2021 HWPA

PATRON: EARL OF DERBY PRESIDENT: DAVID CLEARY

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon MONDAY 6TH DECEMBER 2021 Lancaster London, Lancaster Terrace W2 2TY

Expert Eye

#Alleyesonthefuture

2015 Acclamation - Exemplify (Dansili)

First runners in 2022 Expert Eye’s first two books of mares included the dams or sisters to the following notable Group-winning 2YOs: PRETTY POLLYANNA FLEETING SPIRIT SPECIOSA HAVANA GOLD TOORMORE JAMES GARFIELD MEHMAS RESTIADARGENT SHOWCASING ZEBEDEE BUNGLE INTHEJUNGLE

Gr.1 Gr.1 (2YO Gr.2 winner) Gr.1 (2YO Gr.2 winner) Gr.1 (2YO Gr.3 winner) Gr.1 Gr.2 Gr.2 Gr.2 Gr.2 Gr.2 Gr.3

As well as the dams or sisters to Group-winning sprinter/milers: GLASS SLIPPERS FALLEN FOR YOU MUARRAB LIGHTNING SPEAR PROHIBIT SIGNS OF BLESSING SLADE POWER TWILIGHT SON OVERDOSE DANDY MAN HEERAAT

Gr.1 Gr.1 Gr.1 Gr.1 Gr.1 Gr.1 Gr.1 Gr.1 Gr.2 Gr.3 Gr.3

Contact Shane Horan, Claire Curry or Henry Bletsoe +44 (0)1638 731115 | nominations@juddmonte.co.uk

www.juddmonte.com

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GROUP/STAKES WINNERS COVERED IN HIS FIRST TWO BOOKS OF MARES

Four times more than Acclamation and his sons Dark Angel and Mehmas in their first two seasons

WELCOME By the President

Uncertainty was the first word in my predecessor Marcus Townend’s welcoming remarks in this brochure in 2019, though none of us then present knew just how uncertain the next two years would be.

The first outbreak of what would be known as Covid-19 had already happened in Wuhan, China, but Covid and Wuhan, along with furlough, lockdown, Zoom calls and many of the other then-obscure words we’ve become so familiar with would have meant little to the 600 at the Lancaster Hotel that December lunchtime.

The biggest period of uncertainty that many of us have ever known would burst upon us little over three months later.

The impact was profound, affecting every nation on earth. It continues to this day and will probably be with us for years to come.

That racing, our own small pool, has survived more or less in one piece, is something that those of us who earn our living from the sport ought to feel thankful for, even if our earnings might have taken a hit.

The sport’s stakeholders – the courses and participants – pulled together in 2020, marshalled by the BHA and the RCA, to ensure a pretty rapid resumption of play, though with limited or no attendance for over a year. Those of us in the media, though we occasionally found some of the limits placed on us irksome, were given a fair crack of the whip as well.

That cases of Covid occurred only in isolated incidents within the sport was in no small part due to the protocols put in place under the instruction of Dr Jerry Hill of the BHA. His role was recognised by the HWPA, in awarding Dr Hill the George Ennor Award in 2020.

Although there was no Lunch last December, the Awards themselves were made, and the HWPA is grateful to SkySportsRacing for producing and broadcasting an Awards show. Those winners missed out on a moment on stage, of course, so it seemed appropriate to honour the writers and photographers of 2020 at the start of this year’s ceremony.

Other than that, the event remains much as it ever was.

Four hours of good food, good wine, good company, at a

celebration of the sport we all love. We hope everyone is just pleased to be back among friends, at the best lunch in racing.

The HWPA is most grateful for the continued sponsorship of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Coral and Vertem Asset Management. Without their generous backing, this event would not be possible.

I am personally indebted to my colleagues on the HWPA Committee, all of whom give of their time freely and for free, particularly our Treasurer, David Carr. Emma Carr and Jennie Prest have also done so much to ensure today can go off without a hitch.

Fingers crossed.

David Cleary The HWPA Committee is most grateful for their help in sourcing the images used in the Gone But Not Forgotten montage to Mark Cranham, John Grossick, Chris Pitt, Heather Mathieu and Racing Post.

In addition, thanks are also due to Debbie Burt, Patrick McCann, Louise Pollard, Tracy Roberts, Hugh Routledge, Bill Selwyn, George Selwyn, Edward Whitaker and Alan Wright for supplying photographs for this Brochure.

www.hwpa.org @HorseraceMedia @HorseraceMedia

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HONG KONG

BY J A M C G R ATH

Hong Kong marked its 50th year of professional racing in 2021 but there was hardly the chance for an appropriate celebration.

Tough Covid restrictions scuppered what might have been an opportunity to publicly recall all that has been achieved in five eventful decades.

A new racecourse opened at Sha Tin in the New Territories in 1978, while the state-of-the-art training centre Conghua was established 40 years later on the outskirts of Guangzhou, China’s port city on the Pearl River. There were also regular upgrades of facilities at city track Happy Valley, nestling below the skyscrapers in its spectacular setting in downtown Hong Kong.

And in all that time, there has been a constant improvement in the quality of horse imported, so much so that Golden Sixty, Hong Kong’s reigning Horse Of The Year, earned a rating of 124 in the 2020 World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, placing him within 6lb of top-rated Ghaiyyath.

Judging by his seasonal debut at Sha Tin on November 21, Golden Sixty can make further progress in an international context when he tackles his next big target, the Hong Kong Mile on December 12, where he’ll face strong opposition from Europe and Japan and has a good opportunity to update his current global status.

The ‘Royal’ was dropped from the Jockey Club’s name with Britain’s handing back of Hong Kong to China in 1997, and British officials, who were in charge in those early professional days, have been superseded by counterparts from Germany, the United States and Australia. The evolution has firmly established Hong Kong as a racing capital of growing importance and influence.

But it cannot be stressed enough that this thriving racing environment has been made possible by the direct contribution of the Hong Kong punter, whose enthusiasm and passion for horse racing knows no bounds, as has been underlined by the amazing betting figures returned in recent years.

The Covid pandemic hit Hong Kong racing very hard. Crowds were curtailed. Only 362 people were permitted on course at Sha Tin for the opening day of the season in September 2020, while 17,563 were welcomed on track on the corresponding day in 2021. In normal circumstances, up to 70,000 can be accommodated. Telephone betting call centres were made redundant, and over 100 off course betting shops closed.

All betting was channelled through online betting accounts. Many senior punters, more accustomed to carrying wads of cash to the betting shops, bought smartphones, tablets, and laptops, and learned the new skill of placing a bet on-line.

The turnover figures for the 2020-21 racing season were staggering, particularly in view of the Covid situation. A total of £12.67 billion was bet on 835 races at 88 meetings in the season stretching from September to mid-July. This represented an incredible 12% increase in turnover year on year.

And the 2021-22 season has started in much the same vein, with a record first day turnover in September coming in at £138.7 million, an increase of 4.3% on the previous year, which was itself a record.

Winfried Englebrecht-Bresges, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s CEO, commented: “It shows the importance of horse racing to the Hong Kong public.” That has never been in dispute at any time in living memory. It makes Hong Kong a unique racing environment in a constantly changing world.

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LANCASTER LONDON

MENU DOUBLE BAKED SMOKED HADDOCK AND CAERPHILLY CHEESE SOUFFLÉ Leek fondue, whole grain mustard sauce and watercress

GRILLED KING OYSTER MUSHROOM AND ASPARAGUS GNOCCHI Wilted spinach, pecorino beignets, tarragon butter sauce, crispy sage and toasted hazelnuts (V)

ROAST SALT-MARSH CANNON OF LAMB Brown butter and sweet potato mash, wilted spinach, heirloom carrots and minted lamb jus

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

CRÈME BRÛLÉE Cinnamon shortbread

Coffee, tea, petit fours and miniature mince pies

WINES TREBBIANO CHARDONNAY 2018 LA PRENSA CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2018 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 cannot guarantee the above choice will be available.

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THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

Supported by

THE DERBY

AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

9 ..................................................... 2020 Winners 11........................................ International Trainer 15............................................Picture of the Year 19.............. Arabian Racing Achievement Award 21 ..........................................Reporter of the Year 25 ............................................Owner of the Year 33 ............................................. Flat Jockey of the Year 36 ...................................................... President’s Award 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 .................................. Broadcaster of the Year 63 ............................Specialist Writer of the Year 66 ...................................... George Ennor Trophy 69 ................................Photographer of the Year 79.............................Racing Writer of the Year

Toasts

THE QUEEN

By Emma Berry

Hosted by

NICK LUCK 7

Congratulations to all the winners

The home of British and Irish racing

35 British courses 26 Irish courses 90% of all Group / Graded races 1st for presenters and pundits

Visit racingtv.com for more details 1

RACECOURSE UPDATE

HORSERACE WRITER & PHOTOGRAPHER Award Winners of 2020

FRANCESCA ALTOFT

BILL BARBER

DAVID CARR

CHRIS COOK

Picture of the Year

Specialist Writer

Racing Writer of the Year

Reporter of the Year

NICK LUCK

TRACY ROBERTS

NICK SEDDON

Broadcaster of the Year

Photographer of the Year

Alan Lee Trophy

HWPA Goodwood Golf Day Results INDIVIDUAL 1ST Jay Ball TEAM RESULTS

The HWPA would like to thank most warmly Qatar for their sponsorship of the Annual Golf Day, as well as the team at Goodwood Racecourse and at the Goodwood Golf Course itself for their assistance in organising the event and for the smooth running of the day itself.

In addition, huge thanks are due to Rupert Bell, Rachel Candelora and Mark Johnson who did much of the organising on the HWPA side.

1ST

Jay Ball, Mattie Batchelor, Lee Brett and Ross Keefe

2ND

Rachel Candelora, Ben Evans, Mark Johnson and Chris Payne

3RD

Bruce Archer, Rich Gardner, Anthony Minoprio and Jason Singh

Additional Awards HWPA CHAMPION GOLFER OF THE YEAR Anthony Minoprio NEAREST THE PIN Jason Kerbey LONGEST DRIVE Colin Cox

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‘Serving the thoroughbred industry for more than 50 years’ The IRB are delighted to sponsor the International trainer category for the 41st year and send special congratulations to the four nominees for their international achievements in 2021

THIS YEAR’S NOMINATED TRAINERS ARE

Charlie Appleby • Ralph Beckett • John & Thady Gosden • William Haggas • 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, Racing Victoria, Sandown Park Racecourse, Swedish Jockey Club, 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

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

INTERNATIONAL TRAINER of the Year

CHARLIE APPLEBY

RALPH BECKETT

JOHN & THADY GOSDEN WILLIAM HAGGAS

Remarkably, given the negative impact of Covid upon international travel, 2021 could yet become the highest grossing year ever in terms of overseas prize money earned by British trainers.

At the time of writing, the total is a little shy of the blockbusting £29.7 million accrued in 2018 but it is already the second largest tally. And, given the riches on offer at the Hong Kong International meeting this coming Sunday, the £30 million barrier could yet be broken, so good luck Pyledriver and Dubai Honour.

Despite the obstacles thrown up by both Covid and Brexit, it has been a fabulous season, and one worth celebrating.

Of course, the single biggest factor was our successful participation at the Saudi Cup meeting – a fixture that has only been going for two years.

During one fine February evening in Riyadh, over £8 million was pouched, giving the year a magnificent kickstart.

Outside of our four nominees, numerous other trainers deserve plaudits for their spectacular foreign marauding.

The splendid Lord Glitters, a long-priced winner of the valuable Bahrain International Trophy for David O’Meara just a couple of weeks ago, set the ball rolling way back in January with the first of a pair of big money Meydan events, while on Saudi Cup Day itself Andrew Balding somehow managed to bank £817,518 without even saddling a winner – thanks to Bangkok and Spanish Mission in Riyadh and Berkshire Rocco down the road in Bahrain.

Mark Johnston’s Subjectivist was even more dominant in the Dubai Gold Cup than he was in the Ascot version, Sir Mark Prescott’s Alpinista had the likes of Torquator Tasso in her wake when landing a German Group 1 hat-trick, while the Roger Varian-trained Teona produced two top class efforts to land the Prix Vermeille and take third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

And I bet the pugnacious Paul Nicholls has rarely been happier than when, a few weeks after the Cheltenham Festival debacle, he took on the Irish on their home ground at Punchestown and beat them with Clan des Obeaux.

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INTERNATIONAL TRAINER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY JAMES CRISPE

CHARLIE APPLEBY

RALPH BECKETT

‘I Like To Be In Amer-ri-ca’. So said Stephen Sondheim and Charlie Appleby must surely agree.

Since Look Here gave him a breakthrough victory in the 2008 Oaks, Group 1 successes have been hard to come by for Ralph Beckett - just another three in the next 13 years.

Horses hailing from his Moulton Paddocks base contested ten North American Grade 1 races during 2021 and won no fewer than eight of them, twice being followed home by a stablemate. Throw in the Jockey Club Derby at Belmont, a Grade 1 in all but name won by Yibir, and Appleby had an incredible nine big transatlantic triumphs during the year.

His crowning glory was, of course, the Breeders’ Cup, where one third of his declared runners played up so badly in the stalls that they had to be withdrawn but three of the four that did start came home in front, landing arguably the meeting’s three most prestigious turf contests.

His strike rate around Europe wasn’t quite so outstanding, but it was still pretty handy. Hurricane Lane took both the Irish Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris before his gallant Arc third; Space Blues landed the Prix de la Foret; and, on Coolmore’s doorstep at The Curragh, Native Trail gave his handler a third National Stakes victory in the past four years.

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So October 2021 was a landmark month for the Hampshire handler as Angel Bleu and Scope, two residents of Kimpton Downs Stables who have matured at very different rates, brought three further top level wins via Parisian forays. But for a short head verdict going against Albaflora at Ascot on QIPCO British Champions Day, Beckett would have doubled his Group 1 tally in the space of three weeks.

The two-year-old Angel Bleu is a remarkable animal, quite different to your average Beckett type, as he was ready to run in early April and has responded brilliantly to an aggressive campaign, winning not just the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and Criterium International in quick succession but also landing a Goodwood Group 2 just three days after an Ascot defeat.

Scope, out of a half-sister to Look Here, fits much closer to the usual Beckett template and, following his Prix Royal-Oak victory, looks set to be one of Europe’s top stayers next season.

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

JOHN & THADY GOSDEN

WILLIAM HAGGAS

If this award was judged solely by overseas prize money gained (as it once was), John and Thady Gosden would have had it all wrapped up before the season had begun in earnest.

Having landed this award for the first time last year, William Haggas has made a very good fist of defending his title. He and his staff negotiated the minefield of gaining access to Sydney mid pandemic and all the hassle proved hugely worthwhile for both them and their jockey, Tom Marquand.

Already proven on Riyadh’s forgiving dirt surface having run so well in the previous year’s Saudi Derby, Mishriff turned away no less a rival than Knicks Go on the home bend before going on to land the Saudi Cup, pocketing a cool £7.3 million in the process. Job done.

Not resting on his laurels, he moved on to Meydan five weeks later and, back on turf, lifted the Longines Dubai Sheema Classic on the same night that stable companion Lord North took the Dubai Turf.

The Stanley House overseas coffers must have been full to bursting by now, but they were topped up later in the year by the French successes of Palace Pier in the Prix Jacques Le Marois and Loving Dream in the Prix de Royallieu, to reach an annual total of an almost unimaginable £12 million, way more than Gosden senior, already a four-time winner of this award, had ever previously managed.

Following a pipe-opening second in the Ranvet Stakes, Addeybb reversed those placings with his old rival and future Melbourne Cup heroine, Verry Elleegant, to land a second straight Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, with the race now worth £1,367,697 to the winner – double its value of the previous year.

In contrast to the trusty seven-year-old, Addeybb, Haggas’s other two foreign standard bearers were unlikely candidates in the shape of the three-year-olds, Baaeed and Dubai Honor.

In early June this pair were respectively unraced and about to be beaten in a handicap off a mark of just 91. Baaeed’s perfect sixfrom-six season included a smooth success in the Prix du Moulin at ParisLongchamp while Dubai Honour won two French Group 2s, one of them Europe’s richest race of that grade.

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Congratulations to all the winners of the 2021 HWPA Derby Awards and thank you to all HWPA members for their continued support of racing at Ascot.

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

PICTURE of the Year

“A striking image, well timed and excellently framed”

“Freakish, aesthetically a good shape, lots going on – capturing the reaction of the groom makes it”

DAN ABRAHAM

FRANCESCA ALTOFT

“A gamble has been taken with a remote at an unusual angle and it really pays off”

“A seemingly everyday image that rewards a second look, capturing racing in Covid times”

PATRICK MCCANN

MATTHEW WEBB

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PICTURE OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY HARRY ALLWOOD

DAN ABRAHAM It’s a picture of a horse going over a hurdle, silhouetted with a nice big sun behind it. It was at Huntingdon, one of my local tracks, and I absolutely love going there as there are very big skies and you can get wonderful sunsets. I specifically knew what I was going to do when I went to get the shot and, luckily, I had three chances to do it I didn’t go to get a photo of a certain horse; I was just after the perfect silhouette. It was just a good horse doing a good jump, with the sun going down in the background. I like to get five or six of these sorts of photos every year as it keeps a lot of the people I work for happy as they like things like that.

FRANCESCA ALTOFT The photo is of a horse called Tease And Seize, who was trained by Rod Millman at the time, at Bath, which is one of the fantastic racecourses I work for. I’d been watching him in the paddock and he had thrown Charlie Bennett off two or three times prior to heading out onto the track. I thought, for my safety, I’m going to get out of the paddock, and I expected there to be fireworks when he headed to post. There certainly were!

I think you have got to be in the right place at the right time to get these types of shots. It’s not something that happens right in front of you every day. The horse actually made it to post and finished second, which was quite remarkable after his exertions beforehand.

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THE DERBY AWARDS 55th year of the Annual Luncheon

PATRICK MCCANN This was at Navan and it was taken with a remote camera in a ditch looking up at the runners as they jump.

The horse is Young Dev, and he has the sun glaring behind him and he’s kicking up the birch. There’s dust and everything flying over him and the perfect glare is coming from the horse’s hindquarters.

Hugh Morgan is the jockey, and he lost his irons at the very first fence but miraculously guided his mount to victory having ridden the race without his irons. There is an element of luck, and you plan the best you can, but everything was perfect for this shot, from the frame of the photo to the position of the horse. The element of stars aligning certainly helped!

MATTHEW WEBB It’s an editorial sort of picture, as it tells a story. It was taken at Exeter during lockdown when racing was taking place behind closed doors, and I came in after one race and there were no owners to greet the winner, Go Millie Go. Her trainer, Stuart Edmunds, wasn’t even there and it was just the jockey, Ciaran Gethings, and the horse with their back to me looking at the big screen watching the replay of the race.

It was a bit of light humour amongst all the doom and gloom at the time, and it made me smile. In the background, there’s one person with a face mask on and an empty grandstand, and it tells the story of what racing was like behind closed doors.

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proud sponsor of the Arabian Racing Achievement Award 2021

Equine MediRecord is a world leader in equine welfare compliance systems for Arabians, Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds, approved by racing regulators in France, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, the UK and the USA. www.equinemedirecord.com

The Arabian Racing Achievement Award

PRESENTED BY

HH SHEIKH HAMDAN BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM Europe to feature four Group PA races alongside a range of highly competitive handicaps, including ones tailored for the sports’ grassroots.

It was always his vision that Arabian racing would one day be fully integrated alongside the thoroughbred racing industry in the UK, as it is in other countries. That this was to happen was announced by ARO and the British Horseracing Authority in December 2019, and though Covid has inevitably slowed its progress, his support for that integration cannot be underestimated.

Through this he leaves Arabian racing a lasting legacy, alongside his 19 ARO Leading Owners titles - 20 if you include this season with his horses now running under the Shadwell Estates banner. His world class leading racehorses such as Madjani and No Risk Al Maury have become leading sires, with stallion sons of their own. Though there will be no Arabian runners in the blue and white in 2022, his best homebred, the seven-time Group 1PA winner Muraaqib, joins two other new sires on the Shadwell Arabian Stallions roster, ensuring his carefully considered bloodlines will continue. Likewise, his recently dispersed horses-in-training were highly sought after for racing, both in the UK and in the Middle East, an acknowledgement of his influence on the breed.

His Highness’s passion was clearly expressed in his aims in supporting ARO. “We want to see more participants in the sport from Britain. We want them to appreciate the beauty and strength of the Arabian horse. It is important to us that people are aware of the noble attributes of the Arabian horse and the thrill that competition in races can bring. We do not want it to be solely a sport for owners from the Middle East. We want everyone to recognise the magnificence of the Arabian horse.”

The impact that HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum had on racing worldwide was remarkable, and his passing in March has been widely mourned. His Highness was also a great champion of Arabian racing and his passion for the breed was instrumental in maintaining and developing Arabian racing in the UK since the 1980s.

When in 1999 the Arabian Racing Organisation was formed, His Highness became its patron. He was also patron of the event affectionately known as ‘Dubai Day’, which he had sponsored since 1984, when it was run by the Arab Horse Society. Later the event was rebranded as the Dubai International Arabian Races, a ‘Champions Day’ for Arabians. It was the only full card of Arabian racing in

In recognition of HH Sheikh Hamdan’s achievements, Charles Gregson, ARO Chairman commented: “We were so very grateful for His Highness’s constant enthusiasm for the Arabian horse for nearly 40 years. Next season marks a turning point for our sport, which if they wish, thoroughbred trainers can now join in. The door is wide open for new champions to make their mark, honour his memory and bring alive his desire for the Arabian horse to gain a wider appreciation.”

by Debbie Burt 19

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

John Oaksey Trophy

REPORTER of the Year

“An entry that offers an excellent investigative piece, backed up by a strong news exclusive”

“An excellent cross-section of work, with two heavyweight exclusives and an original expose”

BILL BARBER

CHRIS COOK

“Had the exclusive of the year, supported by articles displaying flair and punch”

“Three original and hard-hitting pieces, which form a very strong portfolio”

DAVID JENNINGS

PETER SCARGILL

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REPORTER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

CHRIS COOK

BILL BARBER

It does not rank high on the list of problems and inconveniences that Covid-19 has inflicted on everyday existence, but the pandemic did make life difficult for a news reporter such as myself to operate.

As I seldom write directly about the competition on the track itself, the people I speak to are generally involved in governing, organising and financing racing, representing the interests of participants or taking bets on the sport.

My best stories often come from conversations after bumping into people on the racecourse and at conferences - yes, lunches are sometimes involved as well - or from poking my head around the door of a hospitality box and hoping I get invited in.

That all stopped with lockdown. The absence of crowds on racecourses and limits on the number of press people allowed to attend meant there was little point in me going racing.

Instead I would have to use my wits and intelligence to dig up a scoop, a terrifying prospect.

In January it emerged that there was a real possibility that the Gambling Commission could bring in affordability checks which British racing’s leaders feared could wipe tens of millions of pounds from racing’s revenues.

The industry organised an effort for its members to contact their MPs to warn them of their concerns, and with chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak being the local MP for Catterick I thought it was worth calling John Sanderson to see if they had made contact.

John was happy to say they had and what the response had been, which made the perfect lead for a story which kept the momentum going on an important issue.

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It’s 21 years since my brief stint as a solicitor but I still feel drawn to those stories where racing intersects with the law. Listening in on a hearing can be fantastically dull for hours but it’s so often worth it for the five minutes of compelling evidence you might not hear at the races.

Two of my stories this year had a legal angle. First, there is the tragedy of Freddy Tylicki’s paralysing injury at Kempton in 2016 and the question of how it was caused. I reported in April he was pursuing his fellow jockey Graham Gibbons through the courts in a case that may come to a final hearing around the time of the HWPA awards day.

In June, I broke the news that James Longley was suing Paddy Power for £286,000. He had phoned up to ask for £1,300 each-way on Redemptive at 16-1, but somehow their staff processed it as a £13,000 each-way bet.

I wonder if a sequence of events like that has ever happened in a situation where the horse got beat. With the full benefit of hindsight, it was surely inevitable that Redemptive would win, leading to lengthy argument about how much Paddy Power should pay. The firm insisted it was only liable for £28,600 and I was surprised that quite a few punters agreed. As I type, a verdict is still awaited.

Finally, I also wrote about a campaign by jockeys for better changing facilities at the races, some tracks having allowed themselves to fall some way behind what the modern professional athlete is entitled to expect. That story appeared first in the Front Runner, a morning newsletter sent out by the Racing Post five days a week. I hope you’re all signed up to receive it!

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th year of the Annual Luncheon

DAVID JENNINGS

It was, as you can probably understand, not where I had expected to be on the first day of March, and certainly not what I had expected to be reporting on.

A photograph of Gordon Elliott sitting astride a dead horse had gone viral over the weekend and I was the sole reporter granted access to Cullentra House to interview the trainer about what he described as an “indefensible moment of madness”.

It was the first time I have interviewed somebody during a car crash, before the airbags had been released. The pain was real, the scars still bleeding.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to describe the discomfort he was experiencing. And, he knew he had nobody to blame but himself.

I appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme to discuss the moment of madness and my words prompted Zoe Williams to write a column in the Guardian which was headlined ‘Gordon Elliott has shown that horse racing isn’t a love affair between man and animal’.

My second entry was the front page story in the Racing Post on August 5 headlined ‘Why is racing being forgotten in reopening?’ I spoke to Dermot Weld and Jessica Harrington as well as racecourse managers as they united in frustration over restrictions on crowds as other Irish sporting venues like Croke Park opened up to the public.

My final entry was a race report on the 2021 Irish Champion Hurdle, a race won by the brilliant Honeysuckle. It was the day she shot to the summit of the Champion Hurdle market and confirmed herself to be something very special indeed.

PETER SCARGILL

I have an endless fascination with money. Not so much the eternal struggle to get a hold of it oneself, but more how other people do so and then what they choose to do with it.

This was one of the key aspects that drove my investigation into Phoenix Thoroughbreds and continues to motivate efforts to shine a light on some of the darker corners of international horseracing.

Money is rarely far from the top of the agenda in racing and, following the coronavirus pandemic, efforts to refinance and stabilise the sport in Britain were laid out by the BHA in its Covid recovery report.

One of the key pillars to this was the ROA-led Industry Ownership Strategy, funded with £1.2 million of levy cash to create a supposed blueprint for how to boost ownership levels and retention in the sport into the future. So when an insipid document arrived last autumn, further investigation was needed.

Alongside calls to key contacts within the ownership structure of British racing, a treasure trove of documents arrived via a Freedom of Information Act request to the Levy Board. It showcased a confused, directionless process that led to a poor return to the sport for the money invested.

Scrutiny of racing’s leaders is in the public interest of the industry and vital for the sport, particularly when considerable sums of money are being spent. The combination of speaking to sources, acquiring and assessing documents and gaining reaction made this story an important one.

23

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

OWNER

Supported by

of the Year

KENNY ALEXANDER

EMMA BANKS

KIRSTEN RAUSING

JEFF SMITH

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OWNER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY IAN CARNABY

KENNY ALEXANDER

EMMA BANKS

When Kenny Alexander’s Honeysuckle surged up the Cheltenham hill to claim the 2021 Unibet Champion Hurdle she was serving notice that Rachael Blackmore might well be on the verge of making it a truly memorable Cheltenham Festival.

Emma Banks has a wry, self-deprecatory sense of humour. As cohead of the London office of the Creative Arts Agency she also has Katy Perry, Florence and the Machine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Olly Murs, to name but four, on her books. Even so, she will happily acknowledge that racing folk more readily identify her as the owner of Lady Bowthorpe.

The mare’s success meant everything to her owner, whose relentless drive towards the summit of the on-line betting industry meant that he was eventually able to walk away and indulge his life-long passion for National Hunt racing. He is also intent upon adding to the band of broodmares at his Ayrshire stud.

A brief resume of Alexander’s business career is difficult but, as a qualified accountant with an abiding interest in betting, he was simply unstoppable. Some twenty years ago he applied to become a sports trader with Sportingbet and ended up as head of European operations. He then joined GVC and, as CEO, turned it from a £26m minnow to a £4.5bn shark in fiercely competitive waters. The £3.6bn acquisition of Ladbrokes Coral followed in 2018.

It would be inaccurate to describe him as a gambler (even if he once considered becoming a poker professional) but he embraces risk and likes a glass or two.

“A few drinks helps you forget how much things cost!” he grins. “I don’t remember all that much about buying Honeysuckle but we were at Punchestown and Goffs and I just felt I’d end up with her.

Henry de Bromhead has been brilliant. I’ve had horses with David Pipe and Lucinda Russell but most of them are trained in Ireland.”

At GVC, Alexander visited centres where people with gambling addictions were being treated. A shark with crocodile tears? No, just a self-made millionaire examining what caused the harm. Maybe a quieter life was beckoning anyway. If so, the racecourse and the mares will provide it. Except on the days they look like emulating Honeysuckle, of course.

26

A hugely popular mare, Lady Bowthorpe triumphed in the Group 1 Qatar Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood (to the delight of trainer William Jarvis’s small army of friends and supporters) and also won the Group 2 Betfair Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket in the spring. Placed efforts in the Lockinge and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes sent her total earnings well beyond the £600,000 mark.

Banks bought her first thoroughbred as recently as 2014, adding to her racing knowledge from years before. At Reading University her main interests were drama, debating and horses. Later, her rapid progress in the music business meant more time for racing and she was soon successful, Mrs Gallagher winning Listed races at Bath and Naas under Josie Gordon.

Banks is direct but not aggressive. She understands and handles the difference between artists performing before 3,000 people at Shepherd’s Bush and those with fame (and the tabloids) on their doorstep. She still manages time for other interests, the orange in her racing silks a nod towards Luton Town, the team she follows home and away whenever possible.

Perhaps surprisingly, she does not see live music coming to racing’s assistance. “The sport has to help itself. It has to look at what puts people off - euthanasia, abattoirs, Panorama. The whip, even the word ‘whip’ itself, is unacceptable to many.”

“Even on Newmarket Heath, people know who she is,” Jarvis says of Lady Bowthorpe. The way things are going, her owner (who named the mare after her great-grandmother) will soon enjoy similar recognition.

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

KIRSTEN RAUSING

JEFF SMITH

It has been a splendid year for Kirsten Rausing, with winners across the board including one in Ireland. This was Alizarine, trained by Jessie Harrington and successful in a September juvenile maiden at, of all places, Punchestown - a line no one would have written until very recently.

There is a murmur of approval around the unsaddling enclosure whenever Jeff Smith has a prestigious success.

As an owner-breeder, the victory must have given Ms Rausing great satisfaction. Alizarine is by the very talented but lightly-raced German sire Sea The Moon out of her mare Alea Iacta, who raced (and won twice) for Andre Fabre in France. Alizarine’s half-sister Aleas won at Hamilton in July and the family’s exploits nearly took pride of place here.

But Sandrine won three times for Andrew Balding and David Probert before winding up with a highly creditable third in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket and, of course, there is still the little matter of Alpinista.

Brought along with typical patience by Sir Mark Prescott, Frankel’s daughter was always going to shine at four but few would have predicted five straight victories. A Listed success at Goodwood was followed by the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock and then the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin, where she beat subsequent Arc winner Torquator Tasso quite comfortably.

Would she have beaten him at Longchamp? Impossible to say, especially as she had never raced on heavy ground. But she followed Berlin with Group 1 wins at Cologne and Munich and looked every inch a star.

As Rausing’s Swedish grandfather was responsible for the multibillion pound packaging company Tetra Pak, some will say she can do whatever she wants. Others very sensibly admire her Alborada Trust, with funding for medical and veterinary causes, research, animal welfare and relief for the disaster areas of the world.

She lives in the UK, breeds horses at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, and owns Staffordstown Stud in Co Meath. If the form book is any guide, things seem to be going pretty well.

It probably has something to do with his bearing. No one celebrates more quietly or with greater dignity. He allows himself a broad smile with a word of thanks and congratulation for the winning trainer and jockey. These days the trainer may well be Andrew Balding.

Smith, you feel, is the most loyal of patrons. When Alcohol Free won the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket in 2020, it brought back memories of Lochangel, trained by Andrew’s father Ian, landing the Nunthorpe at York in 1998.

Lochangel’s half-sister was the brilliant, charismatic and occasionally wilful filly Lochsong, also trained by I A Balding. But it was Smith who kept the faith and returned her to Kingsclere following a spell at his Littleton Stud when many doubted that she would ever make the racecourse at all. She won three Group 1 races in all. Goodwood Cup hero Persian Punch was nearly as popular, while 50-1 shot Arabian Queen, bred at Littleton, upset 4-9 chance Golden Horn in the Juddmonte International in 2015.

With Alcohol Free going on to beat the colts in the Sussex Stakes in July, Smith was highly likely to become a contender for today’s award. But he would be no 33-1 shot if a bauble for longevity were offered, as well. It is 37 years since his Chief Singer found only the great El Gran Senor too good in the 2000 Guineas and 45 since he raced his first horse, Rush Bond.

A calm, analytical approach helped him become Executive Chairman of AIM Aviation Ltd, while racing has acknowledged his talents, electing him to the Jockey Club and welcoming his chairmanship of Salisbury racecourse.

But it’s the sport itself, and every aspect of it, that fascinates him most. “I still love the game,” he says. “And I’d much rather do this than be sat on a yacht in the middle of the Caribbean.”

27

THE INAUGURAL

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28

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SUPPORTED BY Almost 50 HWPA members took part in this year’s Tipping Competition, kindly supported by Sky Bet, with faces old and new among the field and an impressive 20 showing a profit after their worst score of eight rounds was deducted.

There could only be one overall winner, and he remained in pole position for almost the entire event. Ed Prosser, formerly of Racenews and now a journalist as well as representative for Keeneland sales, is a long-standing competition entrant and turned it into a procession after coming up with 66-1 Aintree hero Ahoy Senor.

Prosser maintained the gallop throughout, despite stiff competition in particular from eventual runner-up Julian Armfield, Sue Russell - who was very unlucky not to have scooped one of the individual round prizes - and top tipster Paul Jones.

Plenty had their moment in the spotlight, with some spectacular tipping from the BBC’s Frank Keogh wrapping up the Cheltenham Festival round by the end of day one.

Finding the Derby winner proved the key to the Classic round at Newmarket and Epsom, with Nigel Spencer, who napped Adayar, taking the honours.

Five days of Royal Ascot tipping proved a stiff test for most competitors but it was a breeze to The Guardian’s Greg Wood, who showed a profit each day and came home eased down. A similar marathon at Glorious Goodwood was taken by an inspired Keith McHugh, while after a few close shaves Richard Williams got his reward in the Ebor meeting thanks to his inspired nap of 33-1 chance The Flying Ginger. The combined Eclipse and July meeting round went the way of Neil Clark.

As the winning line at Doncaster came into sight, no-one finished better than Richard O’Brien with a slew of winners. The competition will return for next year, where we hope plenty more will be inspired to have a go. Overall scores (positives only) *Ed Prosser (£121.16 - £1,000 first prize) *Julian Armfield (£82.42 - £300 second prize) Sue Russell (£80.64) Paul Jones (£72.18) Emma Berry (£65.64) Richard O’Brien (£63.04) Frank Keogh (£48.02) Richard Williams (£43.56) Neil Clark (£39.16) Daragh Ó Conchúir (£33.08)

John Henwood (£29.69) Jason Heavey (£27.61) Jeff Garlick (£17.07) Pat Jupp (£14.70) Jack Millan (£11.14) Angus Loughran (£10.29) Jimmy Clark (£10.22) Nigel Spencer (£5.44) Matt Brocklebank (£3.78) David Cleary (£3.30)

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Supported by

FLAT JOCKEY of the Year

WILLIAM BUICK

HOLLIE DOYLE

OISIN MURPHY

DAVID PROBERT

33

FLAT JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY JAMES STEVENS

WILLIAM BUICK

HOLLIE DOYLE

Most top jockeys will occasionally enjoy a golden spell when they can seemingly do no wrong in the big races. For William Buick, that spell appeared to last all year.

Since making her race-riding debut in 2013, Hollie Doyle has developed into one of the top Flat riders in Britain and last year’s winner of this award enjoyed another brilliant season.

From a brilliant dominance in Dubai up until a super Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup, Buick has been a leading figure in the majority of the world’s biggest races this season.

She finished last season with a famous Champions Day double, and Long Distance Cup winner Trueshan has proved to be her superstar horse in the staying division once again, the pair teaming up for Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup glory in July and repeating their Champions Day success in brave style in October.

There was the odd frustration early on, such as when Master Of The Seas was just touched off in the 2,000 Guineas and when he had a rear view of 40-1 stablemate Adayar from the back of Hurricane Lane in the Derby.

However, the Craven, Dante, Yorkshire Cup and three Royal Ascot winners were in the bag as he notched up his quickest half-century, and further big prizes included the King George, this time on Adayar, before his association with Hurricane Lane provided him with further big days in the Irish Derby, Grand Prix de Paris and St Leger.

Buick also got married on the Sunday after Glorious Goodwood, but there were no signs of pre-wedding nerves as he was crowned top jockey for the meeting with seven winners.

The two-year-old Native Trail shot to stardom under Buick in the National Stakes and the Dewhurst before attention turned to a pulsating battle for the jockeys title and his efforts set up a thrilling climax on the final day of the season.

Unfortunately at the end of a brilliant championship campaign which yielded 151 winners he fell just two winners short, but a memorable year was not finished. For at the Breeders’ Cup he would ride a further three top-level winners to raise his Group 1 tally for 2021 to a staggering 12.

34

That was far from it in terms of big winners for Hollie however. She started the year by giving True Self a brilliant ride to land the ultravaluable Neom Turf Cup in Saudi Arabia, riding for Willie Mullins no less, and went on to land a plethora of good prizes for a broad range of trainers, including the Atalanta, Dick Poole and Firth of Clyde Stakes.

But it is the sheer number of winners Doyle regularly rides which makes her so impressive. A week before the Cheltenham Festival, she had us all talking about all-weather racing, having ridden a mesmerising five-timer at Kempton at odds of 2,521-1. Staying humble, as always, she said in her post-race interview that she wanted “to achieve more”, which is not what her rivals would have wanted to hear.

At the time of writing, with six weeks still to go, her 2021 stands at a scarcely believable 162 winners, already well clear of her record set 151 in the previous season. That also comes at a pretty eye-catching strike-rate of 15 per cent.

The reigning Flat Jockey of the Year has given herself a great chance of taking the award again.

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

OISIN MURPHY

DAVID PROBERT

The Jockeys’ Championship was a fascinating watch from start to finish, but Oisin Murphy ultimately triumphed for an impressive third consecutive season.

A running theme of the Flat season was that of big days for David Probert, who completely trashed his previous best tally.

It took a whopping 153 victories for Murphy to deny William Buick and lift the title on Champions Day at Ascot, rounding off a superb year on the racecourse, but it was far from just a numbers game with the rider enjoying many landmark days.

The Welsh jockey headed into the campaign hoping to better the 112 winners he rode in 2019 and it was evident from an early stage he was well on course to crush that record. As it stands he has ridden 155 winners in the calendar year - and in doing so has registered a best ever strike-rate of 14 per cent.

Murphy experienced the highs and lows of the job in a space of an hour on the biggest stage of them all at Royal Ascot. He had suffered the agony of losing a Group 1 in the stewards room after Dragon Symbol was first past the post in the Commonwealth Cup, but he needed only his next ride to bounce back at racing’s elite level, thanks to a brilliant victory on Alcohol Free in the Coronation Stakes.

By the end of that week he had ridden five winners and been crowned top jockey for the meeting, marking another achievement for the 25-year-old, while Alcohol Free went on to give him an even bigger win when flying down the outside to beat the boys in the Qatar Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.

Big wins did not stop there. While his personal battles off the course became headline news late in the year, he remained as effective as ever on the track and captured further Group 1 prizes on Arc day and at the Breeders’ Cup. Indeed while Murphy did not match his record year of 2019 - Covid restrictions no doubt a factor again - there is a fair argument to make that he is riding better than ever. His strike-rate in the championship rose from 18 per cent in 2020, to 22 per cent.

Among the highlights was a golden spell in July and August which are numerically the best two months of his career. In August alone he rode a whopping 29 winners, very nearly a winner for every day of the month.

Five of those winners came on one brilliant afternoon at Ffos Las, where he shone at his local track. He was quoted in the press afterwards saying he was “loving every minute” of that brilliant summer, and the run did not stop there as he rode a treble the following day.

Probert also made his presence felt in some of the big races, including when guiding top juvenile Sandrine to a somewhat unexpected Albany Stakes success at Royal Ascot. His former mentor Andrew Balding and owner Kirsten Rausing kept him on board, and they were rewarded when she struck in the Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes next time before going on to place in two more top fillies’ races.

Other big wins in a fine season include the York Stakes, the Sweet Solera Stakes, the Melrose Handicap and the Bronte Cup.

35

HWPA President’s Award

JOHN HANMER

BY DAVID CLEARY

36

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

So there we were, myself, ‘Sir Robin’ Gray, J. A. ‘The Croc’ McGrath and John Hanmer, perhaps the most unlikely quartet ever to set foot in a McDonalds.

We were there, just outside Aintree racecourse, about an hour after the bomb scare and evacuation of 1997, John, perhaps the most incongruous of the four.

As we sat trying to find out what on earth was going on it was hard to believe John had ever set foot in one before. He almost certainly hasn’t been in one since.

Aintree was also where I first became aware of John, myself sitting on the sofa, watching the 1973 Grand National, John on scaffolding somewhere near the third fence. Peter O’Sullevan says ‘they come to the first and we join John Hanmer...’

As a non commentator who has been lucky enough to watch a National from that scaffolding, that strikes me as the most frightening moment for any caller, forty unseen horses going flat out, suddenly appearing over a hedge.

Any one of them could fall, and your role is to recall their name in an instant. The BBC had trialled several commentators in that spot in the years before John; that he was there for the rest of the century and into the new one is testament to his abilities.

For well over forty years John was a fixture in the Press room, a thoroughly reliable and generally calm presence, someone who was respected just as much by the participants in the sport as he was by his colleagues.

Commentary was John’s most public role, both for the BBC and on course, though for the BBC he acted principally as a ‘spotter’ for Sir Peter and later for Jim McGrath. He was the original safe pair of hands, there to take the catch on the rare occasion ‘The Voice’ or ‘The Croc’ fumbled the ball. Listen to BBC footage from the period; if you hear an off-stage whisper in a brief pause in commentary, it is likely to be John.

As usual, for races not shown live, John took over duties. With races five and six done and won, a frantic search was made for ‘The Voice’, but he wasn’t to be found (he was in the BBC’s hospitality box), so it was John who got to call Fujiyama Crest’s unforgettable completion of Frankie’s dream day.

As well as a commentator, John was a Raceform racereader for many years and a jockey’s agent, principally for Steve Cauthen and Cash Asmussen. His spell booking rides for Steve Smith Eccles perhaps wasn’t so successful. At Leicester one day, when booked for a novice chaser with more letters than numbers in its form figures, Smith Eccles stormed into the Press room to let his agent know exactly, and pretty bluntly, what he thought of the arrangement.

For Raceform, in the days that they employed a team of two racereaders at each meeting (imagine!), John was usually in the role of assistant to the staff racereaders, mainly to John Sharratt, occasionally to Di Matthews, later to Anthony Kemp. Sharratt, meticulous and short of fuse, Di, delightful but with a firmer grasp of the pen than of what had happened in the race, Anthony, the eager rookie, still learning the ropes; to an observer, it seemed each required a high level of tact to work alongside.

‘The Grand Old Man’ as someone, probably Steve Taylor, tagged him, his maturity – John’s not Steve’s – always there. Impeccably mannered, thoroughly professional, dry of humour, a credit to the sport and to the media, I hope you will agree John Hanmer is a most worthy recipient of the President’s Award.

One occasion when John found himself the main man behind the mic was at Ascot on the day of Frankie’s Magnificent Seven, when the BBC showed the first four races live on Grandstand, with Sir Peter commentating. Sensing the possibility of history in the making, the line was left open to record the last three, just in case.

37

The Alan Lee Trophy for

EMERGING TALENT

N O M I N ATI O N S

The Alan Lee Trophy, which remembers the former racing correspondent of The Times, was created out of a desire to recognise the talent of younger members of the HWPA and was first awarded two years ago.

“Offered a good variety of interview, comment and analysis, his writing with just that bit extra to it”

“A strong, varied set of pieces, the column well-reasoned, the Many Clouds feature a joy”

ADAM HOUGHTON

MADDY PLAYLE

Entrants must be under 30 at the time of closing - two of this year’s finalists qualified by the skin of their teeth - but can be working anywhere within the wide landscape of the racing media, be it broadcast, photography, social media or the traditional media.

It was no easy task whittling down another impressive entry to these six finalists, and the HWPA can be confident about the future health of our media.

“An advanced level of reporting all round, particularly in a cracking feature interview with John Ryan”

“A strong portfolio, showcasing her interviewing skills and way of making a subject easy to understand”

BRIAN SHEERIN

JESS STAFFORD

“Three pieces that made a well-rounded submission, headlined by a totally original Festival feature”

“A portfolio that made a compelling case for why someone behind the scenes should be shortlisted”

JAMES STEVENS

TIM WILLIAMS 39

EMERGING TALENT

THE NOMINATIONS

ADAM HOUGHTON MADDY PLAYLE How old are you? 27

How old are you? 23

What first sparked your interest in racing?

A few people in my family kept horses as pets growing up. I gained an interest in horses that way and I quickly became hooked on racing after a trip to my local track at York, aged 10.

What first sparked your interest in racing?

The Morning Line first sparked my interest in racing when it came on my bedroom TV on Saturday mornings. As someone from a non-racing background I didn’t have a clue what was being said but that didn’t stop me getting hooked!

What was your first job in racing?

I worked in a betting shop for a few months after leaving university before applying for a position as a Content Writer at Timeform in February 2016.

Where are you working now and what do you do?

Timeform is now closely aligned with Sporting Life and my role involves providing content for both as a member of the News and Features team.

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

I’ve enjoyed getting out a bit more and taking on new challenges, such as reporting directly from the racecourse. It’s a different pressure to the day-today stuff in the office and great experience. I should probably mention that I got engaged as well, or my fiancé Angel would never forgive me!

Who are your racing heroes?

Borderlescott gave me a memorable day on one of those early trips to York races, winning at 20-1 with my £1 riding on him. To follow his climb through the ranks over the years that followed was special.

Professionally, Alastair Down is a writer whose work often leaves me in awe and feeling wholly inadequate!

What would be your dream job in racing?

I’m still a total novice when it comes to broadcasting, but the challenge of doing that live from some of the sport’s biggest events must be a massive buzz. That would be exciting.

40

What was your first job in racing?

I was lucky enough to undertake work experience for both Great British Racing and the Racing Post, and joined the latter as an intern in March 2017.

Where are you working now and what do you do?

Four years have flown by and I’m now a digital journalist who does all sorts: presenting, reporting, columns, features and website management.

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

Tipping the Arc winner at 100-1 was a particularly satisfying moment in 2021, but if I’m honest the most rewarding things I’ve done have been either doing several Fans’ Favourites (Un De Sceaux and Many Clouds were great fun to do) or writing my first columns for the main newspaper.

Who are your racing heroes?

I have a lot of respect for anyone who is both thorough and entertaining in their coverage of the sport, so Nick Luck and Lydia Hislop come to mind.

What would be your dream job in racing?

My dream job would be a variation of what I do now but involving more time on camera and on racecourses. There’s nothing better than telling other people’s stories and I’d love to be more hands on in future, while I wouldn’t say no to working in a racing yard in some capacity one day - the horses are at the heart of everything for me and I wish I could spend more time with them.

BRIAN SHEERIN How old are you? 29

What first sparked your interest in racing?

The Kilbeggan races. The track is less than a kilometre from my home in County Westmeath and I can still reel off all the horses who ran there in the early noughties.

What was your first job in racing?

Stable lad for Martin Lynch. Oscar Time was our flagship horse. He won the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown before finishing second in the Irish and English Grand Nationals. He was a brilliant horse for a small yard like ours and accelerated my interest in the game.

Where are you working now and what do you do?

Journalist with the Racing Post in Ireland. I cover news, report from the races and write features among other things. No two days are the same.

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

The feature pieces I did with Emmet Mullins and John Ryan. Mullins spoke freely about a range of topics I thought would be off the table, like gambles, while Ryan proved that you don’t necessarily need a big name to make an interesting piece.

Who are your racing heroes?

I wouldn’t describe them as heroes but I have huge admiration for Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Aidan O’Brien while Ruby Walsh was the greatest rider I’ve ever seen.

What would be your dream job in racing?

Features writer.

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

JESS STAFFORD

JAMES STEVENS

TIM WILLIAMS

How old are you?

At the time of application I was 29 - I turned 30 on November 1 st .

How old are you? 24

How old are you? 29 at the time of the entry, now 30

What first sparked your interest in racing?

I grew up in Newbury so I got the bug from visiting my local track as a racegoer and a punter. Luckily when I was in school the likes of Frankel, Kingman, Denman and Sprinter Sacre were just a stone’s throw away. I went specifically to the University of Gloucestershire to try and pursue a career and I guess I got lucky.

What first sparked your interest in racing?

My dad had it on the TV every Saturday and took me to Taunton, Wincanton and Cheltenham. My grandad taught me how to work out winnings from Lucky 15 slips and my babysitter was the first woman to ride in the Grand National, Charlotte Brew. First memories include patting See More Business at an open day and backing a prolific pointer called Searcy when I was six.

What first sparked your interest in racing?

I have been lucky that racing has always been part of my life. My parents set up Thurloe Thoroughbreds when I was four and from an early age I enjoyed going with them to the gallops, races and sales.

Some very special Thurloe horses like Geos and Kyllachy helped ignite my love for the sport.

What was your first job in racing?

In 2018 I was working for Guinness’ PR team in Dublin and through my insight into racing I produced Guinness’ first horse racing advert ‘Behind Every Great Horse’ to promote the Galway Festival. It was received well and really revitalised Guinness’ sponsorship of the Festival.

Where are you working now and what do you do?

I started at Racing TV in December 2020 as a Junior Presenter. I report on track, present in the studio and interview members of the industry for This Racing Life.

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

I work with TVG as their International Racing Correspondent to keep them updated on racing in Europe. In June, I co-hosted TVG’s coverage of Royal Ascot with Nick Luck for 4 days and hosted the final day as a solo reporter. I was proud of the interviews I secured and the extensive previews and analysis of all 35 races. I am also proud of the range of industry figures I have interviewed on This Racing Life for RTV including Venetia Williams, Paul Nicholls and Simon Mockridge.

Who are your racing heroes?

Clare Balding, Sir Henry Cecil and John Francome.

What would be your dream job in racing?

An international racing broadcaster travelling all over the world to interview industry figures.

What was your first job in racing?

Freelancing, first off for the Racing Plus newspaper. I was very eager to build up a CV so I threw myself at almost everything, including tips, previews, radio and even ghostwriting a few columns. Jamie Codd was not a bad one to do for the 2017 Cheltenham Festival.

Where are you working now and what do you do?

I’m a journalist at the Racing Post. I live in Cheltenham so get to cover fixtures in that part of the world, and I also provide the West Country tips.

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

Two things, this nomination means an awful lot and I’m thrilled by it. Also, joining the HWPA committee and being part of that. There’s plenty going on behind the scenes which I’ve enjoyed working on.

Who are your racing heroes?

You get favourites when you are given such incredible access for stable tours, and I did four this year, but Native River remains an undisputed favourite horse. He’s a real trier, continues to amaze, and his Gold Cup win remains my best day on the racecourse. What a legend.

What would be your dream job in racing?

I love what I do now, but probably a racing manager for an owner with deep pockets. The race-planning side of the game fascinates me and it must be very satisfying when you get a big winner.

What was your first job in racing?

Producing at Aintree for Sky News.

Where are you working now and what do you do?

I joined ITV Racing as a producer five years ago and have worked on most of our programmes around the country. Over time, I’ve progressed to programme editing and also look after The Opening Show and Sunday Series.

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

Getting the Sky Bet Sunday Series off the ground in a short space of time and it being well-received.

Also giving our elderly viewers some friendly company during lockdown.

Who are your racing heroes?

Sir AP McCoy. I’ve also recently been filming an ITV documentary with Johnny Murtagh, which airs in the spring, and he’s an amazing human being.

What would be your dream job in racing?

Aside from my current job, I’ve always fancied running a small to mid-ranking racecourse and helping improve the quality on and off the track.

Easier said than done!

41

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Supported by

JUMP TRAINER of the Year

HENRY DE BROMHEAD

PAUL NICHOLLS

FERGAL O’BRIEN

DAN SKELTON

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JUMP TRAINER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY PETER SCARGILL

HENRY DE BROMHEAD

PAUL NICHOLLS

The Irish domination of the major spring festivals in Britain was one of the main talking points of the last jumps season, and no trainer dominated quite like Henry de Bromhead.

When reflecting on last season for Paul Nicholls, three things come to mind: the trainers’ championship, Clan Des Obeaux and Frodon.

In a quite remarkable tour de force, De Bromhead captured the Champion Hurdle with Honeysuckle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase with Put The Kettle On, the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Minella Indo and, to top it off, saddled the 1-2 in the Grand National with Minella Times and Balko Des Flos.

It was the first time any trainer had won all of those races in the same year, but for good measure he also took out the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, plus the Irish Champion Hurdle and Savills Chase at Leopardstown.

Long respected for his ability to get the best out of his horses, as was showcased by the brilliant two-mile chaser Sizing Europe, De Bromhead also played a pivotal role in the record-breaking season for Rachael Blackmore, who rode four of the trainer’s Cheltenham winners and the Grand National winner, a moment that put racing in the headlines for all the right reasons.

Approachable and thoughtful, De Bromhead dealt amicably with the additional publicity that came his way - not only through his feats on the racecourse, but also through receiving Envoi Allen, the highestprofile horse to leave Gordon Elliott’s following the fallout from the photo of the trainer sitting astride the dead horse Morgan.

De Bromhead’s feats may never be matched again in what was a season that left no one in doubt about his abundant talents.

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On the first point, Nicholls reasserted himself as the leading domestic trainer in Britain with a thunderous season in which he sent out a personal best of 176 winners and wrestled back the trainers’ title from Nicky Henderson to take the prize for a 12th time.

What made that all the more impressive was that Nicholls achieved the feat without the presence of a bona fide superstar in his stable, but instead extracted the very best out of his talented runners through a buccaneering approach and steely determination.

Clan Des Obeaux was one of the horses to benefit from this approach, bypassing the Cheltenham Festival to instead land the Grade 1 Bowl Chase at Aintree before providing Britain with a victory in one of Ireland’s premier contests - the Punchestown Gold Cup only a matter of weeks after Britain’s Cheltenham mauling.

However, it is Frodon who perhaps best exemplifies what Nicholls can do. Maybe he is just underestimated by everyone else, but Frodon’s triumphs last season were a testament to Nicholls and his Ditcheat team.

His top performance was, of course, his memorable all-the-way-win under Bryony Frost in the King George VI Chase (a 12th for Nicholls) giving racing another positive story to present to the wider world.

It is not the first time Nicholls has achieved the unlikely with a horse not thought capable of scaling such heights, and it was a standout moment in what was a super season for the trainer.

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th year of the Annual Luncheon

FERGAL O’BRIEN

DAN SKELTON

To slightly amend the well-known chant from the football stands, there are only two Fergal O’Briens.

Last season was the one where the quantity of winners we have become accustomed to from Dan Skelton were bolstered by a greater quality as well.

One is the irreverent face of the operation presented on social media under the guardianship of Dr Simon Gillson that has catapulted O’Brien into being one of the most well-known, and followed, racing figures around. The other is the ambitious competitor who has turned his stable into one of the leading yards in Britain.

It is the latter, of course, who is the most important, but the general feel-good and positive vibe around O’Brien’s stable is undoubtedly an overall positive for jump racing and the wider sport. And based on the results of the last 12 months, we are going to be hearing and seeing even more of O’Brien both online and in person in the years ahead.

O’Brien, who has since teamed up with Graeme McPherson, sent out a personal best of 104 winners in the 2020-21 season and he led the way in this season’s trainers’ championship into November, as his team seeks to build on a high of seventh in the table achieved last season.

While a trio of Grade 2 prizes were delivered by the talented and promising Hurricane Harvey, Alaphilippe and Silver Hallmark last season, the sight of the evergreen and eternally enthusiastic Perfect Candidate powering through the mud and the gloom at Haydock to win his ninth race as a 13-year-old last November further showcased O’Brien’s skill in handling his horses and maintaining their enthusiasm.

There is certainly plenty of enthusiasm for O’Brien to continue succeeding, and he has shown himself more than capable of doing so.

This plan set out by Skelton and his team helped his yard land Grade 1s with Allmankind, My Drogo, Protektorat and Shan Blue, while Nube Negra came agonisingly close to running down Put The Kettle On in the Queen Mother Champion Chase too.

The range of talented horses and big races won by Skelton in the last season highlighted his ascent to becoming one of the major players in British jump racing, not to mention the fact that he has the champion jump jockey as part of the team as well.

The victory of Harry Skelton, a vital cog in the racing operation alongside his wife Bridget Andrews and Dan’s wife Grace, was a feather in the cap for all involved, with 136 of his 152 winners being supplied by his family yard.

Alongside the racecourse success, Dan Skelton displayed an ability to stand back and see the wood for the trees despite the all-consuming nature of his role when highlighting and discussing issues around the, at times, overbearing focus on the Cheltenham Festival.

In voicing his views on the stresses and mental challenges brought on by always looking to Cheltenham at the expense of other big targets during the jumps season, he showed himself to be someone who thinks about his sport and how to try to better it for others too.

Bold and confident in the ability of himself and his horses, Skelton is not unlike his mentor Paul Nicholls and he is firmly on the path to emulate him based on what we continue to see from his yard.

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GONE BUT

Not Forgotten

BY TOM PEACOCK

JOE ROWNTREE

LORNA BROOKE

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ARTHUR SHONE

PAUL MATHIEU

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

PRINCE KHALID ABDULLAH

Press rooms will be far duller after the loss within the last year of some truly cherished figures.

PAUL HAIGH

JOE ROWNTREE, rarely without a pipe or a wry observation, was very much one of those. A journalist for The Sporting Chronicle and Racing Press Services, he more recently provided close-ups for The Sporting Life and Racing Post as well as once guiding Jimmy Fortune to the apprentices’ title. A familiar sight to so many in the north, he was 75.

It was impossible not to have enjoyed the writing, or the company, of PAUL HAIGH (76), who was a Derby Award winner in 1993. Formerly of Pacemaker before joining the Racing Post, his views were never predictable but his columns became unmissable.

ARTHUR SHONE (68) was a hugely-respected regional writer in the north west, as a long-time correspondent of the Wrexham Leader and an expert in point-to-point racing. The Racing Post’s David Carr described Arthur as “a walking work of reference: there was very little the man who once wrote a book about defunct Wrexham racecourse did not know about racing in his area”.

The charming PAUL MATHIEU (74), originally a point-to-point correspondent for The Sporting Life, became better known as a writer of books, including the critically-acclaimed The Druid’s Lodge Confederacy.

In the wider world of racing, the deaths of two of the great owner-breeders overshadowed the sport, PRINCE KHALID ABDULLAH (83) and HAMDAN AL MAKTOUM (75) owned some of the all-time greats, from Frankel to Nashwan, and their legacy will live on through the great thoroughbred families they nurtured.

Similarly, at the end of last year, Cheveley Park Stud lost its figurehead DAVID THOMPSON (84), while the colours of several of those from the National Hunt world have gained particular poignancy.

There was TREVOR HEMMINGS (86), the self-made success story who owned three Grand National winners and was one of the winter game’s staunchest supporters, while many journalists will have been grateful for the time always granted by ANDY STEWART (70), owner of the mighty staying hurdler Big Buck’s and a very generous sponsor of this event on one occasion.

JOE MERCER (86), rider of Brigadier Gerard and so many others, and SANDY BARCLAY (72) were Classic-winning masters of their craft, as was Eric Eldin (88), who landed the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 1968.

While BROD MUNRO-WILSON (76) would not be regarded as a jockey of finesse when he steered The Drunken Duck to Foxhunter glory, he remains a folk hero and one of the sport’s most colourful characters. PAT BUCKLEY (77), who partnered Ayala to win the 1963 Grand National, was another whose death prompted the warmest of tributes, and only last month we sadly lost a much younger rider, the conditional and amateur TOM GREENWAY (38).

Few men made more of an impression in racing than BARNEY CURLEY (81), the skilled trainer, gambling genius and later tireless charity campaigner, while another to be held in similar esteem was the gentlemanly TOM FOLEY (74), trainer of Irish legend Danoli.

Other practitioners of fine repute included ROBERT ARMSTRONG (77), JOHN SUTCLIFFE (81), BILL HAIGH (90), CAPTAIN JIMMY WILSON (94) and FRANK ENNIS (75).

Two female trainers will be remembered very fondly by many of those here. Both REBECCA BASTIMAN (40) and ZOE DAVISON (60) were lost far too soon.

LORD (79) and LADY VESTEY (71), WALLY STURT (90) and the ultrashrewd NOEL FURLONG (83) were other owners whose colours were regularly seen on the big occasion. on the big occasion, while we also lost CHRISTOPHER SPENCE (84), the owner-breeder of Ascot Gold Cup winner Celeric and a former Senior Steward of the Jockey Club, and TONY FAIRBAIRN (87), a pioneer in the promotion of our sport and the founder of the Racegoers Club.

We mourned a number of fine jockeys over the last 12 months but none were felt more keenly than LORNA BROOKE (37), the amateur who suffered a catastrophic injury from a fall, prompting Tabitha Worsley to lead a charity bike ride in her memory.

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

TIM EASTERBY

JOHN & THADY GODSEN

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FLAT TRAINER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY MIKE VINCE

CHARLIE APPLEBY

ANDREW BALDING

Even before Charlie Appleby’s glorious veni vidi vici to claim three winners at last month’s Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, it had been an unforgettable season for the Moulton Paddocks team, and it will come as no surprise if the carpenters are already building a new trophy cabinet in that part of Newmarket.

Pressure, they say, is for tyres, but if Andrew Balding does feel pressure at training at the iconic Kingsclere stables from which his father Ian enjoyed success at the top table for decades, you’d be very hard pressed to spot it.

The list is impressive to say the least, with the top prizes won in Europe including the Derby, the St Leger, the Irish Derby, the King George and the Grand Prix de Paris from the three-year-olds alone, while a Dewhurst win by the unbeaten Native Trail - just one of a host of good juveniles - ensures that Classic dreams are very much alive for 2022.

It’s amazing to think that it was only in the summer of 2013 - a turbulent time for Godolphin - that Appleby was promoted from relative obscurity to become one of its two trainers. However, he soon showed he could walk the walk, and he is a former finalist in this category as well as a past winner of the IRB’s International Trainer of the Year Award.

That he has seemed to do it all with a smile and an unfailingly helpful demeanour towards the racing media, never tiring of stressing that any success is down to the entire Godolphin team, has won him the respect and admiration of us all.

As he heads to his winter base in Dubai he can look back on 2021 with immense satisfaction, while planning for a 2022 which could be every bit as good.

Fourth place in the trainers’ table in 2020 with domestic prize money of more than £2.1m was an impressive achievement, but he has taken things to a different level this year with double those earnings and second place by the end of the turf campaign.

Alcohol Free contributed well over £800,000 to that total thanks to her wins in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, and there were further Group wins from across the board, including from older horses Bangkok, Spanish Mission and Foxes Tales, and from the juveniles Sandrine and Berkshire Shadow, who both won at Royal Ascot. As ever, Kingsclere also sent out the winners of more than its share of valuable handicaps.

It has also been a memorable 2021 for jockey graduates of the Balding Academy, with Oisin Murphy crowned champion jockey for a third time, William Buick chasing him hard to the line before enjoying the consolation of no fewer than three Breeders’ Cup winners, and David Probert smashing his own previous best by riding more than 150 winners.

Always helpful, supportive and understanding of the media, Andrew is a more than worthy nominee for this award.

He is, to put it mildly, a very worthy nominee for this prestigious award.

52

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th year of the Annual Luncheon

TIM EASTERBY

JOHN & THADY GOSDEN

This has been a real year of celebration for Tim Easterby. His sixtieth birthday, 25 years as a licence holder, a fastest ever century of winners, and now this richly deserved nomination for Flat Trainer of the Year.

“He is a chip off the old block and has been around the place for years” said John Gosden as he revealed shortly before the start of the turf season that his son Thady was to join him on a joint licence.

At the end of the turf season the master of Habton Grange had won just short of £2 milllion - and he has clearly enjoyed every moment.

A year on - and despite not having a serious Classic contender to go to war with - the end of term report on Team Gosden is pretty much ‘business as usual’, the pair having continued the traditions we have become accustomed to at Clarehaven in seamless fashion, and in the process earning the first ever nomination at these Derby Awards for joint licence holders.

The name ‘Easterby’ has been at the forefront of the sport in the White Rose County for decades thanks to the exploits of Tim’s father Peter and his uncle Mick, but Tim’s class of 2021 has stretched the boundaries of success to new heights.

Top of the list is his Coolmore Nunthorpe hero Winter Power, who won three times in 2021 on the Knavesmire, where Tim regained the Top Trainer award. The equally speedy Art Power was in the frame in three Group 1 sprints and also made a winning sortie to Ireland for a second year running.

A great many of Tim’s winners are sprinters. There is nobody better with them, whatever the level, and alongside Winter Power and Art Power in 2021 there was another headline maker in Copper Knight, who is typical of the type with which the stable excels.

Bought for just 5,000 guineas from a leading Newmarket stable at the end of a modest juvenile campaign, Copper Knight contested just about every decent five-furlong handicap run in the north and was successful twice at York, where he has now won six times, and also at Doncaster.

His York victories made a significant contribution to Tim’s outstanding 12 wins on the track in 2021, a total exceeded incidentally at Ripon, where he enjoyed no fewer than 17 wins.

Regent, at Lingfield at end of March, ensured a winning start to the partnership, and it went from strength to strength afterwards.

Mishriff was once again a headline act, his win the Juddmonte International at York following enormously lucrative Middle Eastern wins in the Saudi Cup and Sheema Classic. Last year’s champion miler Palace Pier was another star for the older brigade, for while he was beaten again on Champions Day, although only just, he had earlier won a Lockinge, a Queen Anne and a Prix Jacques Le Marois.

Then of course there was Stradivarius, as popular as ever, if a little more vulnerable, his 2021 highlight that thrilling and successful battle with Spanish Mission at York.

Encouragingly, among a two-year-old crop which has more class and depth than last year’s there are Classic prospects of both sexes, including the unbeaten Cheveley Park Stud filly Inspiral, who is already a Group 1 winner, and the Queen’s home-bred colt Reach For The Moon, who was just touched off in a Group 2 and is already a Group 3 winner.

53

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Supported by

JUMP JOCKEY of the Year

DAVID BASS

RACHAEL BLACKMORE

BRIAN HUGHES

HARRY SKELTON

55

JUMP JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY ADAM HOUGHTON

DAVID BASS

RACHAEL BLACKMORE

Kim Bailey had more than just First Flow to thank when winning the Clarence House Chase at Ascot in January, the trainer’s first Grade 1 success in nearly 26 years. Clearly it was a career-best effort from First Flow, but the key to his victory was arguably the ride he was given by an inspired David Bass – “as good a ride as you’ll see over fences” in the words of Timeform in their post-race analysis.

Minella Times capped a memorable campaign for Rachael Blackmore and trainer Henry de Bromhead with victory in the Grand National at Aintree. Rachael may have just become the first female rider to win the National, but that was the furthest thing from her mind afterwards as she struggled to take in what she had achieved. “I don’t feel male or female right now – I don’t even feel human,” she told ITV Racing’s Matt Chapman. “This is just unbelievable.”

That afternoon at Ascot provided the highlight of an association between Kim and David which now spans more than seven seasons.

Previously based with Nicky Henderson, David also had a fruitful spell riding for Ben Pauling, Henderson’s one-time assistant trainer who gave the jockey the first Grade 1 wins of his career on Barters Hill and Willoughby Court.

With a total of 66 winners in Britain, David enjoyed by far his best season numerically in 2020/21. Even before First Flow’s Ascot triumph, Kim and David had teamed up with a succession of big Saturday winners during the autumn, including El Presente in the Badger Beers Silver Trophy and Imperial Aura in the 1965 Chase.

It’s also a sign of the regard in which David is held by his peers that he was named PJA Jumps President in October, taking over from former champion Richard Johnson. “It was humbling and flattering when I heard my name had been put forward by some colleagues as a potential successor to Dickie,” David said afterwards. “It is an honour and privilege and not a responsibility I take lightly.”

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It was a faultless ride aboard Minella Times and everything we had come to expect from Rachael after her record-breaking achievements at the Cheltenham Festival three weeks earlier, a meeting at which she was crowned the leading jockey for the first time with six winners.

Rachael’s beloved Honeysuckle was the star act when winning the Champion Hurdle. That ride was perhaps most notable for the simplicity in its execution, but the versatility demonstrated by Rachael elsewhere at the meeting really was something to marvel at. Deadly from the front when partnering Sir Gerhard to victory in the Champion Bumper, Rachael later proved confidence personified when bringing Telmesomethinggirl through from the rear to win the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.

Rachael couldn’t peg back Paul Townend in the race to be crowned Ireland’s champion jump jockey in 2020/21, but she didn’t leave the season-ending Punchestown Festival empty-handed as Honeysuckle delivered on the big stage once again. That success was Honeysuckle’s twelfth from as many races under Rules, all of them achieved under Rachael as the pair have soared to the top of the sport in tandem.

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

BRIAN HUGHES

HARRY SKELTON

Brian Hughes ended last season with a total of 142 winners in Britain, matching the tally he racked up when winning the jockeys’ championship in 2019/20. Admittedly, that number wasn’t quite enough for him to defend his title this time, but he still enjoyed another hugely successful campaign thanks to the support of a whole host of trainers around the country.

The jockeys’ championship in Britain was still in the balance heading into the final four weeks of the 2020/21 season. In fact, Brian Hughes still had a lead of six winners at that stage, but the momentum was very much with Harry Skelton, who went on to ride 32 winners – twice as many as Brian – in the space of 28 days to be crowned champion jockey for the first time in his career.

Donald McCain (47) and Nicky Richards (16) teamed up with Brian for more winners than anyone else last season, while the Nick Alexander-trained Lake View Lad gave the jockey his biggest success of the season in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree in December. In total, Brian rode for 105 different yards in Britain in 2020/21, underlining how widely his talents are appreciated, not just in the north where he is the leading jockey on the National Hunt circuit.

It was an entertaining title race but one which inevitably took its toll on those involved. “It’s been a battle,” Harry told BBC Sport after receiving his trophy on the final day of the season at Sandown. “The only time I was mentally comfortable was when I was on the horse in the race and could do something about it. The rest of the time I just felt helpless.”

“The championship is of course the main aim,” Brian told Great British Racing after reaching 100 winners for the season at Musselburgh in February. “Winning it last year has made me even hungrier and determined to win it again and retain my title. I will keep trying my hardest to hopefully become champion jockey once again come the end of the season.”

In the end it wasn’t to be, as Brian had to settle for the runner-up spot after riding 10 fewer winners than Harry Skelton. He didn’t wallow in that disappointment, however, and he is now in pole position to reclaim the title in 2021/22, having reached 100 in a record time for a northern-based rider two weeks ago.

Harry certainly had the right people in his corner if he was feeling helpless. His father Nick, who won Olympic equestrian gold at the Rio Games in 2016, was always close at hand for advice, while the yard of brother Dan proved a relentless source of winners. Out of a total of 152, Harry rode only 16 winners for outside yards, with the rest all coming from an operation which is growing stronger by the year and is very much a family-run affair.

It wasn’t all about quantity either, as Harry partnered five winners at the very top level in 2020/21, with two of them coming in the space of just 40 minutes on a memorable afternoon at Sandown in December.

57

TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

Peter O’Sullevan Trophy

BROADCASTER of the Year

LYDIA HISLOP

JOHN HUNT

NICK LUCK

RISHI PERSAD

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BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY LEE MOTTERSHEAD

LYDIA HISLOP

JOHN HUNT

The jumps season really is not all about the Cheltenham Festival.

It’s also about the road to Cheltenham, an essential part of which is watching the Road to Cheltenham, whose joint-presenter Lydia Hislop is now bidding to win an award she first claimed in 2019.

John Hunt, crowned broadcaster of the year on the day he turned 50 in 2015, is hoping the date of this year’s Derby Awards might signal another happy outcome.

Racing TV linchpin Hislop has helped to create one of racing’s very best double acts alongside Ruby Walsh and together they have brought us a must-watch racing programme, one that marries perfectly with the regular column Hislop writes through winter into spring.

“I’m delighted with how the Road to Cheltenham has taken off because it was a long time both getting it to screen and getting the concept understood,” she says. “Now we have some impetus behind the programme and it’s working really well. It is nice to have worked closely with Ruby and it’s great the two of us have had so much influence in terms of the production.”

It’s not only on Road to Cheltenham nights that Hislop excels.

As a racecourse presenter her passion for the sport shines through, while her in-depth interviews are so absorbing and illuminating that one wishes she could have a crack at some of our politicians. A legitimate question has not yet been invented that Hislop would be afraid to ask.

“I really like the opportunity to talk to people in depth, which is something I think Racing TV does particularly well,” adds Hislop.

“We are broadcasting to very knowledgeable fans, so we can often go into great detail, particularly on Racing TV Extra, which allows us the space and time to delve deeper into things.”

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“I should send a warning to anyone taking 1-6 about Nick Luck winning again,” says Hunt. “When I won this six years ago it was my birthday - and the lunch is taking place on my birthday again this year.”

HWPA stats gurus can offer greater insight regarding the extent to which Hunt’s chances have been boosted but there can be no doubt he deserves his place in the final field, having once again dazzled in his work as 5 live’s racing commentator, as a regular racecourse caller and as a presenter for Sky Sports Racing.

That’s not all. Hunt - who can also be heard describing numerous French races for Equidia - was a key part of BBC Radio’s Olympics team, adding his voice to the swimming and diving competitions and therefore to the gold medals won by the likes of Tom Daley and Adam Peaty.

“Having to do the Olympics remotely from Salford took a bit of getting used to but it was also great fun and I’m just pleased our swimmers and divers won so many medals,” says Hunt.

“Rachael Blackmore’s Grand National was the big racing highlight for me, both in terms of trying to find the words to match that great achievement and also because of the odd backdrop of a neardeserted Aintree. Since then, being able to work among crowds again has been fantastically uplifting, while for the second year running we only missed one British Flat Group 1 at 5 live, which I don’t think is bad at all.”

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th year of the Annual Luncheon

NICK LUCK

RISHI PERSAD

It now seems almost inconceivable Nick Luck would not be nominated for the Broadcaster of the Year award - and having already lifted the trophy on eight occasions there’s a fair chance he will again go home with something extra to dust.

Imagine what it must have been like to be Rishi Persad in 2021.

In what has been a typically busy and brilliant year for the master of his craft, Luck has delivered coverage of the biggest racing events in Britain for Racing TV and in America as part of the acclaimed NBC crew.

Yet that is far from all. His eponymous Sunday morning interview show on RTV and the weekday morning Nick Luck Daily Podcast have continued to be devoured by racing professionals and fans, while, like John Hunt and Rishi Persad, Luck was part of the BBC’s Tokyo Olympics coverage, providing television commentary from Salford on equestrian events that yielded two British gold medals.

“I’ve been doing this job for about 20 years now and I do think it’s important to keep making subtle adjustments and freshening things up to prevent you from becoming stale,” says Luck. “I also always feel you have to work for the HWPA nomination because you know your friends and colleagues in the press room are a very discerning bunch - or at least I like to think they are!”

The podcast - to which fellow nominees Hislop and Persad are regular contributors - currently receives between 50,000 and 60,000 plays a week, prompting Luck to add: “It has grown quite significantly but with that obviously comes a greater responsibility to the listeners. We can now meet them on racecourses and get direct feedback, which for a long time wasn’t possible.”

He was on the ground in Tokyo as part of the BBC’s Olympics team. He was in the United States, first to work at the Ryder Cup for the Beeb and then as part of the squad delivering the Breeders’ Cup to those watching on Racing TV and TVG. He worked for the BBC at Wimbledon and the Open Championship, prior to both of which he was selected by Channel 4 to front the network’s return to test cricket. On top of all that there was racing - and plenty of it.

“Career-wise, this has been the best year I’ve ever had in terms of events I’ve attended, especially considering the Covid constraints within which we’ve been operating,” says Persad. “To think I’ve enjoyed the sort of year I’ve had is almost unbelievable.

Inside me there has been a little sports fan enjoying every moment. I’m very grateful.”

The now grown-up sports fan was handed a Willy Wonka-esque golden ticket to all those gigs for a reason. Persad is the safest of safe pair of hands, yet he also broadcasts with a warmth that was again apparent during ITV’s coverage of the Grand National, Derby and Royal Ascot, at all of which he was maintaining an involvement in the mainstream televising of racing that stretches back to Channel 4 and before that the BBC. “Racing is my home game, so to be nominated for this award is a huge honour,” adds Persad. “I work alongside colleagues who have won this award, and I know how good they are, so it’s a privilege to be thought of in the same context.”

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SIS is pleased to support the Horserace Writers and Photographers Association Awards 2021

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 introduced in 2019.

No sport lends itself better to forensic analysis than horseracing and specialists, of whom we have many within the HWPA, were overlooked for far too long when it came to being recognised at these awards.

“Insightful, challenging articles that say things that need to be said about our sport, a must read”

“Just brilliant, really enjoyable writing that paints vivid pictures with words, a lost skill”

KEVIN BLAKE

IAN CARNABY

“Well-explained, entertaining pieces, a great addition to the Racing Post team”

“Authoritative, readable articles by someone with a most intimate knowledge of their subject”

KEITH MELROSE

ALAN SWEETMAN

There was once again a very gratifying combination of depth and range to the 2021 entry for this category, and our judges had their work cut out sifting through the impressive output of some of the best brains in the sport in order to narrow it down to these four finalists.

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SPECIALIST WRITER OF THE YEAR by Chris Cook

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KEVIN BLAKE

IAN CARNABY

If anyone on this short-list requires no introduction, it’s Kevin Blake, who first got noticed while writing race previews on the Betfair forum but has since found fame through appearances on ITV and Sky. His provocative pieces for the At The Races website regularly stir up discussion on Twitter, where he has 70,000 followers.

“It’s lovely to be acknowledged,” says Ian Carnaby, the most experienced nominee in any of this year’s journalism categories.

“It comes as a surprise. I’ve been retired for a couple of years but I’ve kept my hand in. I always felt there was a space for my kind of work, which is a sideways look and which I think often puts the punter’s point of view and how difficult it is.”

The man from Golden says he has “no racing background, really”, though his father, a small dairy farmer, dabbled a little after buying a mare for £500 in the pub one night, which is how all the best racing stories start. Kevin’s own interest in the great game was sharpened by the success of Back In Front in the Supreme, as he had been backing the speedster at intervals through the winter.

Kevin loves the game but is not blind to its faults and describes two of his three submitted articles as being on the subject of “National Hunt is broken”. In one, he proposed “a ruthless reduction in the number of Grade 1 races and a conversion of all Grade 2 and Grade 3 races into handicaps” as a means of reversing years of dilution of competition.

Another focused on the rise of the super-trainer in Irish jump racing and was thrillingly illustrated by a bar chart of prize money won over 20 seasons that showed Gordon Elliott cruising up behind Willie Mullins but failing to go past. These days, Kevin does his best to help Joseph O’Brien improve his numbers, having taken on the role of race-planner.

How would he describe his journalism to a new reader? “I like using data to test long-held assumptions,” he says.

The winner of this award in 2019, he is pleased to be part of a much larger group of Irish nominees than the HWPA has recognised in the past. “It’s brilliant, there’s nothing more satisfying than the recognition of your peers. I think social media has done quite a bit to spread knowledge of Irish racing journalism.”

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Ian was fully in the grip of racing from the age of seven or eight, having caught the bug from his parents, but a career in the game must have seemed odds-against when he left Cambridge and moved into the wine trade. “I helped get Baileys Irish Cream up and running, I suppose that was my main contribution,” he recalls.

Ian has had a busy and hugely varied career, gravitating towards racing after initially covering football for various radio stations “for a pittance”. He spent years as an unflappable broadcaster for SIS, including on a memorable occasion when the office cleaner appeared alongside while he was in mid-spiel, a clip which apparently made it onto It’ll Be All Right On The Night and is preserved forever on YouTube.

His written work has turned up in many places, including the Racing Post and the Irish Field, for which he served 32 years as British correspondent. He still writes for Marten Julian’s website, mixing wry observations of current racing with yarns drawn from a seemingly bottomless store.

“I just loved writing for people that would be towards my age.

Jeffrey Bernard once said to me: ‘Only an idiot would try to write for everybody.’ I know that I’m writing for a certain audience. I’m just thrilled that anyone would still think it worthwhile putting my work forward.”

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th year of the Annual Luncheon

THE COMMENT PAGE

T 4

HE Irish dominance of jump racing has become too obvious to ignore. It is widely accepted in Britain that this is not a problem that arrived on the boat in March with its roots going back a decade or more.

That considered, the response has not been as sober as might have been hoped. For some there is seemingly no problem that cannot be solved by increased prize-money, a fantasy Pattern or lower handicap marks all round. On top of those come the inevitable calls for that most noble of all British sporting traditions: graft for graft’s sake.

No, no, no, no. Or rather: most likely not; maybe on the side; yeah, but not like that; and well, I suppose it can’t hurt if it makes you feel better.

Recognising this is a hugely complex issue is the first step to taking the right corrective action.

We all need to check our own solipsism. But forgive me for

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British prize-money is shocking – but it’s not why we’re failing

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KEITH MELROSE

ALAN SWEETMAN

The Racing Post’s betting editor for the past three years, Edinburgh-born Keith Melrose studied chemistry at St Andrews, which perhaps explains his habit of experimenting with data in the hope of coming up with something explosive. It might be more relevant to tell you he is a Timeform graduate, one of two on this short-list.

Having been published in the Racing Post for more than 30 years, Alan Sweetman is surprised and very pleased to find himself nominated after putting in an entry to the HWPA for the very first time. Like quite a few of us, he was determined to spend his working life in or around horse racing after being given an early taste of the sport.

“It’s all flown by,” says Keith, who describes it as “a proper privilege” to be working with Tom Segal and Paul Kealy, writers he has been reading for a very long time. His own writing has tended to be analytical and challenging, the kind of journalism better accompanied by morning coffee than an evening pint.

“I was brought racing from a very early age,” he says, “and was lucky enough to go to school at a place where a lot of my schoolfriends were children of people involved in racing or breeding.” That was Headfort School in Kells, County Meath, where his father was deputy headmaster.

It was Keith who introduced Post readers to the Kelly Criterion as a precise means of calculating what proportion of their bank should be staked on each selection. The same article quoted Dostoevsky and drew on the turbulent experiences of the much-missed writer and chaotic gambler Jonathan Rendall.

In another of his submitted articles, showing how a change in the conditions of Newbury’s Super Sprint had had a dramatic effect on outcomes, he referenced Dan Walker and Jeremy Paxman. One stood for quick and dirty analysis of data, the other for an approach with more rigour. Keith plainly favours the Paxo approach.

Alan stills regards an early summer job as the most purely enjoyable he ever had, being paid £20 a day to look after sponsors at Phoenix Park, where he was sometimes assigned to Vincent O’Brien’s box, “and got to hang around those extraordinary people”.

He is still doing that, as evidenced by his submitted articles, which include a farewell interview with Brian Kavanagh as he neared the end of his 20 years as chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland. There is also an interview with Jessica Harrington, drawing on her formative years competing with men in other equestrian disciplines - “Equality was something I was used to,” she told him.

“I absolutely hate the idea that I might be going over old ground,” he says.

“Pride demands that I do something a bit different.

Alan’s third piece called on Jim Bolger to clarify the concerns he had expressed about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in racing by unspecified others.

“I’m dealing with the everyday concerns a regular punter would have. If I was a teacher or an accountant, I’d want to learn more about horse racing. That’s who I’m writing for. This is what I’d love to be doing, if I was doing anything else.”

“I think we’ve got a lovely team of people in the Racing Post in Ireland,” Alan says, “and I’d like to pay tribute to Richard Forristal and all my colleagues here for their encouragement, support and help. They’re a great bunch of people.”

65

The George Ennor Trophy for Outstanding Achievement

RICHARD JOHNSON

BY DAVID CLEARY

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THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

It was a low-key place for an era to end: Newton Abbot at teatime on Easter Saturday.

The fourth of the quartet of jockeys who had dominated jumps racing in Britain since the turn of the century had ridden in a competitive race for the last time. The tributes from both his fellow professionals and from members of the media soon flooded in, universally generous in praise of Richard both as a jockey and as a man. For besides being an outstanding rider, Richard was always a pleasure to deal with, free with his time and ever prepared to engage with a question.

Had the cards fallen right, he might have exited on a bigger stage, at the Cheltenham Festival the previous month, for example; that he chose to go at Newton Abbot a week before the Grand National says much about the man. His desire to exit quietly and to not steal the limelight from the winner of a famous race was typical of the way he has conducted himself throughout.

Johnson won the jockeys championship four times, a number kept undeservedly low by being a contemporary of Sir Anthony McCoy. He rode more than 3,800 winners in a career that spanned 27 years - a total surpassed only by ‘AP’ himself - and 23 of those wins came at the Cheltenham Festival. He won all of the four principal races there, taking the Champion Hurdle on Rooster Booster, the Champion Chase on Flagship Uberalles, the Stayers’ Hurdle on Anzum and the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice, on Looks Like Trouble and Native River.

His victories on Anzum, near the start of his career, and on Native River, in the latter stages of it, came under rides that were classics of his style.

Anzum was under pressure from early on the final circuit and prevailed almost at the last gasp. Native River, given a take-no-prisoners ride from the front in a prolonged duel with Might Bite, finally broke his rival only starting up the run-in. The ride on Native River was perhaps the best of his career.

Richard started in racing with David Nicholson while still at school and rode notable winners for him, the tough and game Viking Flagship, as well as Anzum, among those to recall. Early on, he rode Grade 1

winners for both Willie Mullins (Florida Pearl) and Nicky Henderson (Landing Light) and he rode his first Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Looks Like Trouble for Noel Chance, his future father-in-law. But it is with the Philip Hobbs yard which he is most closely associated.

For twenty years the pair were linked on the racecard, and the mutual respect they have for one another, both professionally and personally, was apparent in the warm tributes they paid to one another on Richard’s retirement.

The pair won a Champion Hurdle with Rooster Booster, but many of their best horses were primarily chasers, including Flagship Uberalles, What’s Up Boys, Menorah, Captain Chris, Balthazar King and Monkerhostin. Richard belongs to that group of outstanding jockeys, including John Francome and Jonjo O’Neill, never to have ridden the winner of the Grand National, though he was runner-up on both What’s Up Boys and Balthazar King.

It’s perhaps a shame Richard never got the chance to ride Native River in the National, as the horse was the perfect foil for him. He rode Native River for the first time when winning the Mildmay Novices’ at Aintree in 2015/16. The following season they won the Hennessy and the Welsh National, but came up short in the Gold Cup, finishing third. That was put right a year later.

Richard’s final ride came on Brother Tedd, who finished third in a handicap chase. By an almost implausible coincidence, Brother Tedd was the horse he had ridden to win the final race of AP’s career, at Sandown in 2015.

Afterwards, Richard described himself as ‘extraordinarily lucky’ in the career that he’d had. I think you’ll agree that we were the lucky ones, witnessing at close quarters the career of one of jumping’s greatest jockeys.

67

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

PHOTOGRAPHER

of the Year

“A fine selection, from a photographer prepared to find a different angle, exemplified by the shot at the start”

“A really well chosen portfolio, hard to fault, with the jockey in the lift an off-stage moment perfectly captured”

TIM GOODE

PATRICK MCCANN

“Some really strong images, offering loads of variety, the Pendil Novices’ Chase pic so well thought out”

“A well rounded entry, highlighted by the best of the Minella Times shots and a whimsical study of a bird’s eye view of the action”

HUGH ROUTLEDGE

EDWARD WHITAKER

69

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR by Steve Cargill THE NOMINATIONS

TIM GOODE “A right bunch of bastards” is how Tim Goode, 35, recalls his time working for the Solent News in Southampton. Tim’s first job in photography had him covering local news, the courts, the odd stake-out and, of course, The Festival. The Watercress Festival.

Tim escaped to the Press Association to take a job as a picture editor, recognising this as potentially a good way of moving into sport, and worked his way up by saying yes to everything and learning the ropes shooting lower league football matches and occasional midweek race meetings at Leicester.

Tim admits that he had no knowledge of horse racing at all when he started, saying: “It is so important to have technical understanding, but you also need knowledge of the sport. I still ask a stupid question most weeks!”

Covid accelerated Tim’s coverage of racing, with so few sports to photograph he was going racing five days a week, “It was a real privilege to tell the story and those pictures will be important in 50 year’s time when people ask what it was like”.

Goode admits to being in awe of jockeys and says that he has loved racing since he started photographing it. “There is nothing not to like, there is everything you want as a photographer in one day,” he says.

“Scenery, ever-changing light, elite athletes, all the stories and these beautiful animals. The full package in one day. Everything you need is on that racecourse. You just have to find it” Tim’s favourite pic in his portfolio was taken from Pontefract’s bushes but he recalls Rachael Blackmore’s Grand National as, “one of the best things I’ve ever seen, up there with the Headingley Ashes test.

What a privilege. You go to so much stuff and you’re happy to be there, but every so often you get a job like that, that is history making and no one is closer than the photographers”.

“It was a real privilege to tell the story and those pictures will be important in 50 year’s time when people ask what it was like”.

70

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

71

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR THE NOMINATIONS

PATRICK MCCANN Patrick has not been racing in England since before Covid but makes the journey to the Lancaster today hoping to add this title to his three victories in the Picture of the Year category.

Still only 35, McCann fell in love with racing when scurrying around the tracks in the late nineties, helping his father Frank, and getting up close with a camera out in the country.

He grew up around the press rooms and racing but quickly realised that standing at the last taking the same photographs as many others was not what he wanted, so after a few year’s freelancing and shooting features his alternative view led to him being offered the position as the Racing Post’s Irish Photographer in 2010.

McCann did not live over there at the time and describes the transition as ‘a bit of a challenge’, recalling that he started his new job on the day that Don’t Push It won the Grand National with A P McCoy. When asked if he felt any regret at not being able to travel to Aintree for Rachael Blackmore’s famous win aboard Minella Times he simply explains that he wouldn’t have been there anyway as the Post had enough coverage. He adds matter of factly that whilst it was a shame to also miss the Cheltenham Festival “it wouldn’t be forever, and we should be all back in 2022”. A more philosophical approach than many of our members would ever be able to manage!

Patrick’s eye-catching portfolio features a sunset at Dundalk and a chilly morning at Ciaran Murphy’s gallops after a snowstorm, but he nominates his study of Donagh Meyler in a lift at Limerick as his favourite - yet another illustration unique to Covid times.

72

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

73

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR THE NOMINATIONS

HUGH ROUTLEDGE The winner in 2008, amongst several other nominations for this award, Hugh Routledge attends our event for the first time in a few years as a consequence of a lengthy covid quarantine ruling him out of his annual Hong Kong gig.

A massive career, during which Hugh first photographed racing in 1974 for Sport & General, is difficult to adequately chronicle in these few words. He worked for the Financial Times (1976-86), photographing news, politics and business, with lots of travel all over the world.

Hugh recalls a month-long trip to China in 1982 for the FT as “absolutely amazing”, adding: “China was just out of the cultural revolution, so it was primitive. I photographed industry, agriculture, society, going around the cities, into Mongolia, just photographing life.”

Back to the world of sport, Hugh worked for the Times (1986-2007) and Sunday Times (1989-2015). He was the main sports photographer for the Mail on Sunday when it started, and he can reel off stories about World Cups, Open Golf, five Olympics and 44 Wimbledons.

But it is in racing where Hugh will see out his career. Amongst his portfolio of big races and scenes is the close-up of the Grand National finish that in his own words is “the most important one.”

He elaborates: “Rachael Blackmore and Hollie Doyle have really nailed it for women in racing and shown that they are up there with the men. It was the image of the year for me and even though everyone got it I had to put it in.”

A relief to Routledge too that he was at this historic event, having missed Frankie Dettori’s first Derby win on Authorized in 2007. “I made a bad mistake getting my dates wrong for a family holiday!”

Teased about retirement, 71 year old Routledge prefers to suggest a winding down, but prefaces it by saying he is “selling more pictures now than ever!”

He’s not done with yet!

“Rachael Blackmore and Hollie Doyle have really nailed it for women in racing and shown that they are up there with the men. It was the image of the year for me and even though everyone got it I had to put it in.”

74

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

75

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR THE NOMINATIONS

EDWARD WHITAKER Not many of us can boast a working CV as simple as Edward Whitaker’s.

Racing Post photographer 1987 – After completing a one-year photojournalism course in Sheffield, Edward was offered a staff job by Graham Rock as junior photographer on the Post, working under Alan Johnson. Johnson was a brilliant photographer, but hard to please. Even now it is with some pride that Edward recalls Johnson praising a photo of his from Sandown and suggesting that he would make it.

A forewarning of the Edward we know and love came during the very first racecourse job he had – the 1987 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.

In those days there was a photographers’ stand on the far side from which everyone had to work. Of course, Edward didn’t want to work from there (rightly so!) and caused uproar by going to the stands rail.

(Oh, I wonder who complained!)

Johnson, and in turn, Trevor Jones, left the Racing Post, leaving Edward as the chief photographer, in more ways than one you might say, with nine of these Photographer of the Year trophies under his belt already, the first of which he collected in 1999.

From his portfolio Edward is most keen to describe the shot of the lady on the balcony at Newbury. “It’s just a random, powerful picture,” he says. “The modern structure, the way the light is hitting it, the blacks, the whites, the lines. The horses are just academic.”

Speaking after a difficult week-long shoot in Bahrain, where he took himself off into the desert to photograph locals viewing the track from mountainous sand dunes, Whitaker shrugged off suggestions that one of those shots would make it into next year’s portfolio.

“I could have done it better”, he said. “I’ll have to go back”.

Still trying, after all these years.

“The modern structure, the way the light is hitting it, the blacks, the whites, the lines.

The horses are just academic”

76

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

77

E R E IS TH R E T T E AB O T Y WA R U O Y Y U B ?

R A C T X NE O O Z CA !

H A YE

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TH E N O M I N ATI O N S

The Clive Graham Trophy

RACING WRITER

of the Year

“Addressed the big issues of the year with a surefootedness that made his submissions essential reading for anyone with an interest in the sport”

RICHARD FORRISTAL

“Punchy, concise and honest style, which meets the demands of writing for a tabloid audience without losing any of the weight of the big topics he has tackled”

JACK KEENE

“Interesting, entertaining, accessible pieces, in which the ability to put interview subjects at ease was rewarded with candour”

DAVID JENNINGS

“Scored highly on all counts, with submissions displaying versatility, a well-crafted writing style and an impressive command of his subject matter”

LEE MOTTERSHEAD

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RACING WRITER OF THE YEAR

THE NOMINATIONS

BY KEITH MELROSE

RICHARD FORRISTAL

DAVID JENNINGS

On retiring as a jump jockey in 2003 after riding out his claim on 65 winners, Richard Forristal initially worked towards his diploma to become a qualified English teacher.

Of all the things you would not expect David Jennings to say in conversation, “You can’t be nice all the time” would have been right up there.

“I never had need for it, although some might say that I did!” he says.

“By then I was already doing a lot of work for the Irish Independent and as time went on I did more and more.”

Forristal spent 13 years in total at the ‘Indo’, five as the paper’s main racing correspondent. Since 2016, he has been the editor of the Racing Post in Ireland.

Water-cooler-moment interviews with Aidan O’Brien and Gordon Elliott formed two of Forristal’s three submitted pieces and both are marked by the interviewer’s willingness to give the floor to his subject. O’Brien in particular filled the page with his forthright views on doping hearsay and interference rules.

“We didn’t discuss anything like that in advance of me going down, but you got the sense he wanted to get those things off his chest,” says Forristal. “Aidan is always a really good interviewee, but that was as passionate as I’ve heard him.”

Forristal’s final piece included a broadside at the BHA for their handling of the Elliott affair, which he says overstepped the mark.

“The IHRB said they would deal with it, they did deal with it, but the BHA decided not to wait and invoked a rule you don’t want to make a habit of invoking. They had plenty they needed to sort out in their own backyard first, so I felt that needed to be said.”

Such staunch defence of Irish racing is Forristal’s calling card. There has never been an Irish-based winner of the HWPA Writer of the Year award and for the duck to be broken in 2021, by either Forristal or David Jennings, would be fitting. It might be most apt of all were it to go to Irish racing’s sturdiest bulwark in the media.

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Jennings’ affability is what has made him such a tremendous interviewer, whose subjects’ ease in his company leaps off the page, as well as a popular figure with punters who regard him as one of their own. Few in the racing media so clearly exude their enthusiasm for the sport.

Jennings makes his comment in reference to a piece on the relative merits of Sir Anthony McCoy and Ruby Walsh as pundits. While admitting to nerves on submitting something with such obvious potential to set off fireworks, Jennings adds: “There is no one I admire more in life than AP. In his job as a jockey, he was peerless.

In his new job as a pundit it’s not the same and as a columnist sometimes you have to put your neck on the line.”

Punchy opinions are not short in supply from Jennings, a Navan native whose bent towards racing and journalism (largely GAA and soccer to begin with) can be traced back well into his schooldays.

“County Meath is a bit of a hub for racing and I spent a lot of time at the tracks around there like Navan and Fairyhouse,” he says. “My uncle also owned some horses. He had Oscar Time before Robert Waley-Cohen, and River Tarquin going further back.”

Another under-appreciated characteristic is Jennings’ tenacity. His interview with the O’Leary brothers was the result of four years’ pestering. It sounds like he could have filled another four years worth of columns with all that was said.

That such famously elusive interviewees opened up so readily for Jennings drops a heavy hint as to why he finds himself nominated in two of the major categories this year.

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

JACK KEENE

Jack Keene, who turned 31 yesterday [December 5], is easily the youngest of the four nominees for this year’s HWPA Writer of the Year award. Yet in his three submissions it is his experience that stands out.

Keene’s story of his struggles with gambling addiction was one of the most vital of the year. “I see a lot of people in racing whose relationship with betting isn’t healthy,” Keene says. “This was the story I wanted to write as soon as I got my regular column in The Sun, so I approached my boss, Dave Cook. He said to go for it and was really supportive throughout. I thought writing it would be hard, but in truth it was therapeutic to get it all out.”

The story of Jack Duern’s return to the sport as an openly gay man also draws on personal perspective for Keene, who is himself gay.

“It always strikes me how few openly gay men there are in sport, not just racing,” he says. “I knew Jack had said he struggled with certain owners and trainers dropping him once he came out, so when I was with him at Salisbury one day I decided to ask about it. We’re getting better as a sport, but there’s still a long way to go.”

It has been a varied journey to this point for Keene, who comes from Sunbury and cultivated his love for the sport at local tracks like Kempton, Sandown and Ascot. His racing career started at the Press Association and has included spells with the BHA (a ‘mind-numbing’ three months as a stewards’ secretary) and ANZ bloodstock news.

Along with Callum Jamieson, he is now part of a relatively new-look team at the country’s biggest red-top, having arrived in spring 2018 as part of a digital overhaul of The Sun’s racing coverage. He would be the second winner of this award from the paper, following longserving racing correspondent Claude Duval’s success in 1998.

LEE MOTTERSHEAD

Only Chris McGrath, Alastair Down and the late Alan Lee have won the HWPA Writer of the Year award more than twice.

Lee Mottershead, winner in 2011 and 2019, is on the verge of exclusive company.

It is clear even to those who do not know him that Mottershead is an enthusiast who has turned devotion into mastery. Just how deeply ingrained his love of the sport goes becomes apparent when talking about one of his three submitted pieces, a retrospective on Shergar’s Derby 40 years on.

“When I was growing up, Stoute and Swinburn were my Man United or Liverpool”, he says. “I was about six at the time, so it was amazing to be able to speak to some of those involved and tell the story in a new way.”

Shergar was not the only callback in his submissions this year.

In 2011, he included an interview with Jamie Spencer. In 2021, Spencer features again. “I’ve already pencilled him in for 2031”, Mottershead laughs. “I imagine he’ll still make a great interviewee then. He isn’t afraid to talk and he always says what he means and feels.”

He admits to more trepidation about interviewing Leonna Mayor.

“I really wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out she has an astonishing life story, which she had never really told before, and it was a privilege to speak to her about all she’s been through.”

This nomination also marks a special anniversary. “It’s 25 years this year since I started with the Racing Post”, Mottershead says.

“They’re the only employer I’ve ever had, and they still haven’t sussed me out yet!”

Mottershead doubts he will make it to 50 years’ service, which would take him into his eighth decade. But if you would back anyone in this game to never tire of their job, it would surely be Lee Mottershead.

81

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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 2019 2020

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

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 John Gosden William Haggas

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 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Sir Alex Ferguson Jim Lewis Lord Derby Graham Wylie 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 Andrew Gemmell Hamdan Al Maktoum

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) Lee Mottershead (Racing Post) David Carr (Racing Post)

SPECIALIST WRITER OF THE YEAR 2019 2020

Kevin Blake (Betfair, ITV, Sky Sports Racing) Bill Barber (Racing Post)

EMERGING TALENT 2019 2020

84

Jonathan Harding (Racing Post) Nick Seddon (Horseracing.net)

THE THE DERBY DERBY AWARDS AWARDS 55th Year 53rdofAnnual the Annual Luncheon Luncheon

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

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

FLAT

NATIONAL HUNT

TRAINER OF THE YEAR

JOCKEY OF THE YEAR

Sir Noel Murless Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort Harvey Leader Vincent O’Brien Ian Balding Bruce Hobbs Arthur Budgett Peter Walwyn Dick Hern Henry Cecil Vincent O’Brien Sir Michael Stoute Henry Cecil Dick Hern Guy Harwood David Chapman John Dunlop Ron Sheather Henry Cecil Sir Michael Stoute Henry Cecil David Chapman Dick Hern Jack Berry Paul Cole

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2017 2018 2019 2020

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 John Gosden 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 2019 2020

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 Bryony Frost Brian Hughes

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 2019 2020

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 Paul Nicholls Willie Mullins

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 Frankie 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 2019 2020

Michael Roberts Kevin Darley Frankie Dettori Frankie Dettori Frankie 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 Frankie Dettori Hollie Doyle

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 Peter Scudamore Peter Niven

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 2019 2020

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

PICTURE OF THE YEAR 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Tracy Roberts Julian Herbert Dan Abraham Patrick McCann Patrick McCann

2017 2018 2019 2020

Megan Ridgwell Edward Whitaker Patrick McCann Francesca Altoft

THE GEORGE ENNOR TROPHY FOR

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

BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

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

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Nick Luck Nick Luck John Hunt Nick Luck Luke Harvey Jason Weaver Lydia Hislop Nick Luck

JOHN OAKSEY TROPHY

RACING REPORTER OF THE YEAR 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Chris Cook (The Guardian) Jon Lees (Racing Post) Chris Cook (The Guardian) Graham Dench (Racing Post) Marcus Townend (Daily Mail)

2017 2018 2019 2020

Marcus Armytage (Daily Telegraph) Bill Barber (Racing Post) Marcus Townend (Daily Mail) Chris Cook (The Guardian)

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 2019 2020

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 Lisa Hancock Dr Jerry Hill

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 2019 2020

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

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 Rachael Jackson at ITV racing; Kieran Tuley and Emily Russell-Rhymes at Racing TV; and Debbie Burt of the ARO.

COMMITTEE OF THE ASSOCIATION

President: David Cleary Treasurer: David Carr Harry Allwood, Emma Berry, Bobby Beevers, Jack Keene, Steve Payne, Tom Peacock, Louise Pollard (Joint Membership Secretary), Liz Price (Joint Membership Secretary), Tracy Roberts, Bill Selwyn (Photographers’ Representative), James Stevens

PRESIDENTS OF THE ASSOCIATION 1967-1973 1973-1994 1994-2004 2004-2008 2008-2011 2011-2017 2017-2021 2021 -

86

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

THE DERBY AWARDS 55th Year of the Annual Luncheon

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