William Muir & Chris Grassick

It would be fair to say that William Muir made a fairly insupicious start to his training career when, on March 28, 1991, Creefleur, who was weakening at the time, fell at the final flight in a novices’ selling hurdle at Taunton. However, two years later, Muir moved to his current base, Linkslade, in Lambourn, near Hungerford, Berkshire and, a little over three decades later, has well in excess of 700 winners to his name.

Muir trained in his own name unti January 2021, chalking up a total of eight Group race victories, including both the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York with stable star in 2020. At that stage, he was joined on the licence at Linkslade by Chris Grassick who, after gaining valuable work experience in Australia, Japan, Ireland and Saudi Arabia, had most recently spent three years as assistant trainer to Archie Watson in nearby Upper Lambourn.

Since joining forces, Muir and Grassick have saddled Pyledriver to four more high-profile successes, notably including the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom in 2021 and the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in 2022. Obviously, it is still early days for their joint licence arrangement, but, in three seasons so far, they have saddled 34, 28 and 21 winners. The 2024 season has started well, too, with five winners from 23 runners, at an impressive 22% strike rate, at the time of writing.

website: https://www.williammuir.com

social: https://www.instagram.com/muirandgrassickracing/

https://twitter.com/Muir_Grassick

contact / email: william@williammuir.com

Scott Dixon

Scott Dixon officially has his main yard at Southwell Racecourse, near Rolleston, Nottinghamshire, to which he relocated in 2019, and operates a satellite yard at Wolverhampton Racecourse in the West Midlands. However, his Southwell yard was flooded during Storm Babet in October 2023 and, again, in January 2024, so shuttling his horses back and forth to his Wolverhampton training facility has been high on his agenda in recent months.

Dixon first took out a training licence in his own right in December, 2011, having previously worked with the likes of Mark Polglase, Jeremy Glover, and the late David ‘Dandy’ Nicholls. He was initially based at the family stud farm, Haygarth House in Babworth, near Retford, Nottinghamshire, before taking over the training facilities at Southwell Racecourse eight years later.

Dixon holds a combined licence, but his emphasis is almost exclusively on Flat racing and, specifically, on Flat racing on the Tapeta surfaces at Southwell and Wolverhampton. He does have one ‘black type’ victory to his name, courtesy of One Night Stand in the Hever Sprint Stakes at Lingfield in February, but Southwell, where he has saddled 113 career winners, and Wolverhampton, where he has saddled 46 more, remain by far his happiest hunting grounds.

 

website: https://www.scottdixonracing.com/

social: https://www.instagram.com/scottdixonhorseracing/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/ScottDixonRacing/?locale=en_GB

https://twitter.com/scottpjdixon

contact / email: scottdixonracing@hotmail.com

Peter Chapple-Hyam

Nowadays based at the historic St. Gatien Stables, on the All Saints Road in Newmarket, Peter Chapple-Hyam will probably always best remembered for the Classic winners he saddled in the early part of his career. Born on April 2, 1963 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Chapple-Hyam was still, effectively, wet behind the ears when he was appointed by leading owner Robert Sangster as private trainer on his vast Manton estate near Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1991. Inexperienced he may have been, but Chapple-Hyam nonetheless saddled Rodrigo De Triano to win the Middle Park Stakes and Dr. Devious to win the Dewhurst Stakes, both at Newmarket, in his first season. In 1992, Rodrigo De Triano completed the Guineas double – in so doing, providing Lester Piggott with the final Classic winner of his career – and Dr. Devious won the Derby.

Chapple-Hyam enjoyed the most successful seasons of his career, numerically, in 1993 and 1996, when he saddled 52 winners from 239 and 329 runners respectfully. However, he was sensationally sacked by Sangster in 1999 and spent the next four seasons in Hong Kong before returning to Britain in 2004. He enjoyed his most successful season, financially, in 2007, thanks in no small part to the contribution of £709,750 by his second Derby winner, Authorized. In recent years, Chapple-Hyam has found winners much harder to come by, but, after saddling no more than five winners for four seasons running between 2019 and 2022, upped his seaonal tally to 17 winners, from 82 runners, at a creditable 21% strike rate, in 2023.

 

social: https://www.facebook.com/pchracing/

https://twitter.com/chapplehyam

contact / email:  pchapplehyam@yahoo.com

Michael Scudamore

Not to be confused with his late grandfather, Michael Snr., Michael Scudamore is, of course, the son of eight-time champion jockey Peter Scudamore and the younger brother of Tom Scudamore. Having previously worked for the likes of Nigel Twiston-Davies, James Fanshawe and Martin Pipe, Scudamore assisted his grandfather before taking over the licence in 2008. He is still officially based at Eccleswall Court in Bromsash, near Ross-On-Wye, Herefordshire, but there is a move afoot to join forces with Grand National-winning trainer Lucinda Russell. The plan is to move his operation to Scotland, but administrative delays have meant that any dual licence arrangement will have to wait for a little while yet.

Scudamore holds a combined training licence, but, on the Flat, has reached double-figures just once since 2008. In that sphere, in 2011, he saddled 12 winners from 94 runners and won £40,420 in prize money. However, in keeping with the family tradition, he has fared much better under National Hunt Rules and has several high-profile victories to his name. Career highlights include winning the Welsh National at Chepstow with Monberg Dude in 2015, the Grand Annual Chase at the Cheltenham Festival with Next Sensation, also in 2015, and the Eider Chase with Mysteree in 2017, to name but three.

 

social: https://www.facebook.com/scudamoreracing/

https://www.instagram.com/michael_scudamore_racing/

https://twitter.com/MichaelScu

contact / email: maz.scu@btconnect.com