John Gosden awarded OBE in New Year Honours list

Gosden has had 19 winners in the QIPCO British Champions Series. Picture: Racingfotos.com

Leading QIPCO British Champions Series trainer John Gosden has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list in recognition of his services to horseracing.

Famed most recently for his handling of the great Golden Horn, Gosden, 65, has twice been crowned champion trainer and has sent out more than 3,000 career winners, including eight British Classics.

He has enjoyed 19 winners in the Champions Series since it was launched in 2011, scooping almost £9 million in prize money.

Married to Rachel Hood, with two sons and two daughters, Gosden was born in Hove on March 30, 1951, the son of former trainer ‘Towser’ Gosden.

He was educated at Cambridge University, where he studied economics, and worked in land development in Venezuela before becoming assistant to Sir Noel Murless and Vincent O’Brien, after which he moved to assist Tommy Doyle in California.

He took out his first training licence in 1979 in the United States, training over 500 winners in California, including the filly Royal Heroine in the inaugural running of the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Gosden returned to England to train in 1989, originally at Stanley House Stables before moving to Manton. He is now based at Clarehaven Stables in Newmarket.

Gosden’s 1,000th winner in Britain came through Much Ado at Lingfield on November 14, 2000, with his first domestic Classic success having been Shantou in the 1996 St Leger. Benny The Dip landed the Derby the following year.

Three more victories in the Leger have come with Lucarno, Arctic Cosmos and Masked Marvel, while Lahan won the 1000 Guineas and the brilliant Taghrooda claimed the Oaks, as well as beating the colts in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

Raven’s Pass helped Gosden make history in 2008 when becoming the first horse trained in Britain to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which he was ridden by the trainer’s long-time ally Frankie Dettori.

Dettori has renewed his partnership with his mentor in the last few years to particularly good effect, most notably through Golden Horn, with whom they won the Derby, Eclipse, Irish Champion Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in a glittering 2015.

Other top-class horses to have passed through his hands include Halling, Ryafan, Muhtarram, Observatory, Oasis Dream, Dar Re Mi, Nathaniel, Kingman, Jack Hobbs and Shalaa.

He already has a leading candidate for Derby honours in 2017 in the shape of Cracksman, a son of Frankel who runs in the Golden Horn colours of owner Anthony Oppenheimer.