After leaving the army, Martin Bell
worked as assistant trainer to Mercy Rimmell and Paul Cole before
taking out a training licence, in his own right, at Fitzroy House in
Newmarket, Suffolk in 1989. His first Group winner, Pass The Peace in
the Fred Darling Stakes at Newmarket, was originally bought for 9,000
guineas by his father, Brian, and subsequently sold to Sheikh
Mohammed. The proceeds from the sale allowed Bell to buy Fitzroy
House, which he had previously rented.
In the last three decades, Bell has
trained in the region of 1,400 winners and amassed over £24 million
in total prize money. However, he is probably best known for his two
Classic winners, Motivator in the Derby in 2005 and Sariska in the
Oaks in 2009. Sariska followed up in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh
the following month and, in between times, Bell also saddled Art
Connossieur to win the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.
However, his most memorable winner, he
said, was Hoh Magic in the Prix Morny at Deauville in 1994. The
two-year-old filly, by Cadeux Genereux, ran on well inside the final
furlong to win by 1½ lengths and record the first Group 1 vicotory
for the yard. Bell later recalled, fondly, “Deauville is a special
place and a very big day in the racing calendar”.
More recently, Bell enjoyed further
success with Margot Did in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York in 2011 –
making Hayley Turner the first female jockey ever to ride two Group 1
winners – and back-to-back victories by Wigmore Hall in the
Northern Dancer Turf Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada
in 2011 and 2012. In June 2013, though, after an unproductive summer
in which Bell saddled just 16 winners at a strike rate of 9%, he and
Hayley Turner parted company after 13 years together. Bell said at
the time, “Hayley is a great girl and I will continue to use her,
but she has been with me for 13 years and sometimes you just need to
freshen things up.”
In recent seasons, the Duke Of
Marmalade gelding Big Orange has become the standard bearer for the
yard, winning the Goodwood Cup two years running in 2015 and 2016 and
taking his form to a new level when holding on gamely to beat
subsequent Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe fourth Order Of St George by a
short head in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment