Tributes pour in for Sir Michael Stoute on news of impending retirement

Tributes have been paid to Sir Michael Stoute after the training great announced his intention to retire at the end of the season.

Stoute’s career has been long and immensely successful, leaving him with a record that includes all of the British Classics and a huge array of top-class races around the world.

Based at Freemason Lodge in Newmarket, Stoute has been a key figure in the industry for many years and is broadly respected by his peers for his intuitive and patient approach to training.

Fellow trainer John Gosden said in response to the announcement: “A true champion trainer with a phenomenal feel for the horses in his stable.

“At the height of their powers, Henry Cecil and he were formidable adversaries and lit up the British racing season year on year.”

Stoute won the Derby on six occasions, with two of those victories for owner Saeed Suhail with Kris Kin in 2003 and Desert Crown in 2022.

Bruce Raymond, racing manager for the owner, said: “Sir Michael rang me this morning to tell me the news. What you can say? It’s not unexpected, but it’s sad.

“I rode for him as second jockey to Walter Swinburn at one time for Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum and rode quite a few winners.

“When my owners talk about telling Sir Michael to do something, I say ‘listen, Sir Michael Stoute has trained every winner in the world twice, I’m not going to tell him anything’ – and he quite rightly probably wouldn’t take any notice anyway!

“I’m kind of pleased that he’s given up still at the top. It’s not for me to say, but I hope he goes backwards and forwards to Barbados and follows the cricket because that’s his real passion and it’s great to do that before you get too old or unhealthy.

“He obviously trained two Derby winners for Saeed Suhail and a 2000 Guineas winner (King’s Best in 2000) and everything else.

“Who is anyone to tell Sir Michael what to do? There might be someone in the world as good, but there is no one better.”

Kieren Fallon hailed the “trainer he always wanted to ride for” after Sir Michael Stoute announced he will retire at the end of the season.

Fallon and Stoute won two Derbys together with Kris Kin and North Light, enjoying plenty of other great successes during the Russian Rhythm years and with Golan, Islington, King’s Best and many others.

Speaking of his pride at riding for Stoute, former six-time champion jockey Fallon told the PA news agency: “All of the great jockeys have been there at some stage. Even Gary Stevens came over and rode for him.

“I was freelancing at the time, I had just finished with Henry (Cecil) and it was just luck of the draw for me and we ended up with all these great horses. Guineas, Derby, Royal Ascot the lot. Jeez, there were some great horses.

“They weren’t just one type, he had a bit of everything, from two-year-olds to sprinters to stayers.

“I don’t like comparing trainers, but he was my favourite and he was the trainer I always wanted to ride for. I don’t know if it comes from Shergar or what, because of where I am from in the west of Ireland you could never have dreamed of being in his yard.”

Russian Rhythm’s CV included the 1000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes, Nassau Stakes and Lockinge, and Fallon went on: “He trained some of the greats, Shergar, and of course I rode Russian Rhythm who I thought was his best filly – she wasn’t just a two-year-old, three-year-old or four-year-old.

“King’s Best, unfortunately he broke down. He was a machine and look what he did in the Guineas going from first to last. I remember his last piece of work before he was going to go to Epsom and he got injured after that. I had never ridden anything like that piece of work.

“The horses loved it there and that was one of the reasons for his success. Notnowcato was a handicapper the year before he won the Eclipse and I told a friend of mine to buy him to go jumping as he was headed for the sales given he was a nice horse and would make a good jumper. He ended up winning the Eclipse with him and that kind of sums up how good he was.”

Fallon said Stoute was “firm but fair” and had the magic touch when it came to dealing with his riders.

He remembered: “He was a joy to ride for and I would always go and sit down with him. He would always ring me before a Classic or big race and he would say to come on up for glass of wine or whatever.

“We would sit there chatting away about cricket or things I have no interest in, but we’d chat away and just before I left he would say something simple like ‘so how are you going to ride this horse tomorrow?’ and he would just keep it simple rather than stand in the paddock in front of the owners. I thought it was another part of his genius.

“He knew when the gates opened anything can happen and he knew it was hard to say I want you to sit here or keep wide. When you are tied down things are not going to happen because you are always trying to correct them rather than letting a race happen as it does. He could read races and he knew that things happen.

“He was firm but fair and if you got anything wrong he would let you think about it for a while and wouldn’t say an awful lot.

“I was with him quite a while and there was only one little blip in all the years and all the rides.

“I was riding a filly at Windsor and I hated Windsor and I remember this filly missed the kick coming out of the stalls over a mile – she was a nice filly. There were plenty of runners and I got stuck on the outside and I got back too far and I didn’t ride a great race.

“I came in on the next work morning and rode work and went for breakfast and after he had finished checking over the horses, because he was so meticulous, he came in and I was sitting at the table with a paper and a cup of tea and he hits the table with his fist and said ‘I had a 33 per cent strike rate at Windsor before you started riding for me’. He was annoyed but that was the end of it – the great thing was he never dwelt on it when there were more important things to worry about.

“I also remember he would wait for the work riders and jockeys coming in after work and you would tell him something and he would pretend he was writing it down on a piece of paper using his finger and the palm of his hand. And when he would think it was a load of rubbish someone had just told him he would pretend to screw up the piece of paper and throw it away. It was usually Johnny Murtagh or Mick Kinane – I can’t remember him doing it to me, but he probably did at some stage.”

The Aga Khan Studs added their best wishes to the many sent to Sir Michael Stoute after it was announced he would bring the curtain down on his glittering training career at the end of the season.

Stoute has been training since 1972 and has a remarkable CV that includes at least one success in all the British Classics and many high-profile victories in the pinnacle events of other racing jurisdictions.

The most famous horse to have passed through his yard is undoubtedly the Aga Khan’s Shergar, who won the 1981 Derby in the hands of 19-year-old Walter Swinburn by a record-breaking 10 lengths that still stands as a benchmark for a race first run in 1780.

He also won the Irish Derby – when Lester Piggott was in the saddle – and the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes in the same season.

Shergar was retired to become a stallion, but the story went on to run much deeper than that when the big bay with the white blaze was kidnapped by masked intruders from Ballymany Stud in County Kildare on a foggy evening in February 1983.

He has never seen again and while many theories abound it is generally accepted the IRA were the culprits, that his abductors were ill-equipped to control a thoroughbred stallion and that he was killed shortly afterwards. His remains have never been found.

Stoute’s victories in the green and red silks of the Aga Khan continued, however, with Shahrastani another to take the Derby and Irish Derby in 1986 and Doyoun the winner of the 2000 Guineas in 1988.

A statement from the stud said: “Aga Khan Studs extend their heartfelt wishes to Sir Michael Stoute for a long and fulfilling retirement.

“Sir Michael Stoute trained horses for His Highness the Aga Khan from 1978 to 2006, a partnership that was quick to produce remarkable successes.

“Among these was the legendary Shergar, whose record-breaking 10-length victory in the 1981 Epsom Derby remains unmatched.

“Under Sir Michael’s care, Shergar also won the Irish Derby and the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes against his elders.

“Five years later, he trained another dual Derby winner for the green and red silks, Shahrastani.

“Other notable winners trained by Sir Michael Stoute for His Highness include Shardari, winner of the International Stakes, and Doyoun, who gave a first win to his owner and breeder in the 2000 Guineas.

“Daliapour was a winner of the Coronation Cup, while Kalanisi won both the Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2000.”

But for all the horses Stoute has been associated with, the abiding memory will forever be of Epsom in 1981, and that wonderful moment rounding Tattenham Corner when Swinburn flicked the switch and the afterburners powered on.

All that disappeared that day was the opposition as Shergar cleared away, his rivals withering to dots in the distance.