Formerly a moderately successful
conditional jockey for Josh Gifford, Roger Varian became assistant
trainer to Michael Jarvis at Kremlin House Stables, on Fordham Road,
Newmarket, after a shattered wrist, sustained in a fall during
secondment to Jack Fisher in Maryland, USA, brought his riding career in horse racing to an end. Ten years later, in February, 2011, Jarvis – who had had
a heart valve replaced and was suffering from prostate cancer –
retired due to ill health and handed the yard over to Varian.
Jarvis was, undoubtedly, a hard act to
follow, but Varian made a fine start to his career, remarkably
saddling 16 winners from his first 64 runners, at a strike rate of
25%. Varian remained at Kremlin House for the first six years of his
training career, notably saddling Kingston Hill to win his first
domestic Group One race, the Racing Post Trophy – now the Vertem
Futurity Trophy – in 2013 and his first Classic, the St. Leger
Stakes, in 2014.
By that stage, though, Varian had made
his mark internationally; he had already won the Group One Prix de
l’Opera at Longchamp in 2011 and Grade One Flower Bowl Invitational
Stakes at Belmont Park in 2012 with Nahrain and the Pretty Polly
Stakes at the Curragh in 2012. His success at the highest level
continued, with victories for Belardo in the Dewhurst Stakes at
Newmarket in 2014 and Lockinge Stakes in 2016 and a memorable
hat-trick for Postponed in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan, the
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Cup at Epsom and the International
Stakes at York in 2016.
In 2017, moved to Carlburg Stables,
formerly occupied by Clive Brittain, on the nearby Bury Road and
enjoyed his most successful season ever, numerically, with 109
winners. In recent seasons, Defoe, owned Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al
Maktoum – who transferred his string to Varian from the now-retired
Luca Cumani in 2015 – has been the flag-bearer for the yard. The
Dalakhani gelding has won nine of his 19 races including, in 2019,
the Group One Coronation Cup at Epsom, and £739,613 in win and place
prize money.
All told, Varian has saddled over 800
winners, including 17 at Group One or Grade One level. Still only 40,
with the backing of powerful owners, also including Hamdan Al Maktoum
and Cheveley Park Stud, and with hundreds of horses in training, his
continued success seems assured.
