Flat Trainer of the Year

FLAT

TRAINER of the Year

CHARLIE APPLEBY ANDREW BALDING

WILLIAM HAGGAS SIR MARK PRESCOTT

FLAT TRAINER OF THE YEAR by Jonathan Harding THE NOMINATIONS

CHARLIE APPLEBY

Even by his standards, it was a year to remember for Charlie Appleby. The trainer is poised to win his second championship and sent out more than 140 British winners for the second time in his career. However, that tells only half the story, as it is on the big stages that Appleby excelled.

He started the season with a bang, winning three Classics, the 2,000 Guineas, Irish 2,000 Guineas and Poule d’Essai des Poulains in the space of a month. That form rolled on to Royal Ascot, where Appleby landed the St James’s Palace Stakes with Coroebus and Platinum Jubilee Stakes with Naval Crown.

The trainer had a good record away from home, too, and Rebel’s Romance won two German Group 1s before readily winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland last month. Appleby recorded a hat-trick at the meeting last year and repeated the feat, with Modern Games and Mischief Magic also scoring in the US. Since the turn of the year, he has won 37 Group or Graded races at home and abroad, a staggering return for a trainer with plenty of stars to look forward to next campaign.

ANDREW BALDING

Andrew Balding helped to take British racing to a new audience with the release of Horsepower, a documentary broadcast on Amazon Prime that followed the trainer and his team at Kingsclere between October 2020 and last year’s Royal Ascot.

The trainer may have wished the cameras were on hand this year, too, as he enjoyed plenty of big-race success, including with Alcohol Free. The four-year-old won the Sussex Stakes over a mile last year but failed to make an impression in her next four starts over the trip, prompting an inspired move to drop her back to six furlongs. She won the July Cup at Newmarket and was one of two Group 1 winners for the yard alongside Chaldean, who rose through the ranks this year and is now a leading contender for next year’s 2,000 Guineas.

He won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes, Group 2 Champagne Stakes and took the step up to the top table in his stride when landing the Dewhurst Stakes in October.

Balding also won the Group 2 Doncaster Cup with Coltrane, who lowered the colours of Trueshan, and the Royal Lodge with The Foxes

WILLIAM HAGGAS

“We’ll look back and say how bloody lucky we were to have Baaeed”, said William Haggas, speaking to the Racing Post’s Peter Thomas in October.

The trainer’s season was largely defined by the Cartier Horse of the Year, who captured our imaginations when extending his unbeaten record to ten and exceeded all expectations after a perfect threeyear-old season.

Following Group 1 wins in the Lockinge, Queen Anne and Sussex Stakes, Baaeed stepped up in trip with a scintillating success in the Juddmonte International at York before falling short on his final start in the Champion Stakes in October.

With great horses comes great responsibility and Haggas took the extra media attention in his stride. While the focus may have been on one horse, his other stars were also more than pulling their weight.

Alenquer won the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in May under Tom Marquand, who was also on board when Lillie Langtry winner Sea La Rosa scored at the top level in the Prix de Royallieu at Longchamp in October. They were among a number of Group winners for the yard and while there was no fairytale end for Baaeed, it was still a memorable year.

SIR MARK PRESCOTT

There are few things left for Sir Mark Prescott to achieve in racing after a career spanning more than 50 years but he still managed to tick a major item off his bucket list this season when stable star Alpinista provided him with a breakthrough success in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The veteran Newmarket trainer made a rare foray to France to watch Kirsten Rausing’s talented grey tough it out to win the Group 1 and there was a groundswell of good feeling towards Prescott, who was praised for taking the road less travelled with Alpinista.

After winning three German Group 1s in 2021, the five-year-old began her campaign with victory in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud before beating Tuesday in the Yorkshire Oaks in August. She was denied a potential swansong in the Japan Cup after a minor setback and retired with eight Group victories to her name.

It was suggested that might prompt Prescott to also call time on his extraordinary career but reports of his retirement proved greatly exaggerated and the hunt for the next Alpinista will now begin in earnest for the master of Heath House..