Trainers

Bio: Brian Meehan is a thoroughbred trainer who begain his training career under the tutelage of Richard Hannon aged 20 in 1987. Five years later he decided to go it alone.

It didn’t take long before Meehan started seeing results with a listed race win for Amaretto Bay in the National Stakes at Sandown in 1995.  Years later came a group one win Tomba, in the Prix de la Foret at Longchamp, but he’d already experienced plenty of successes inbetween (such as the Dubai Duty Free, worth a cool £1.75 million to the winner in its own right).

Other significant wins include the Champion Stakes in 2005 (a year that he earned over £1 million in prize money), Eclipse Stakes in 2006 and Racing Post Trophy in 2008.

Brian Meehan has been based on Marlborough Downs at Manton Estate near Manton, Wiltshire in recent years. He initially leased the 90 box facility, but as he’d become part of the furniture he purchased it in 2017, a sign on his ongoing, and likely continued, achievement.

 

Website: http://www.brianmeehan.co.uk/

News / Blog: http://www.brianmeehan.co.uk/latestnews

Social: https://www.facebook.com/brian.meehan.1253?fref=ts

Contact: info@brianmeehan.com

 

Bio: Dubai-born Saeed bin Suroor has been training horses for Godolphin – the operation founded by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – since 1995. He splits his time between Goldolphin Stables in Newmarket, Suffolk and Al Quoz Stables in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

 

Nevertheless, Saeed bin Suroor has been Champion Trainer in Britain four times, in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004 and has saddled twelve British Classic winners. The first of them was Moonshell in the Vodafone Oaks in June, 1995 and the second came just 24 hours later when Lammtarra produced a strong burst in the final furlong to win the Vodafone Oaks. In a ‘heady’ debut season, Saeed bin Suroor also saddled Halling to win the Coral-Eclipse Stakes and the Juddmonte International Stakes, Lammtarra to win the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Classic Cliché to win the fifth, and final, Classic of the season, the St. Leger.

 

In 23 seasons, he has won the 2,000 Guineas twice, 1,000 Guineas twice, the Derby, the Oaks twice and the St. Leger fives times. All in all, he has saddled over 2,000 winners, including hundreds at the highest level.

 

Website: http://www.godolphin.com/

News / Blog: https://www.godolphin.com/news

Social: https://www.facebook.com/teamgodolphin

Contact: info@godolphin.com

 

Bio: Racing journalist turned trainer George Baker – not to be confused with the unrelated former jockey of the same name – launched his new career with a string of 15 horses at Far Westfield Farm, originally a stud farm, in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire in March 2008.

 

In his first three seasons, Baker saddled 15, 26 and 40 winners, respectively, before moving to Whitsbury in Hampshire in January, 2011. In September of that year, he saddled his first Listed winner, Humidor in the Scarborough Stakes at Doncaster, and just over a year later his second, Boomshackerlacker in the Prix Saraca at Maisons-Laffite. He also saddled Belgian Bill to win the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot in 2013. After two seasons at Whitsbury, Baker was on the move again, this time to the historic Manton Estate, owned by the Sangster Family, near Marlborough in Wiltshire in December 2013.

 

There he remained until May 2017, notably sending out Boomshackerlacker to win the Hessen-Pokal at Frankfurt in 2014 and the Prix Jacques de Bremond at Vichy in 2015 and Belgian Bill to win the Betfred Mile at Goodwood in 2015 and the FRBC Anatolia Trophy at Veliefendi in 2016. He subsequently bought Robins Farm, a 50-box, state-of-the-art training facility – previous owned by Sheikh Fahad Al Thani and occupied by Olly Stevens – near Chiddingfold, Surrey.

 

He saddled just 11 winners in 2017 and just five, so far, in 2018, but with nearly 400 winners on the board Baker looks sure to improve significantly on those figures in coming seasons.

 

Website: http://www.georgebakerracing.com/

News / Blog: https://www.georgebakerracing.com/gbr-racing-blog/

Social: https://www.facebook.com/candida.baker?fref=ts

Contact: stables@georgebakerracing.com

 

 

Bio: As a National Hunt jockey, John Joseph “Jonjo” O’Neill is probably still best remembered for his association with Dawn Run, the only horse ever to complete the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double.

 

O’Neill first took out a training licence in 1986, but was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma that same year so, following intensive chemotherapy, didn’t saddle his first runners until 1988/89. From his original base, a farm in Penrith that he’d bought some years earlier with training in mind, he sent out a steady, if unspectacular, stream of winners.

 

However, in 2001, he was installed as the trainer at Jackdaws Castle – the Cotswolds training centre recently purchased by John Patrick ‘J.P.’ McManus – and, in 2001/02, saddled over one hundred winners in a season for the first time. In 2013/14, O’Neill enjoyed his most successful season ever, numerically, with 134 winners and over £1.57 million in prize money.

 

Grade 1 victories for Taquin De Seul in the JLT Novices’ Chase and More Of That in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, Holywell in the Betfred Mobile Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree and Shuthefrontdoor in the Boylesports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse contributed over £394,000 to his prize money total for the season.

 

Website: http://www.jonjooneillracing.com/

News / Blog: https://www.jonjooneillracing.com/news.html

https://www.facebook.com/JonjoONeillRacing

Contact: jacqueline.oneill@jonjooneillracing.com