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Cecil, Carson to be Inducted into QIPCO British Champions Series HOF

QIPCO British Champions Series announced the late Sir Henry Cecil and William 'Willie' Carson will be formally inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame, the official Hall of Fame for British Flat racing, with a special induction ceremony due to take place on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot Saturday Oct. 15.

Carson, who turns 80 next month, becomes the fourth jockey to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, after Lester Piggott, Pat Eddery and Frankie Dettori.

Willie Carson was crowned Champion Jockey in Britain five times and his 3,828 winners in the UK included 17 Classic triumphs, four of them in the Derby. Only three other greats have bettered his overall tally: Sir Gordon Richards (4870), Pat Eddery (4633) and Lester Piggott (4493).

He was associated with a bevy of champions, including Troy, Nashwan and Dayjur. He has enjoyed notable success as a breeder, and had the distinction of guiding Minster Son, who he himself bred, to victory in the 1988 St. Leger, making him the first jockey to breed and ride a Classic winner. He served as a broadcaster career following his retirement from the saddle, hosting the BBC's racing coverage following a stint as a captain on Question of Sport.

“It's very humbling because of where I've come from, but here I am, an ex-Champion Jockey, having ridden British Classic winners for Her Majesty the Queen and with four Derby winners,” said Carson. “I have done a few things in my life but being awarded into the Hall of Fame is one of the biggest. It is a big deal to be invited.”

“I am getting old, but I am still enjoying life. I've got the horses to keep me amused, I have the stud (Minster House); it keeps me amused, busy and working. I am still enjoying life because of the horse–the horse keeps me going.”

Also joining a very exclusive club, Cecil becomes just the second trainer to be inducted following Vincent O'Brien.

In 1976, Cecil was crowned champion for the first time, thanks in no small part to Wollow, who won the 2000 Guineas, Eclipse, Sussex S. and Juddmonte International. Cecil won the title again in 1978, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1993. Only Alec Taylor, who won the championship a dozen times between 1907 and 1925, has ever been champion on more occasions.

It was 10 years ago to the week that Cecil's most illustrious pupil–Frankel–concluded his undefeated 14-race career with victory in the QIPCO Champion S. on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot. “He's the best I've ever had, the best I've ever seen,” he said. “I'd be very surprised if there's ever been anything better.”

Eight months after Frankel's career finale, Cecil died at the age of 70.

“He was modest, and he would have been surprised to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but he would also have felt very honoured,” said Lady Cecil, Sir Henry's widow, who played a key role in the latter part of Sir Henry's career. “I'm delighted as I think he's a very worthy inductee. I hope he will prove to be a popular choice.”

“Henry never understood why or how he was popular. When he had a runner at Newmarket, the reception he got was always amazing. I remember after he died, I was lucky enough to have a winner at Newmarket. The crowd used to come and cheer, and I knew it was for Henry. He was so popular–when I do the Discover Newmarket tours to raise money for the East Anglian Children's Hospice, they come to see Frankel but invariably they talk about Henry. They have so many stories about how Henry chatted to them, the kindness he showed. He was very special.”

Lady Cecil and Willie Carson, who will both attend QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot this weekend, will be presented with a prestigious medal in recognition of the inductions into the Hall of Fame.

Unique to British racing the medals, which were hand-crafted by Asprey, can also be viewed during the day as part of a special Hall of Fame display which will be held within the Grandstand at Ascot. For more information, click here.

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‘I’ll Be Shouting For Her’: Salsabil’s Jockey Willie Carson Backing Tuesday For Irish Derby

As Hollie Doyle so adeptly showed on Sunday, women can easily taken on men in racing, but it is a rare thing for a filly to tackle the colts in a Classic. There have however, been some notable successes, and when Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) lines up for Saturday's Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby she will be following in the hoofprints of her fellow Oaks winners, Salsabil (Ire) and Balanchine, who bounced from victory at Epsom to beating the boys on the Curragh.

Willie Carson was aboard the John Dunlop-trained Salsabil in 1990 when she got the better of that year's Derby winner Quest For Fame, among others, in cruising to success in the Irish Derby for her third Classic victory of the season. After winning the 1,000 Guineas then the Oaks, she became the first filly since Gallinaria (Ire) in 1900 to land the Irish Derby, and the first 1,000 Guineas and Oaks winner to have done so.

“The decision to run was Sheikh Hamdan's,” says Carson, casting his mind back more than three decades to two brilliant seasons for Salsabil. Bought by the sheikh from her breeder Pat O'Kelly, the daughter of Sadler's Wells was out of Kilcarn Stud's great matriarch Flame Of Tara (GB) (Artaius), who the year after she foaled Salsabil produced Marju (Ire) (Last Tycoon {Ire}), winner of the St James's Palace S. and runner-up to Generous (Ire) in the Derby. Among the mare's 11 winners were six black-type performers.

“I don't think John Dunlop would have had the inclination to run her in the Irish Derby. I remember that he wanted to go for the King George but Sheikh Hamdan said Irish Derby.”

Carson, who holds the unique distinction of having won the 200th Derby in England as a jockey on Troy (GB) and the 200th Derby in Ireland as a breeder with Jack Hobbs (GB), continues, “It was the easiest Classic winner I ever rode. I don't think I hit her with a stick, it was just hands and heels and she won so easily.

“Salsabil was a marvellous filly, she was in the top three fillies I rode. Sadly, Sheikh Hamdan didn't get anything as good out of her as she was herself. She was by the great Sadler's Wells from a really good family. Pat O'Kelly was breeding lots of good horses at that time.”

Certainly, Salsabil had everything in her favour on paper going into the Irish Derby, and she was also able to draw upon the excellent form of the man on her back.

“I remember I rode 22 winners that week,” he says. “I was just on fire that week and I had six winners the day before on Northumberland Plate day. It was the best period of my riding career.”

Asked for his opinion of Tuesday being supplemented for the Irish Derby, he adds, “I suppose I was surprised but now they've done it I can see why they've done it. I wasn't surprised when Salsabil was entered; I was only the jockey and I did what I was told.”

Carson, whose Classic-winning exploits extend to having bred and ridden Minster Son (Ire) to glory in the St Leger of 1988, has extra reason to be interested in the career of Tuesday. At home in the paddocks of his Minster Stud is a recently acquired mare named Patronising (GB), who is a half-sister to Tuesday's dam Lillie Langtry (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and shares her sire Galileo.

He says of Tuesday, “When she ran third in the Guineas she looked an out-and-out Oaks winner. Third, running on, in the Guineas is a great thing to be doing. Obviously Emily Upjohn (GB) looked unlucky in the Oaks and she might be slightly better than Tuesday, but Tuesday also didn't have the best of starts in the Oaks.

“I'll be shouting for her. The form says she really only has Westover (GB) to beat.”

Watch Salsabil and Willie Carson win the 1990 Irish Derby

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Derby Hero Erhaab Dies at 30

Shadwell's Erhaab (Chief's Crown–Histoire {Fr}, by Riverman), who won the G1 Derby at Epsom in 1994, died peacefully this week at Batsford Stud. The 30-year-old, the oldest surviving winner of the Blue Riband, had spent the past decade at the Gloucestershire stud.

Bred by Sheikh Hamdan's operation in Kentucky, the half-brother to Group 2 winner Oumaldaaya (Nureyev) and stakes winner Hispanolia (Fr) (Kris {GB}) was trained by John Dunlop. In five starts as a juvenile, the dark bay won twice and was also third in the G3 Horris Hill S. at Newbury. He made his sophomore bow with a second in the Listed Feilden S. in April. Successful in the G2 Dante S. next out, he ran out a 1 1/4-length victor in the Derby-both of those wins were under Willie Carson. His final placing was a third in the G1 Eclipse S. at Sandown

A damaged suspensory ligament brought about his retirement later that summer with a record of 11-4-2-2 and $905,450 in prizemoney. He stood in Japan, Kentucky, and Shadwell's Beech House Stud, and was later a jumps stallion at Wood Farm Stud and Batsford Stud. As a stallion, he sired a quartet of listed-placed progeny in England and Japan, while his daughters have produced three black-type winners in Japan.

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Carson Remembers “Gentleman” Sheikh Hamdan

A day removed from the death of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the age of 75, Willie Carson-his former retained rider who rode many of his great stars of the late 1980s and 1990s-remembered his former boss as “a gentleman, a really nice man.”

Carson recalled on Sky Sports Racing how the appointment with Sheikh Hamdan pulled him back from the brink of retirement.

“The lease was not going to be renewed for [trainer Dick Hern's] West Ilsley stables and Dick was a bit taken aback by that and the first thing he said was, 'I'm retiring.' I thought, 'it looks like I'd better retire as well.' That was just coming into our minds at that time, but after riding a piece of work at Newbury racecourse, Angus Gold, Sheikh Hamdan's racing manager, was there and I first mentioned–it might have been a bit of a joke, but maybe not–'why don't you ask Hamdan if I could be his retained jockey?' And that's how it happened.”

Carson enjoyed a dream run at the turn of the decade as the raceday pilot of the likes of Nashwan, Dayjur, Erhaab and Salsabil. He recalled Nashwan's victory in the 1989 G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond S., the horse's fourth consecutive Group 1 win of the season.

“We made [the King George] into a sprint that day because he had those four Group 1 races in three months and he shouldn't have run in the race because he was tired and he never really recovered from that. But what a magnificent mover he was.”

Of Dayjur, one of the best-ever sprinters, Carson added, “[Dayjur] was the fastest I've ever ridden and I would say the fastest anyone has ever ridden. When the track record was broken at York by his own horse [Battaash in the 2019 Nunthorpe], by a tenth of a second, straight away Hamdan said, 'Dayjur had a headwind.' He didn't want anything taken away from Dayjur.”

“He was a man who enjoyed not just winning races, he enjoyed the breeding side–he enjoyed knowing about his horses,” Carson added. “If there was a really important piece of work before a big race, he'd be ringing up from Dubai to ask how it went, what your feelings were and how the horse was. He was interested in the horse. What a brain he had–sharp, but a very compassionate man.

“It's not just a major loss–it's a gigantic loss. People in the racing industry will be very sad to hear of his passing, he was possibly one of the biggest well-thought of names worldwide. He would try to buy the best horses for his trainers and he was very loyal to anyone who started training for him. He always kept going back and giving them more yearlings.”

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