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Tony Carroll at his Cropthorne Stud: ‘If I was a horse I’d want to live here’ - Debbie Burt
With Willie Mullins retaining his British jump trainers’ title and Aidan O’Brien already a seven-time leading trainer here, there is a strong chance that, by the time 2025 is over, Tony Carroll will be the only British champion trainer in Britain. Who’d have thought it?
Carroll, 68, is one of those people who has underpinned the sport for half a century, for 20 years as a jump jockey and as a trainer for nigh-on three decades. A fortnight after he was finally crowned leading trainer on the all-weather with 57 winners on Good Friday having missed out by one the previous year, he is still on a high.
He is one of the sport’s unsung heroes. Born in Lambourn, he started with not much more than his wits, trains in a place better known for its vegetables, his horses are not household names, he is unlikely to have a runner at Royal Ascot although he is mustard at Brighton and Wolverhampton and he does not have much of a social media presence.
But he makes up for that by going racing almost every time he has a runner and meeting people and he will have 100 plus winners before the year is out with horses largely costing less than £10,000. I would pitch him into the top three happiest trainers I have ever met, a low bar but nevertheless.
The Carroll look is having his reading glasses perched on his head because, that way, he knows where they are and, though now a bone fide champion, he jokes that he does not feel he is “quite there yet” to wear sunglasses at the races.
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Team sport: Carroll (far left) with his veteran Brighton winner, Pou La Victoire - Darren Cool
He is also as much about people as he is horses. Every single one of his lads wished me “Good morning” which, I think, says as much about the trainer as his title and he has brought his apprentice, Jack Doughty, with him this winter to much wider attention.
Doughty, he predicts, will go far but not at the wheel of a car any time soon as he recently failed the theory part of his test. “We’ve been giving him a lot of stick for it,” says Carroll laughing. “When he was asked for a common sign that you would see beside a main road, he replied: ‘Pick your own strawberries.’” Living in the Vale of Evesham, though, Doughty may have had a point.
Neither Carroll’s career nor Cropthorne Stud, his 90 acre yard, were built in a day but both are pretty much where he wants them now. It looks slightly unpromising as you drive in but it then opens up into what reminded me, topographically at any rate, of a mini-Ballydoyle, an oasis with a couple of gallops, several barns and room to turn his horses out for an hour a day every day.
Having outgrown his previous yards in Worcestershire, an owner who had come to see her horse, said she had to leave to meet the agent selling her small-holding. He saw it that afternoon and had bought it by nightfall.
“It was a rickety place with just 20 acres,” he says, pointing to Bredon Hill. “The first thing I thought was: ‘If I was a horse I’d want to live here.’”
‘You give your life to racing but I’m very grateful for what it’s done for me’
He has subsequently built his own house and added a further 70 acres when the land has come up for sale and, latterly, business has flourished. “The last few years it’s been like a graph, 50 winners, 60, 70, high 80s” he says. “Last year we had a stronger start, there were some incredible performances from the horses, The Craftymaster was Racehorse Owners Association All-weather Horse of the Year, winning seven races and we got to 100 in a calendar year for the first time.
“Of course we dream of Group winners. Caspian Prince, won in Dubai (a £70,000 first prize) and the Epsom Dash. We won a big handicap sprint at York with Recon Mission, we’ve won Listed races in France with two-year-olds.
His first job was with Barry Hills riding out at weekends. He served his apprenticeship with Pat Taylor, rode a dozen winners on the Flat, got heavy, and rode for seven years for Stan Mellor.
“I rode from 16 to 36, they ride a lot longer these days but it was a good innings then,” he reflects. “After being out for a year with a broken leg I walked into Newmarket and picked up bits and pieces. The last five or six years I just enjoyed the riding.
“I met Terry Ramsden, [a flamboyant owner-punter] with Alan Bailey. He had a filly which won a seller by quite a long way and everyone was very happy and I became part of the Ramsden job. He put me on a retainer. I rode Stearsby in the Sun Alliance Chase for him. It was my best chance of ever riding a Festival winner, he was travelling so well but didn’t get high enough at the last ditch.”
After 280 winners he packed up spontaneously after beating Norman Williamson a head at Southwell one day. “It felt right. I got home… you’ve never had a job but you really didn’t have a job then.
“I was married at the time and we were financially OK but I couldn’t find the right place to train. My wife was into care homes, one was coming up in Malvern so we put in a silly bid and got it so for the next year I helped her get it up and running. Though we’re divorced, she’s still got it and it’s very successful but it wasn’t for me and I ended up renting a dozen boxes near Alcester.”
‘I’ve been hell to live with’
He kept outgrowing his yards until he found Cropthorne, which he has grown with. After the experience of narrowly missing last year’s title, he says: “The last six weeks I’ve been hell to live with. It was all about making sure I did win. Missing it by one wasn’t going to happen this year.
“You don’t sleep well, thinking about this horse and that horse. I’ve had real support from my partner, Lisa Judd. She’s successful in London, I’m chipping away here and we meet in the middle. When you get to a stage in life you have to enjoy it but I’ve got a real taste for this success thing. I don’t mind where they win as long as they win.
“I love the horses. They’ve been my life, they’re wonderful creatures. We’re blessed to live around them and train in a place like this. You give your life to racing but I’m very grateful for what it’s done for me. I count myself very lucky, I’ve come the long road but had so much fun, met some incredible people, the [late] Queen twice, been to the castle.
“I’m not sure what Tony’s got next. But it’s not all about me, it’s about the staff too. I feel sorry for them. Every time I buy a horse for £2,000, I bring it home and expect them to work magic on it. They’d like to go to Royal Ascot too!”
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