Trainers

Unrelated to the original ‘Master of Ballydoyle’, the late, great Vincent O’Brien, Aidan O’Brien nevertheless succeeded ‘The Boss’ as private trainer to his son-in-law John Magnier at the Co. Tipperary facility in 1996. Initially, he made his name in the National Hunt sphere, succeeding his wife, Anne-Marie, as Irish Champion National Hunt Trainer in 1993/94 and retaining the title for the next five seasons in a row. Even after his move to Ballydoyle, O’Brien remained in charge of the family yard at Piltown, Co. Kilkenny and famously saddled Istbraq – still the joint second highest-rated hurdler in the history of Timeform – to victory in the Champion Hurdle in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Of course, O’Brien has since become a force majeure in Flat racing, especially at home, where he has won the trainers’ title every year since 1998. On the opposite side of the Irish Sea, he has also won the trainers’ title six times, in 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2016 and 2017. He is the leading trainer in the history of the 2,000 Guineas, with ten wins, and the Derby, with nine wins. Indeed, his career total of 43 British Classic wins is bettered only by his record in his native land, where he has chalked up 44, not including seven winners of the Irish St. Leger, which, unlike its British counterpart, is open to horses beyond the ‘Classic’ generation.

In the years since 2017, O’Brien has continued to extend his impressive record, adding further British and Irish Classic victories and taking his Epsom Derby tally into double figures with winners including Anthony Van Dyck, Serpentine, Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy. He has also captured additional renewals of the 2,000 Guineas and maintained his grip on the Irish trainers’ championship.

Website: https://coolmore.com/en/ballydoyle/aidan-obrien/

Contact / email : 353 062 62615

Although he retired from the training ranks in 2002, Ian Balding remains a famous and influential figure in British horse racing. Of course, his son Andrew, who took over the licence at the historic Park House Stables in Kingsclere, Hampshire in January 2003, is a leading, Classic-winning trainer in his own right and his daughter Clare is a former leading amateur jockey and, more recently, a respected journalist and broadcaster.

Born in New Jersey, USA in 1938, Balding Snr. was, himself, a Corinthian amateur rider before turning his hand to training, aged just 26, in 1964. Over the next four decades, he enjoyed a succession of high-profile victories, courtesy of the likes Mrs. Penny, Glint Of Gold and Lochsong, to name but three. However, Ian Balding will always be best remembered as the trainer of Mill Reef, who remains the eighth highest-rated horse in the history of Timeform.

Beaten favourite in the 2,000 Guineas, goimg down by three lengths to none other than Brigadier Gerard, Mill Reef came into his own over middle distances. In a memorable three-year-old campaign, in 1971, he won the Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Not altogether surprisingly, his exploits contributed to Balding winning the Flat Trainers’ Championship for the one and only time.

Ian Balding sadly died at the start of 2026 at the age of 87.

 

As an avid supporter of two-year-old horse racing Jack Berry MBE was a trainer to follow. Very much a man of the moment and keen to take a new approach to horse training he made his own rules and his method was to fill his stable with mostly cheap juveniles and have them fit and ready from the first day of the Flat turf season. The old-school trainers had a more patient method so early season proved rich pickings for the man who was known for his lucky red shirt.

He was known as the ‘King of the two-year-olds’ thanks to his success with younger horses.

If there was one thing you could say about Berry he wasn’t afraid of hard work. And that even continued long after this training career ended with an emphasis on charity, specifically The Injured Jockey Fund.

One of the first horses I remember from the stable was Mind Games who made an impact in 1995 when winning the Brocklesby Stakes by a neck when ridden by John Carroll in the ownership of Robert Hughes. This son of Puissance was a great yearling purchase for just 18,000G, actually purchase by Berry. He raced 20 times over four seasons winning 7 times including the Norfolk Stakes (Group 3), Palace House Stakes (group 3) a race named in honour of one of Berry’s best sprinters [Palace House], Temple Stakes (Group 2) [‘easily’], and taking the same race the following year (1996). This out and out sprinter (5-6f) did just about everything bar win at Group 1 Class. He raced at the highest level 9 times with the best finishing position of 4th in the Nunthorpe Stakes (1996), losing by 2-lengths when 4/1f. If you want to bet on a horse now you can go to the 1xbet site.”

Mind Games went on to stand as a sire from 1997 – 2010. His stallion fee ranging from £1,500 – £3,500. From 2000 onwards he sired over 100 individual winners. The best of those Tangerine Trees who had 15 career wins.

However, Berry took out his trainer’s licence in 1969 and acheived over 1,500 winners and had a least 5 seasons where he trained over 100 winner.

Other noted horses includes:

Paris House
Rosselli
Sellhurstpark Flyer
Bolshoi

Jack Berry is as much associated with his charity work as he has for training winners. His tireless work with Jack Berry House for the Injured Jockey Fund has been inspiring. This Rehabilitation & Fitness Centre in Malton, North Yorkshire was opened in 2015 by HRH The Princess Royal.

He also helped raise money for Oaksey House.

Jack Berry was a jockey over the National Hunt and Flat. In fact he said he had 47 winners and broke 46 bones in his 16-year racing career. He said there wasn’t a part of his body that wasn’t injured at some stage of his racing career.

He was inspired to help the Injured Jockey Fund when Paddy Farrell was injured when riding Border Flight in the Grand National. Sadly, Berry’s son, Sam, aged 20, was paralysed when falling at Sedgefield Racecourse in 1985.

Berry will always be a man of the people, hard working, determined and associated with horse racing success on many levels.

As a human being his achievements are significant.

Briefly an amateur jockey, with a single winner to his name, Robert Cowell served a lengthy apprenticeship under the tutelage of Gavin Pritchard-Gordon, David Nicholson, John Hammond in France and Neil Drysdale in the United States before embarking upon his own training career. Initially based at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California, he returned to Britain in 1997 and saddled his first winner on British soil, Mary Cornwallis, in a 5-furlong handicap at Lingfield on January 27, 1998.

Nowadays, Cowell is based at the privately-owned Bottisham Heath Stud, in the hamlet of Six Mile Bottom, which is so-called because of its distance from Newmarket. Strictly speaking, he holds a combined training licence, but apart from a brief spell in the spring of 2003, when the relatively highly-rated Rock’n Cold won a couple of lowly selling hurdles, he has yet to saddle another winner under National Hunt Rules.

On the Flat, though, Cowell has garnered a reputation as a trainer of talented sprinters. Indeed, he has won the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot twice, with Prohibit in 2011 and Goldream in 2015, the Nunthorpe Stakes at York with Jwala in 2013 and the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, again with Goldream, in 2015. Domestically, he enjoyed his most successful season, numerically and financially, in 2017, when he saddled 43 winners and amassed £549,431 in total prize money.

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robertcowellracing

 

Email: robert@robertcowellracing.co.uk