r Huge welfaJOC K E ng liY k c u b t r o p s s

Peter Scargill reports on the people and the ambitions behind the China Horse Club, an exclusive ‘lifestyle, business and thoroughbred racing’ venture with a reported

24 HOURS THAT ROCKED RACING

yet Appleby is every bit as potent on trainer is what he became. It has turf. Langham Racing Stables may lack happened in two stints. The first began superstars but it contains 95 horses in the mid-1990s, initially with a who win lots of races.

Appleby would like a few horses with the potential to win better races but he is not complaining. His owner do not complain, either, for their HOULD Mick Appleby ever trainer become atset about telling everyone choose to write his regulatory officerhas Dunshea anda master They improving autobiography, the book will who w needed to know, including Sykes, the director cast-offs. of equineIn that provide a rollercoaster ride. health and welfare, stayed on for the BHA’s racing department, which began researching the He has not yet lived a longthe lifafternoon.

T h e i r motivation Their mo ti v a t i o n was wa s not no t movements of McCain’s latest but a huge amount has happened in it.

Lee Mottershead talks to a man whose life is an open, and fascinating, book

ALL FOCUS A ECI ECIAL a two-part the second of terr Scargill Pete special, Pe ess the issues lore plor exp ex surrounding a n rica growing Ame equine crisis

leave ssure under the pre PETER SCARGILL

O

days of N THE first two eyes of the November the be on racing world will the 36th Santa Anita with ers’ Breed edition of the at the iconic Cup taking place ourse. racec orrnian Califo Calif d to American We will be treate of underdogs s will be razzmatazz, storie

Being born into racing is no guarantee of success - or even a desire to succeed.

If you see trainer’s son Peter Scargill today you’ll know he was probably never going to make a jockey. He’s a tall, sturdy man, ideal for top goalkeeper he still hopes to be, even at 32.

But he admits that father Jon’s Newmarket operation left him cold for his early life and says: “Frankly I wasn’t that interested in racing.

“It wasn’t until teenage years that I became interested in horses, for the reason that many people do - betting. I thought I had an advantage...I hadn’t.”

With bookmakers refusing to pay for his lifestyle, Scargill took his father’s advice and turned to journalism and following Piers Morgan’s footsteps by taking an NCTJ course at Harlow.

Graduation coincided with the Racing Post’s expanding their internet team - “It was a quirk of fate, they happened to advertise just as I happened to be looking for a job”.

But Scargill does not believe it is a coincidence that his first Derby Awards nomination comes in his first year working under new Post editor Tom Kerr.

“Tom’s been keen for me to stretch myself,” he says. “He’s been insistent that I move myself out of my comfort zone.”

That has resulted in acclaimed pieces on the welfare storm in US racing and the China Racing Club, and Scargill reflects: “I’m fascinated with international racing. Nick Godfrey was an inspiration when I joined and his knowledge and passion for it is unmatched.”

The third article he submitted was a profile of Ryan Moore and he admits: “That’s definitely the hardest piece I’ve ever had to write.

Having to assess somebody and look into their soul to see what makes them tick is something I’ve never really done before.”

The fact he’d done it well enough to make this shortlist left him struggling to speak when he heard the news.

“I was genuinely speechless,” he recalls. “I couldn’t put together a coherent answer, I said two or three words and then I managed a disbelieving snort.”

Which could make for an interesting victory speech this afternoon.

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PR CONSULTANCY

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JSC has over twelve years’ experience in PR and communications specialising in the lifestyle, sports, food & drink and venue sectors. While we were born in a traditional media landscape of print, television and radio we have de nitely grown up in the digital era! While we still hold dear the values of contacts, creativity (bucket loads of it!) and exceptional writing skills, we are fully versed in how to build traction online through social media.

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ROLLS OF HONOUR

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

INTERNATIONAL

THE CLIVE GRAHAM TROPHY

TRAINER OF THE YEAR

RACING WRITER OF THE YEAR

Ian Balding John Dunlop Luca Cumani Ian Balding Clive Brittain Sir Michael Stoute Paul Cole Luca Cumani Henry Cecil Paul Cole Paul Cole Paul Cole John Dunlop John Dunlop Peter Chapple-Hyam Sir Michael Stoute Sir Michael Stoute Saeed bin Suroor Saeed bin Suroor Saeed bin Suroor

1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Aidan O’Brien Dermot Weld Pascal Bary Ed Dunlop Andrew Balding Brian Meehan Aidan O’Brien John Gosden Mick Channon John Gosden Aidan O’Brien Marco Botti Ed Dunlop David Simcock John Gosden Charlie Appleby Charlie Appleby Charlie Appleby

OWNER OF THE YEAR 1967 1968 1969 1970

Jim Joel Lord Allendale Earl of Rosebery Charles W.Engelhard & David McCall 1971 John & Jean Hislop 1972 Lady Beaverbrook 1973 Louis Freedman 1974 Peter O’Sullevan 1975 Dr Carlo Vittadini 1976 Daniel Wildenstein 1977 HM The Queen 1978 David McCall 1979 Snailwell Stud Co. 1980 Pat Muldoon 1981 HH Aga Khan 1982 Paul Mellon 1983 Robert Barnett 1984 Eric Moller 1985 Lord Howard de Walden 1986 Prince Khalid Abdulla 1987 Louis Freedman 1988 Jim Joel 1989 Hamdan Al Maktoum 1990 Hamdan Al Maktoum 1991 Prince Fahd Salman 1992 Bill Gredley 1993 Robert Sangster 1994 Jeff Smith 1995 Godolphin 1996 Godolphin 1997 Peter Winfield 1998 The Summit Partnership 1999 Michael Tabor 2000 HH Aga Khan 2001 Sue Magnier & Michael Tabor 2002 Sir Alex Ferguson 2003 Jim Lewis 2004 Lord Derby 2005 Graham Wylie

84

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Anthony & Victoria Pakenham Clive Smith Paul Barber and Mrs Maggie Findlay Christopher Tsui Prince Khalid Abdullah Prince Khalid Abdullah Prince Khalid Abdullah HE Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani Prince Khalid Abdullah Anthony Oppenheimer Coolmoore Prince Khalid Abdullah John Dance

From 1969 until 1973 there was a separate category National Hunt Owner of the Year. The winners were: 1969 Edward Courage 1970 Bryan Jenks 1971 Colonel Bill Whitbread 1972 Mrs John Rogerson 1973 Noel le Mare

Quintin Gilbey (Sporting Chronicle) John Lawrence (Daily Telegraph) Geoffrey Hamlyn (Sporting Life) George Stevens (Birmingham Mail) Clive Graham & Peter O’Sullevan (Daily Express) Roger Mortimer (Sunday Times) Richard Baerlein (The Guardian/Observer) Tom Cosgrove (London Evening News) Peter Scott (Daily Telegraph) Peter Willett (Sporting Chronicle) Brough Scott (Sunday Times) Tim Richards (Daily Mirror) Christopher Poole (Evening Standard) Michael Seely & Michael Phillips (The Times) Jonathan Powell (The People) George Ennor (Sporting Life) Bill Garland (Press Association) John Sharratt (Raceform) Jim Stanford (Daily Mail) Peter O’Sullevan (BBC) Peter Goodall (Press Association) Geoff Lester (Sporting Life) Michael Seely (The Times) Tony Morris (Racing Post) John Sexton (Express & Star, Wolverhampton) James A. McGrath (Daily Telegraph) Paul Haigh (Racing Post) Alastair Down (Sporting Life) Richard Evans (The Times) David Ashforth (Sporting Life) Rodney Masters (Racing Post) Claude Duval (The Sun) Alastair Down (Racing Post) Alan Amies (Raceform) Alan Lee (The Times) Tom O’Ryan (Racing Post) Clare Balding (BBC) & Doug Moscrop (Newcastle Journal) Alan Lee (The Times) Richard Edmondson (The Independent) Tim Richards (Freelance) Chris McGrath (The Independent) David Ashforth (Racing Post) Greg Wood (The Guardian) Brough Scott (Racing Post) Lee Mottershead (Racing Post) Alastair Down (Racing Post) Chris McGrath (The Independent) Alan Lee (The Times) Alastair Down (Racing Post) Tom Kerr (Racing Post) Chris McGrath (Racing Post) Alastair Down (Racing Post)

ALEC RUSSELL/TOM O’RYAN TROPHY

CONTRIBUTION TO NORTHERN RACING 2019

Walter Glynn

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

FLAT

NATIONAL HUNT

TRAINER OF THE YEAR

JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

1967 Sir Noel Murless 1968 Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort 1969 Harvey Leader 1970 Vincent O’Brien 1971 Ian Balding 1972 Bruce Hobbs 1973 Arthur Budgett 1974 Peter Walwyn 1975 Dick Hern 1976 Henry Cecil 1977 Vincent O’Brien 1978 Sir Michael Stoute 1979 Henry Cecil 1980 Dick Hern 1981 Guy Harwood 1982 David Chapman 1983 John Dunlop 1984 Ron Sheather 1985 Henry Cecil 1986 Sir Michael Stoute 1987 Henry Cecil 1988 David Chapman 1989 Dick Hern

1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2017 2018

Jack Berry Paul Cole Richard Hannon Richard Hannon Mark Johnston John Dunlop Henry Cecil Sir Michael Stoute Saeed bin Suroor Henry Cecil John Oxx Aidan O’Brien Mark Johnston Sir Michael Stoute Saeed bin Suroor Michael Bell Marcus Tregoning Peter Chapple-Hyam Aidan O’Brien John Oxx Richard Hannon Sir Henry Cecil Aidan O’Brien John Gosden

1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2017 2018

Peter Scudamore Peter Niven Richard Dunwoody Adrian Maguire Norman Williamson AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy Ruby Walsh AP McCoy Ruby Walsh Ruby Walsh AP McCoy AP McCoy AP McCoy Richard Johnson Richard Johnson

NATIONAL HUNT

FLAT

TRAINER OF THE YEAR

JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

Fred Rimell Colin Davies Arthur Stephenson Fred Winter David Barons Fulke Walwyn Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain Gordon Richards Tony Dickinson Peter Easterby Fred Winter Peter Easterby Peter Easterby Peter Easterby Michael Dickinson Michael Dickinson Jenny Pitman Tim Forster Nicky Henderson Nicky Henderson David Elsworth Martin Pipe Martin Pipe Martin Pipe Mary Reveley

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2017 2018

Nigel Twiston Davies David Nicholson Kim Bailey Jim Old Martin Pipe Martin Pipe Paul Nicholls Noel Chance Martin Pipe Henrietta Knight Philip Hobbs Henrietta Knight Paul Nicholls Paul Nicholls Paul Nicholls Paul Nicholls Paul Nicholls Nigel Twiston-Davies Donald McCain Colin Tizzard Nicky Henderson

1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991

Sir Henry Cecil Richard Hannon Richard Hannon

2015 2016

John Gosden Aidan O’Brien

Doug Smith Sandy Barclay Geoff Lewis Lester Piggott Willie Carson Edward Hide Tony Murray Pat Eddery Joe Mercer Brian Taylor Willie Carson Greville Starkey Joe Mercer Lester Piggott Lester Piggott Lester Piggott Willie Carson Steve Cauthen Steve Cauthen Pat Eddery Steve Cauthen Michael Roberts Willie Carson Lanfranco Dettori Alan Munro

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2017 2018

Michael Roberts Kevin Darley Lanfranco Dettori Lanfranco Dettori Lanfranco Dettori Kieren Fallon Kieren Fallon Richard Quinn Kevin Darley Michael Kinane Richard Hughes Kieren Fallon Lanfranco Dettori Jamie Spencer Ryan Moore Seb Sanders Johnny Murtagh Michael Kinane Paul Hanagan Silvestre De Sousa Frankie Dettori Oisin Murphy

JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

TRAINER OF THE YEAR 2012 2013 2014

Josh Gifford Brian Fletcher Stan Mellor Terry Biddlecombe Graham Thorner Bob Davies Ron Barry Richard Pitman Tommy Stack Jeff King Tommy Stack Jonjo O’Neill Tommy Carmody Jonjo O’Neill Bob Champion Peter Scudamore John Francome John Francome John Francome Peter Scudamore Peter Scudamore Chris Grant Peter Scudamore Peter Scudamore

2012 2013 2014

Richard Hughes A P McCoy Ryan Moore

2015 2016

Lanfranco Dettori Jim Crowley

85

ROLLS OF HONOUR PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Mark Cranham Alec Russell Edward Whitaker John Grossick Anne Grossick Edward Whitaker Edward Whitaker Dan Abraham Bill Selwyn Edward Whitaker David Dew Hugh Routledge

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Alan Crowhurst Dan Abraham Mel Fordham Edward Whitaker Alan Crowhurst Edward Whitaker Dan Abraham Edward Whitaker Dan Abraham Edward Whitaker

BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Clare Balding Robert Cooper Mike Cattermole Nick Luck Nick Luck Nick Luck Matt Chapman Nick Luck

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Clare Balding Nick Luck Nick Luck John Hunt Nick Luck Luke Harvey Jason Weaver

JOHN OAKSEY TROPHY

PICTURE OF THE YEAR 2012 2013 2014 2015

P E T E R O’ S U L L E VA N T R O P H Y

Tracy Roberts Julian Herbert Dan Abraham Patrick McCann

2016 2017 2018

Patrick McCann Megan Ridgwell Edward Whitaker

RACING REPORTER OF THE YEAR 2012 2013 2014 2015

Chris Cook (The Guardian) Jon Lees (Racing Post) Chris Cook (The Guardian) Graham Dench (Racing Post)

2016 2017 2018

Marcus Townend (Daily Mail) Marcus Armytage (Daily Telegraph) Bill Barber (Racing Post)

THE GEORGE ENNOR TROPHY FOR

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Dermot Weld Vincent O’Brien Lester Piggott Peter Easterby Sir Peter O’Sullevan CBE Captain Tim Forster Peter Walwyn Johnny Murtagh Graham Rock Ian Balding Pat Eddery Peter Willett Peter Sayer Ginger McCain Nigel Payne

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Ed Byrne, Gerry Cranham & Alec Russell Barry Hills Rod Fabricius Michael Jarvis John Dunlop Jack Berry Clive Brittain Norman Gundill Geoff Greetham Seamus Buckley Richard Pitman

PRESIDENT’S AWARD 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010

Jim Old Stable Staff Major Dick Hern CVO Jack Berry Ray Cochrane John Reid Lord Oaksey George Ennor Reg Hollinshead Martin Pipe JP McNamara Colin Mackenzie AP McCoy

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

FILM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Committee of the HWPA are most grateful to Racing TV, Sky Sports Racing and ITV, for kindly allowing their footage to be used in the Derby Awards ceremony.

Special thanks are due to Tim Williams, Tim Goodden and Rachael Jackson at ITV racing; Kieran Tuley, Christine McElhinney and Ben Evans at Racing TV; and Debbie Burt of the ARO.

COMMITTEE OF THE ASSOCIATION

President: Marcus Townend Vice President: David Cleary Treasurer: Brian Goodwill Dan Abraham, Francesca Altoft, Bobby Beevers, David Carr, Graham Dench, Will Hayler, Steve Payne, Tom Peacock, Louise Pollard

PRESIDENTS OF THE ASSOCIATION 1967-1973 1973-1994 1994-2004 2004-2008 2008-2011 2011-2017 2017-

86

Clive Graham George Ennor John Sexton Geoff Lester Will Hayler Steven Cargill Marcus Townend

THE DERBY AWARDS 53rd Annual Luncheon

Frankel BBC Racing Derek Thompson Jonjo O’Neill American Pharoah David Elsworth Mark & Deirdre Johnston

2019

TURF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS • LONGINES Hong Kong Cup

• LONGINES Hong Kong Mile

• LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint

• LONGINES Hong Kong Vase

#HKIR

Racecourse entrants must be aged 18 or above.

Don’t gamble your life away.

www.hkjc.com/HKIR

2019/20

DEC 8 SHA TIN