| EXCELLENCE IN EQUINE NUTRITION |
TRAINER OF THE QUARTER
ROG ER CHARLTON
The TRM Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Roger Charlton. Roger and his team will receive a selection of products from the internationally acclaimed range of TRM supplements, as well as a bottle of fine Irish whiskey. Oscar Yeadon
he Irish Champion Stakes marked Decorated Knight’s third Group 1 success of 2017 in a campaign which started seven months earlier, and he follows in the tradition of numerous other Charlton-trained horses who have enjoyed lengthy and successful careers. Owned by Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar, the five-year-old Decorated Knight joined the Charlton string nearly two years ago and his trainer says he was initially a horse who needed to learn to settle. “We worked Decorated Knight mainly by himself, and to his strengths. He gradually learned
T
08
TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 59
Caroline Norris to settle and stay better, to finish off races to better effect. He’s a more mature horse now, he has travelled overseas a few times, and we have just kept him cantering away.” Charlton attributes the calmness of Decorated Knight in part to the tranquil setting of his Beckhampton Stables, in the Marlborough Downs, around 20 miles south west of Lambourn. Signs of progress were readily apparent last season as Decorated Knight won in Listed and then Group company, which led connections to take him across the Atlantic to the Grade 1 Arlington Million.
A pre-race injury meant that Decorated Knight didn’t run in America and brought an early end to his campaign, but he picked up in 2017 where he left off last year. After winning Lingfield’s Winter Derby trial on his seasonal debut, a month later he landed the Group 1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan. Further top-flight success came his way in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, as well as a fine effort when second to Highland Reel in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. A below-par performance in the Juddmonte International at York was