Interview with G1-winning trainer who has the Breeders’ Cup on the horizon after saddling two winners at a memorable Royal Ascot
GB: Having spent half a lifetime around top-class racehorses, Jane Chapple-Hyam is finally earning overdue recognition in her own right after a landmark double at Royal Ascot.
When Chapple-Hyam was a child in Melbourne, Australian Horse of the Year Leilani won six G1s including the 1974 Caulfield Cup carrying the colours of her father, politician Andrew Peacock.
Her stepfather was Robert Sangster, the tycoon who dominated racing in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, while her ex-husband Peter Chapple-Hyam won the Derby and 2,000 Guineas during the 18 years of their marriage.
But now she is now making her own headlines, notably as trainer of Royal Ascot Group-race winners Saffron Beach and Claymore. “It’s just patience in this game,” says Chapple-Hyam.
“Some months, as my accountant will tell you, it’s tough, other months are good,” she goes on. “It’s just whether you can hang on in there. I’m not doing anything different – I’ve been fortunate that I have better-quality horses so they’re shining through and we’re getting the results.”
Saffron Beach, who won the G2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot, had already provided a breakthrough G1 success in last year’s Sun Chariot Stakes after finishing runner-up in the 1,000 Guineas.
Claymore, for his part, landed the G3 Hampton Court Stakes, while Intellogent was beaten only a half-length in the Royal Hunt Cup. Her most lucrative success, however, remains the shock 100-1 Ebor success of Mudawin back in 2006.
“If you look at my track record, I think there was only one year I didn’t have a stakes winner – and even then I had a placed finish in a Listed race,” says Chapple-Hyam, 55. “Every year I have always produced something, but more at Listed/Group 3 level.”
Chapple-Hyam took out a licence 17 years ago at Abington Place Stables in Newmarket, the 133-year-old yard owned by leading South African racing figure Mary Slack, who owns Claymore.
The trainer had come to Britain aged 17, straight out of school in Geelong, to enrol on a stable management course at the National Stud, an interest in racing having already been piqued by her family connections.
“My mum was married to Robert Sangster and my Dad was a very keen racehorse owner who loved to have a bet and do the trifecta on a Saturday,” she says. “Mum was living in England so it was good to finish school and come over here and do the course in Newmarket.”
‘I wasn’t directing the traffic’
She went to work at Sangster’s training establishment in Manton, Wiltshire, where Michael Dickinson, Barry Hills and then, during a golden period for the yard, Peter Chapple-Hyam held the licence.
“At Manton we had Rodrigo De Triano, Spectrum, Turtle Island, Dr Devious, White Muzzle, Balanchine, Cape Verdi, City Honours, do you want me to keep going?” she recalls. “I would ride out three lots every day, go racing, but I wasn’t directing the traffic. Peter directed the traffic.”
Years later, she ended up training on her own account. “I’d seen enough of what it was about,” she explains. “I knew the English programme book better than I would the Australian programme book.
“We had come from Hong Kong into Newmarket, where Peter resumed training. I had a year here so I got to know the gallops so it seemed the right place to start.”
Up until the last two seasons, Abington Place has been also known as a boarding place for top international talent.
The Australian champion Black Caviar stayed with Chapple-Hyam before she won the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, while Japanese mare Deirdre was another VIP guest the year she won the 2019 Nassau Stakes.
Always a keen internationalist, Chapple-Hyam is hoping to strike overseas in her own right, having laid out a plan to take Saffron Beach to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup, where she enjoyed what she nominates as the best moment of her career – on the undercard in 2007.
“You’ll laugh but I had a second at the Breeders’ Cup meeting in Monmouth Park with Annie Skates [Epitome Breeders’ Cup Stakes],” she says. “I think it was the best result by any European that year.
“I’m still waiting for the jockey [the late Garrett Gomez] to come and tell me how the horse got on! They get off the horses and go down a chute without really talking to the trainers and the owners.”
Breeders’ Cup ambitions
She continues: “I love all those big meetings like the Breeders’ Cup, Royal Ascot, the Arc weekend, Melbourne Cup carnival. I’ve had a second in the Prix de l’Abbaye and second in the Breeders’ Cup so you always want to go one better.”
Saffron Beach, who has two members of the Sangster family involved in her ownership, is due to have her next start in the G1 Prix Rothschild at Deauville on August 2, followed by the Sun Chariot (Oct 1) and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (Nov 4-5).
“I’ve always wanted to have one go back to the Breeders’ Cup," she says. "When you get a good horse you always think of Royal Ascot, the Breeders’ Cup or Arc meeting because they are the best.
“I ticked one off my bucket list when I sent my own horse Ambassadorial to Santa Anita as a 500-1 shot to run in the Dirt Mile in 2019. The setting of Santa Anita is something else.
“But If you really want the Breeders’ Cup, you have to work backwards from the race,” she explains. “You can’t shove them in six races in Europe and go there as an afterthought because they don’t last, they’re exhausted.
“Saffron Beach can have six to eight weeks between races and at Abington Place we are able to turn her out to grass so she can stay in her routine. I think she’s still improving.”
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