Richard Hannon breaks free from the verge of 216 and hits his 217th win within three days
The genius trainer, Richard Hannon, just required five more runners after equaling Mark Johnston’s record of 216 winners in a year. He added another win through his representative, Numeral, at Lingfield in the Grade 4 Totepool Handicap on 7th
December, to break Johnston's record and mark 217 winners a year.
This landmark was achieved by an existing legend on 10th December at Wolverhampton in the Spiffing Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer Claiming Stakes, a Grade 5 race.
The race was won by Richard Hannon’s trainee, Guava, who was being ridden by the stable jockey, Kieran O'Neil. The two-year-old was sent as a 6/4 favourite and meeting all the expectations, the horse won the race on a field of ten.
The victory made it possible for Richard Hannon to maintain yet another record after being awarded the trainers’ championship four times, the latest one coming just last month. He has been able to tamper the record before too by training 182 winners in 1993
and then in 2008, Richard Hannon trained 189 winners.
However, it was in 2009 that this record was taken over by Mark Johnston when he became successful in training 216 winners. This record remained with Johnston for the last sixteen years.
Richard Hughes said: "The boss wouldn't even be trying. He doesn't think about the figures he just keeps sending out the winners. It keeps happening year after year and it's not a fluke. He keeps it so simple, there's never any targets he just keeps them
running. The Horses are happy and winning from March to December which is some achievement”.
This was the second victory that the two-year-old filly amassed during this season so it was quite unexpected, specially in relation with the record breaking moment. It took Richard Hannon just around three days from equalising the record to breaking it.
The time span itself is a record.
Richard Hannon is a trainer with immense talent and ability and has accumulated a staggering 3,600 wins since the beginning of his career in 1970. Some criticise his success by comparing the number of horses that he has under training, considering which
he is deemed to win theses many races annually. Yet, maintaining and operating stables this big and prosperous does not come easy.
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