Jane Chapple-Hyam

 

Australian-born Jane Chapple-Hyam is the former wife of trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam, to whom she was married for 18 years. However, with her marriage coming to an end, she decided, in her own words to 'give it [training] a go myself.'

Chapple-Hyam had studied stud management at the National Stud in Newmarket as a teenager and worked for trainers Michael Dickinson and Barry Hills – employed by her late step-father, Robert Sangster – at Manton, Wiltshire, as well as alongside her former husband. Nevertheless, she effectively started again, from scratch, when she took out a training licence in her own right in 2005.

Chapple-Hyam saddled her first winner, Chief Commander, at Wolverhampton in January, 2006. The following August she made history by saddling the longest-priced winner in the history on the Ebor at York, Mudawin, at 100/1. His £124,640 winning prize money remains her biggest payday to date. She won her first Pattern race, the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes at Newbury in 2010 and, in 2012, 2013 and 2014, recorded three more Group 3 wins, courtesy of Mull of Killough. Indeed, Mull of Killough contested as series of races in Australia, including the Group 1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley, in 2013.

Nowadays, Chapple-Hyam operates what has been described as 'boutique' stable of 30 or so horses in Dalham, near Newmarket. Her current stable star in undoubtedly the filly Safforn Beat, who won the Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket in 2020 and subsequently finished second in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Which trainer has won the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes most often?

Run annually over a mile and a half at Ascot in July and open to horses aged three years and upwards, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes has the distinction of being the most prestigious, and valuable, all-aged Flat race in Britain. Indeed, with guaranteed prize money of £1.2 million, it is the second most valuable Flat race, of any description, behind only the Derby. It wasn't just the stable cheering. And who amongst us doesn't want a big win? Wolf winner online pokies real money players and others will surely agree.

Established, as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Festival of Britain Stakes, in 1951, the race has been one by some of the truly great middle-distance performers of the modern era, including Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Shergar, Dancing Brave, Reference Point and Harbinger. Two of that illustrious septet, Shergar, in 1981, and Harbinger, in 2010, were saddled by Sir Michael Stoute who, with six wins, is the most successful trainer in the history of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Fresh from facile victories in the Derby at Epsom and the Irish Derby at the Curragh, Shergar was equally untroubled to land odds of 2/5 at Ascot, drawing clear in the closing stages under Walter Swinburn to beat fellow three-year-old Madam Gay by four lengths. After a 12-year hiatus, Stoute won his second King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes with the five-year-old colt Opera House, owned by Sheikh Mohammed, in 1993.

In 2002, Stoute produced Golan, who had won the 2,000 Guineas as a three-year-old, but had been absent since finishing unplaced in the Japan Cup the previous November, to win on his seasonal debut and, in 2009, saddled an unprecedented 1-2-3, courtesy of Conduit, Tartan Bearer and Ask. More recently, he has added to his winning tally with Harbinger, who won by an impressive 11 lengths in 2010, but sadly never raced again after fracturing a cannon bone on the gallops in Newmarket, and Poet's Word who, in 2018, beat his marginally better-fancied stable companion Crystal Ocean by a neck, with the pair nine lengths clear, after what the 'Racing Post' described as a 'stirring battle'.

Who are the leading trainers in the history of the Peterborough Chase?

For the uninitiated, the Peterborough Chase is a Grade 2 steeplechase, run over 2 miles, 3 furlongs and 189 yards at Huntingdon in December. The race was first run, in its current guise – that is, as a weight-for-age, conditions chase – in 1978 and, since then, two trainers, both veterans, have saddled eight winners apiece. Punters love to place bets on the Chase using bet bonuses and the like, much in the same way that the latest no deposit codes for existing players appeal to casino goers.

In chronological order, in terms of their first winners of the Peterborough Chase, the first of them is six-time champion trainer Nicky Henderson. Henderson opened his account with reigning champion chaser Remittance Man in 1992 and added two more victories in the nineties, courtesy of Arkle Challenge Trophy winner Travado in both 1993 and 1995. After a lengthy hiatus, the master of Seven Barrows has significantly increased his winning tally in the last decade or so, with further victories for Riverside Theatre (2013), Josses Hill (2016), Top Notch (2017 and 2019) and Mister Fisher (2020).

Henderson shares the mantle of leading trainer with Henrietta Knight, who officially retired in 2012, but announced in November 2023 that she would returning to training at the earliest opportunity in 2024, from her previous base at West Lockinge Farm near Wantage, Oxfordshire, where she has been running a successful livery yard. During her previous stint in the training ranks, Knight was responsible for the prolific, and versatile, Edredon Bleu, who had the distinction of winning the Peterbrough Chase four years running, in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. At the time of his retirement, in 2005, the Grand Tresor gelding had won 24 of his 47 starts over fences, including the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 2000 and King George VI Chase at Kempton Park in 2003. Knight also saddled Best Mate (2002), Impek (2005), and Racing Demon (2006 and 2007) to victory in the Peterborough Chase.