With Willie Mullins retaining the title of his British jump coaches and Aidan O'Brien already a seven-time coach here, there is a good chance that, at the time of 2025, Tony Carroll be the only British champion coach in Great Britain.
Carroll, 68, is one of those people who supported sport for half a century, for 20 years as a jump jockey and as a coach for three decades. A fortnight after having finally been crowned leading coach on the all -time, with 57 winners, on Friday, after having missed a year in the previous year, he is still at the top.
He is one of the unknown heroes of sport. Born in Lambourn, he started with not much more than his spirits, trains in a place better known for his vegetables, his horses are not familiar names, it is unlikely that he has a runner at Royal Ascot, although he is mustard to Brighton and Wolverhampton and he does not have much presence on social media.
But he compensates for this by racing almost every time he has a runner and meeting people, and he will have more than 100 winners before the end of the year with horses largely less than £ 10,000. I would present it in the three best coaches that I have ever met, a low bar but nevertheless.
The Carroll look has its reading glasses perched on his head because, in this way, he knows where they are and, although now a bone champion, he jokes that he does not feel that he is “completely there” to wear sunglasses in the races.
It is also as much on people as horses. Each of his guys wished me “hello” who, I think, said as much about the coach as his title and he brought his apprentice, Jack Doughty, with him this winter to a much wider attention.
Doughty, he predicts, will go far but not at the wheel of a car soon because he recently failed the theoretical part of his test. “We gave him a lot of stick for that,” says Carroll, laughing. “When asked for a common sign that you would see next to a main road, he replied:” Choose your own strawberries “.” Living in the Evesham valley, however, Doughty may have had a point.
Neither the career of Carroll nor the cropthorne stud, its 90 acres, were built in a day, but the two are roughly where it wants them now. It seems slightly not very promising when you drive, but it then opens on what reminded me, topographically in any case, of a mini-billydoyle, of an oasis with a few gallops, several barns and the place to extinguish its horses for an hour per day.
Having exceeded her previous projects in Worcestershire, an owner who had come to see her horse said that she had to leave to meet the agent selling her little blow. He saw it this afternoon and bought it per night.
“It was a jerky place with only 20 acres,” he said, pointing to Bredon Hill. “The first thing I thought was:” If I were a horse, I would like to live here. »»
He subsequently built his own house and added 70 additional acres when the land was sold and, recently, business prospered. “In recent years, it's like a graphic, 50 winners, 60, 70, high 80,” he says. “Last year, we had a stronger beginning, there were incredible performances from horses, the Craftymaster was the horse of the year of the owners of Racehorse Owsers Association of the year, winning seven races and we reached 100 in a calendar year for the first time.
“Of course, we dream of group winners. Caspian Prince won Dubai (a first prize of £ 70,000) and the Dash Epsom. We have won a large disabled sprint in York with Reconcit mission, we have won races listed in France with two -year -old children.
His first job was with Barry Hills who ride the weekend. He served his apprenticeship with Pat Taylor, led a dozen winners on the apartment, held up and went up for seven years for Stan Mellor.
“I went from 16 to 36 years, they drive much longer these days, but it was a good round at the time,” he said. “After being absent for a year with a broken leg, I entered Newmarket and picked up pieces. Over the past five or six years, I just appreciated driving.
“I met Terry Ramsden, (a flamboyant owner-power) with Alan Bailey. He had a filly that won a seller by a long way and everyone was very happy and I was part of Ramsden's work. He put me on a restraint. I did a stearsby tour in the pursuit of the Sun alliance for him.
“You give your life to the race but I am very grateful for what it has done for me”
After 280 winners, he spontaneously luggage after beating Norman Williamson a head in Southwell one day. “It was good. I got home … You never had a job, but you really had no work at the time.
“I was married at the time and we were financially well, but I couldn't find the right place to train. My wife was in care houses, we came to Malvern, so we put an idiotic offer and had it for the following year, I helped her make it work. Although we are divorced, she always has it and it is very effective, but it was not for me and I ended up renting a dozen boxes near Alpster. ”.
He continued to go beyond his lessons until he found Cropthorne, with which he grew up. After the experience of closely missing disappearance last year, he said: “The last six weeks I have hell with whom to live. It was a question of making sure I won. Missing it by one was not going to arrive this year.
“You don't sleep well, thinking about this horse and this horse. I received real support from my partner, Lisa Judd. She succeeded in London, I throw here and that we meet in the middle. When you arrive at a scene in life, you have to enjoy it, but I have a real taste for this success. I do not disturb you where they win as long as they win.
“I love horses. They were my life, these are wonderful creatures. We are fortunate to live around them and train in a place like this. You give your life to the race but I am very grateful for what it did to me.
“I don't know what Tony then has. But that's not all about me, they are also staff.
