In the world of horse racing, there are some people that are well-known thanks to their presence in the sport for a number of years. Mention the names of Tony McCoy, for example, or Willie Mullins and even people that aren’t that interested in horse racing will still know who it is that you’re talking about.
There is a similar sense with John Gosden, who was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2017 thanks to his services to both horse racing and training. That gives you some sense of just how much influence Gosden has enjoyed during his career.
About
John Harry Martin Gosden was born in Hove on the 30th of March 1951. Educated at Eastbourne College before attending Emmanuel College in Cambridge, studying economics, he started his career in racing as an assistant to Vincent O’Brien. He then moved on to work with Sir Noel Murless, covering two of the most successful trainers in the history of the sport. During that time, the trainers won a number of major races such as the Derby and the Oaks. He went on to enjoy a spell working in the United States of America, working as the assistant for Tommy Doyle.
Initially choosing to stay in the US for financial reasons, Gosden moved to Newmarket in 1989, having won a number of big races in the States. He trained at Stanley House Stables and won the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 1991. His career continued to progress from there, not least thanks to the fact that he developed a working relationship with Frankie Dettori, with the pair going on to win hundreds of races together. As the years passed, he added the likes of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and the British Classic, the St. Leger, to his list of famous wins.
In 1999, Gosden moved to Manton, soon winning major successes in everything from the 1,000 Guineas Stakes to the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. More and more such wins were added to his roster, eventually deciding to return to Newmarket in order to train at Clarehaven Stables, where he won even more big-name events. In fact, there is barely a well-known event in the flat racing calendar that Gosden didn’t win at some point or another, enjoying success across the world. In 2021, he began working with his son, Thady Gosden, with the pair holding a joint licence, becoming Champion Trainers two years later.
Major Successes
In some ways, it would probably be easier to list the flat racing events that John Gosden hasn’t won, as opposed to those that he has. Think of a well-known event and the likelihood is that he will have seen a horse trained by him win it at some point during his long and illustrious career. With more than 3,000 winners to his name in places such as France, Italy and the United States, it almost goes without saying that Gosden’s name will sit amongst the pantheon of horse training greats thanks to how well he’s done in the industry. Even so, here are just some of the races he’s won:
- St. Leger
- Breeders’ Cup Classic
- The Derby
- 1,000 Guineas
- The Oaks
- Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
- Irish Derby
- Premio Roma
- Haydock Sprint Cup
- Gran Premio di Milano
Horses Trained
Given the sheer number of horse races that John Gosden has won, it is hardly a surprise to learn that he has worked with some exceptional horses during the course of his career. In fact, if you were to list out every horse that he’s trained that is well known enough to warrant an entry in a horse racing manual, you would soon run out of room for all of them. As a result, we have picked out just a few of the ones that are likely to be most recognisable from his career to take a closer look at:
Bates Motel
In some ways, Bates Motel isn’t one of the most recognisable of names that Gosden worked with, excluding the obvious name recognition because of the film Psycho. Yet it will almost certainly mean a lot to Gosden himself, owing to the fact that he was won of the first horses that he won with, back in 1983. Not only that, but it’s not even as if it’s small fry events that the horse won, taking home races such as The Big Cap, the prestigious Santa Anita Handicap and winning the Eclipse Award. He also produced some winners of his own after he was retired to stud in 1984.
Stradivarius
Stradivarius only won one race when he was a two-year-old, but soon emerged as a top-class stayer when he won the likes of the Goodwood Cup and the Queen’s Vase. By the time he was four, he won the Yorkshire Cup and the Ascot Gold Cup, also picking up wins in events like the British Champions Long Distance Cup and becoming a double winner of the Doncaster Cup. He was awarded the title of Cartier Champion Stayer in 2018, 2019 and 2020, which will give you some sense of his ability, whilst siring Sea the Stars, who won the Epsom Derby and 2,000 Guineas.
Enable
If you want to get a sense of Enable’s ability, she won 15 of the 19 races that she was entered into during her career. It lasted just shy of four years, taking part in her first even in the November of 2016 before drawing it to a close in the October of 2020. Successes were seen in events such as the Epsom Oaks, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Bred in England by Juddmonte Farms, the bay mare was from the first crop of horses sired by Nathaniel, later repeating his success of winning the Eclipse Stakes in 2019, which he’d won seven years before.
Raven’s Pass
If you want an example of Gosden’s success in the United States of America, then it can probably be seen in Raven’s Pass. The stallion was foaled in 2005, going on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic three years later. The horse also won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Celebration Mile, all in the same year. Given the fact that his career started as an unfancied outsider in a race at Yarmouth, the fact that he went on to achieve so much shows the talent that he boasted. In 2008, the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities considered him to be the third best horse of the year.
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