Born in Dumfries in 1958, Charlie Mann
was a highly competent National Hunt jockey, riding 149 winners,
mainly for Jenny Pitman Nicky Henderson, in a 15-year career, before
forcibly retired through injury. He later admitted, “I never wanted
to train horses and after breaking my neck in 1989, I tried various
other things and discovered fairly quickly I was not qualified for
any of them. For three or four years I tried to scratch a living via
a trading company.”
Man subsequently spent a year as
assistant trainer to Cath Walwyn, widow of the legendary Fulke
Walwyn, before taking out a training licence in his own right in
August 1993. Mann famously trained, and rode, It’s a Snip, the
winner of the Velka Pardubicka – the famous cross-country
steeplechase – at Pardubice in the Czech Republic in October 1995.
Less than a week later, he saddled his first high-profile winner on
home soil, General Rusty, ridden by Richard Dunwoody in the Charisma
Gold Cup at Kempton.
In 1998, Mann bought Whitcoombe
Stables, situated at the foot of the Mandown Gallops in Upper
Lambourn, near Hungerford, Berkshire. The following year, he saddled
his first Grade 1 winner, Celibate, in the BMW Chase at Punchestown.
In 2000/01, Mann enjoyed success in
several major televised races, including victories for Moral Support
in the Tote John Hughes Chase at Chepstow and Regal Holly in the
William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Ascot, to name but two. In the season
as a whole, he saddled 43 winners, making it his second most
successful ever, numerically.
His best seasonal tally, numerically,
came in 2008/09, the year in which he saddled his second Grade 1
winner, Air Force One, in the Ellier Developments Champion Novice
Chase at Punchestown. Other highlights included a notable double for
Katies Tuitor in the totescoop6 Summer Hurdle Handicap and 32Red
Online Casino Handicap Hurdle, both at Market Rasen, and the victory
of Gauvain in the Kilbrittain Castle Novices’ Chase at Sandown. All
in all, that season Mann saddled 63 winners and earned just under
£641,000 in total prize money.
In 2012, after 14 years at Whitcoombe
House Stables, Mann sold the establishment to fellow trainer Jonathan
Portman and relocated to a new, purpose-built yard at Neardown
Stables, less than a mile away across Upper Lambourn. At that point,
he pruned the deadwood from his string and although he has found
winners harder to come by in recent years his career total still
stands at over 800.
