Rose Dobbin

 

Rose Dobbin, née Davidson, is married to former Grand National-winning jockey Tony Dobbin, whom she met while working as an amateur jockey and 'unofficial' assistant trainer to Nicky Richards in Greystoke, Cumbria. She enjoyed a successful riding career, with 56 winners to her name, by always harboured ambitions to become a trainer and, to that end, also spent her summers in Newmarket with James Fanshawe.

In 2009, Dobbin moved to her current base, Hazelriggs Stables in Chatton, near Alnwick, Northumberland which, together with her husband, she has substantially renovated and improved over the years. She saddled her first winner, Mirage Dore, in a beginners' chase at Market Rasen in January, 2010; Dobbin had ridden the same horse into second place in the Coral Cup at the 2009 Cheltenham Festival for previous trainer Lucinda Russell.

Dobbin enjoyed her first big race victories in February, 2016, when Jonniesofa won the Grade 2 Prestige Novices' Hurdle at Haydock and Rocking Blues won the Eider at Newcastle within the space of seven days. She achieved her most successful season so far in 2017/18, with 25 winners and over £203,000 in prize money. However, in 2018/19, her seasonal tally dropped to just seven winners and, in the summer of 2019, she was forced to close down her training operation completely after the yard was struck by a respiratory virus. Nevertheless, she saddled another big race winner, Bigirononhiship, in the Scottish Borders National in 2019 and increased her seasonal tally to 10 in 2019/20 and 21 in 2020/21.

James Moffatt

 

Formerly a successful National Hunt jockey, with 78 winners to his name, James Moffatt served time with several experienced trainers, including Tommy Stack and Sue Smith, before taking over the family training operation from his father, Dudley, in late 2002. Based at Pit Farm Stables in Cartmel, Cumbria, Moffatt enjoyed a 'purple patch' in the spring of 2007, when Chief Dan George won two Grade 2 events, at Wetherby and Haydock, within the space of a fortnight, and the Grade 1 Sefton Novices' Hurdle at Aintree.

Three seasons later, Chief Dan George also became the first and, so far, only Cheltenham Festival winner for the yard when rallying in the last half a furlong to win the William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase by a head. More recently, Highland Lodge flew the flag for the yard, winning the Becher Handicap Chase, over the Grand National fences, in 2015, before being denied by the minimum margin in the same race in 2016.

Moffatt holds a combined licence, but has never saddled more than a dozen winners in a National Hunt season and never more than nine in a Flat season. However, in the 2021/22 National Hunt season, so far, he has saddled seven winners from just 19 runners, at a extremely healthy strike rate of 37%. Indeed, in the space of five days in late May and early June, he saddled five winners from 11 runners, at a strike rate of 45%, at his local course, Cartmel.

Ed Walker

Ed Walker began his career in the bloodstock industry, at Watership Down Stud in Burghclere, near Newbury. He subsequently served two years with Roger Charlton and four years with Luca Cumani before taking out a training licence in his own right in October, 2010. At that stage of his career, he rented two dozen boxes in the historic St. Gatien Cottage Stables in Newmarket but, remarkably, saddled a Listed winner with his very first runner; the 6-year-old Riggins dead-heated for first place in the Hyde Stakes at Kempton Park on November, 2010.

Thereafter, Walker moved three times but, nonetheless, steadily improved the quality of his string year-by-year until settling at his current base, Kingsdown Stables in Upper Lambourn, in December, 2016. By that stage he had already saddled three Group 3 winners, including Stormy Antarctic – who has become a flag-bearer for the yard in recent seasons – in the Craven Stakes at Newmarket in April, 2016.

Walker has yet to win a Group 1 race, but Stormy Antarctic has won two Group 2 races, three Group 3 races and finished second, albeit no match for the winner, in the Group 1 Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp in July, 2020. Now an 8-year-old, Stormy Antarctic has won nine of his 36 races and amassed over £695,000 in win and place prize money.

Walker likes to campaign his horses worldwide and has saddled winners in Australia, France, Germany and Italy. Domestically, he enjoyed his most successful season, in terms of winners and prize money, in 2018. That year, he saddled 61 winners and earned over £822,000 in prize money. All told he has over 350 winners to his name.