Richard Hannon: Good Fathers Make Good Sons

As if his father, Richard Hannon Snr., five times Champion Trainer, wasn’t a hard enough act to follow, Richard Hannon Jr. made a rod for his own back by winning the Trainers’ Championship at the first attempt in 2014. Still, having saddled Night Of Thunder to win the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket and Toronado to win the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in that initial season, Hannon has managed at least one winner at the highest level each year since taking over the reins at Herridge and Everleigh Racing Stables in Wiltshire, South West England on New Year’s Day 2014.

Of all his early successes, Hannon singled out Toormore, his first runner in Hong Kong since taking over the training licence, as “one that I remember for the rest of my training days.” Toormore contested the Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin in December 2015 and, although ultimately well beaten, Hannon described the 4-year-old as a “real professional”.

More recently, Richard Hannon saddled Barney Roy to win the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and, in doing so, avenge an arguably unlucky defeat by Churchill in 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket the previous month. On the Rowley Mile at Newmarket, Barney Roy stumbled and became unbalanced on the descent into ‘the Dip’ and, although he stayed on well under pressure, could make no impression on Churchill in the closing stages, going down by a length.

It’s fair to say that Churchill was below par at Ascot, but Barney Roy subsequently failed by the minimum margin to overhaul Ulysses in the Coral-Eclipse, proving himself a top performer over a mile and a quarter. Hannon said of him, “Barney Roy is by far the best colt I have trained and the most athletic horse I have seen. We look forward to seeing his yearlings at the sales.” The Excelebration colt does not, as originally planned, stay in training as a four-year-old and now stands at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket.

Looking forward, Brian Epstein, by the excellent young sire Dark Angel out of Jewel In The Crown – who Richard Hannon Snr. trained to win the Cherry Hinton Stakes as a two-year-old – is just one potentially smart unraced juvenile that Hannon has in his yard for 2018. He’s also recently celebrated his first winner in the United Arab Emirates, with the victory of Oh This Is Usin the valuable Shaista AZIZI Handicap at the Meydan Carnival.