Thursday 18 December 2014 20:59, UK
The Sky Bet Trophies for the leading trainer and jockey on the Yorkshire racecourses during the 2014 Flat season went to Richard Fahey and Graham Lee with 79 and 49 winners respectively on the county’s tracks this year.
Malton-based Fahey is the top trainer on the Yorkshire racecourses for the fifth time (having also won in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013). His figure of winners - 79 - is a record, breaking his own tally of 70 set in 2009.
"I want to get to 80 next year!" he said, after collecting the trophy. "We're always after more winners and what we need now is to get some good-quality horses like Mayson and Garswood."
Fahey reflected upon Garswood's Group One succes in the Prix Maurice De Gheest at Deauville, quipping: "They don't like us going over there at the best of the times, but they like it even less when we come home with some French Francs, or whatever it is now..."
Lee lands this award for the first time, finishing on an equal number of winners with Paul Mulrennan, but having achieved more second places.
The former Grand National-winning rider has taken the Jumps award on the Yorkshire on three previous occasions.
Lee singled out his victory aboard Limato in the Two-Year-Old Trophy at Redcar as one of the highlights of his season. "That horse is a little freak," he said. "I can't ever have won a race as easily in my whole career as that one.
"I often get people saying 'I bet you wish you'd started doing this [riding on the Flat] a bit sooner' but the truth is there was no finer apprenticeship for it than the years I spent riding over jumps.
"Whether a race is over 30 fences or a five-furlong sprint, the important thing is to get your horse into a rhythm. There really isn't that much difference."
As far as racing over Jumps was concerned, the battle for the Sky Bet Trophies presented to the top trainer and jockey on the trio of Yorkshire racecourses which staged Jump racing during the 2013/14 campaign was won by Cheshire-based trainer Donald McCain and his stable jockey Jason Maguire.
McCain gains his second trainers’ prize with 23 winners, while Maguire partnered 19 winners to claim the riders’ award for the first time.
In a year which produced many top-class performances by Yorkshire-trained horses, The Grey Gatsby won the accolade of ‘Yorkshire Horse of the Year’ at the 2014 ‘Go Racing in Yorkshire’ Annual Awards Lunch held at York racecourse.
The ‘Yorkshire Horse of the Year’ Award is judged by a panel of northern racing journalists and is presented to the connections of the horse which has made an outstanding contribution to the sport of racing in the county.
Having won on his debut as a two-year-old last year at York, The Grey Gatsby – owned by Frank Gillespie and trained at Hambleton in North Yorkshire by Kevin Ryan – returned to the Knavesmire to land The Betfred Dante Stakes in May, before going on to Group 1 glory in the French Derby at Chantilly.
The colt was runner-up in the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York in August, before finishing a glorious 2014 campaign with victory in the Group 1 QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes the following month at Leopardstown.
The connections of The Grey Gatsby were presented with a framed montage of his achievements.
Trainer Kevin Ryan confirmed that the plan remained to give The Grey Gatsby entries in the Dubai Duty Free and Sheema Classic on World Cup night at Meydan.
"If he runs there, then we'd be heading to Ascot, then back to York for the Juddmonte International and then back to try and win the Irish Champion again," he said.
"He's been back with me for a couple of weeks now and he's put on weight and looks stronger than ever."
A special presentation was also made at the awards ceremony for Graham Orange, recognising his 32 years of service for Go Racing In Yorkshire.
The man whose voice is a welcoming presence at every Yorkshire track is to retire next April and was presented with a lifetime admission badge by Racecourse Association boss Stephen Atkin.
