Trainer: Charlie Longsdon
Nationality: British
Stable Name: Hull Farm Stables, Oxfordshire
Stable Jockey/Jockeys: Sam Thomas/Tom Scudamore
"Paul Nicholls is the undisputed king of jump trainers and he has nominated Charlie Longsdon to be his long term successor". A glowing tribute indeed to one of the rising stars in the sport of racing.
Charlie has enjoyed a solid start to life as a national hunt trainer winning a respectable 50 races over his first three years. Charlie continues to impress as he rises through the ranks and was proudly rewarded when receiving the trophy for the Gloucestershire’s Trainers Championship 2008/09.
This then lead to Charlie and his team moving to the bigger, purpose built Hull Farm earlier this year. The yard can boast some of the most exciting state of the art facilities which are designed to aid his trainees in enhancing their performance on race days.
Having always had the ambition of being a racehorse trainer, Charlie knew that it was important to gain valuable experience at a young age, and did so with Oliver Sherwood and Nigel Twiston-Davies. After his time as a student at University he then went on to be assistant trainer at Kim Bailey’s yard before in 2001 joining Nicky Henderson at Seven Barrows.
During his time with Nicky, Charlie won the 'Alex Scott Memorial Fund Assistant Trainer’s Scholarship' in 2004. This in turn then took Charlie overseas to the United States of America where he worked for the champion flat trainer Todd Pletcher and was closely involved with the Breeders Cup winners, Ashado and Speightstown.
Further accolades for Charlie came when spending time with Nicky at Seven Barrows where he had a hand in a multiple Grade 1 success at the Cheltenham Festival with Bacchanal, Marlborough and more recently Trabolgan and Fondmort.
'Few jump trainers starting from scratch make such a solid start in their first season as Charlie Longsdon' said the Telegraph in 2007. Charlie’s small but determined and ambitious team will now look forward to the new season as they attempt to build on their early promise.
Training History
In his fledgling training career Charlie has already chalked up a string of good wins, and will now hope to add more and more Graded races to that list.
- Holiday Lounge at Hinckley Beginners’ Chase, 26 Nov 09 Our Hero
- Shammah Nicholls Corporate Solicitors Handicap Hurdle, 05 Nov 09 Trafalgar Road
- Bet Totepool on 0800 221 221 Hunters’ Chase, 19 Apr 09 You Do The Math
- Freebets.co.uk Irish Grand National Free Bets Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, 13 Apr 09 Mollys Garden
- Freebets.co.uk Online Gambling Handicap Chase, 08 Apr 09 Illogical Hope
- Bob Walkers The Bookies' Friends Novices' Handicap Hurdle, 02 Mar 09 Mollys Garden
- Marketrasenraces.co.uk Maiden Hurdle, 16 Feb 09 Our Hero
- Blue Square Champion Hurdle Trial (Grade 2), 17 Jan 09 Songe
- Jenrick Engineering Handicap Hurdle, 29 Jun 08 Honeybrook
- The H.E.R.O.S Mares Only Handicap Hurdle, 22 Jun 08 Honeybrook
- Thales Handicap Chase, 07 Mar 08 Mighty Matters
- Betfred Chatteris Fen Juvenile Hurdle, 07 Feb 08 Songe
- Turftv Handicap Hurdle, 24 Jan 08 Iwillrememberyou
- Cenkos Edinburgh Handicap Hurdle, 05 Dec 07 Iwillrememberyou
- Ladbrokespoker.com Handicap Chase, 06 Jan 07 Kerstino Two
- HBG Novices’ Handicap Chase, 18 Nov 06 Neysauteur
- Bet with iBetX.com Handicap Chase, 01 Nov 06 Kerstino Two
Stable Stars
Songe is the brightest of the bunch at Hull Farm. The 5-y-o gelding gave Charlie his 'proudest moment' yet as a trainer winning the Grade 2 Blue Square Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock earlier in January 2009.
Songe not only secured Charlie’s biggest race victory to date but also beat the likes of Nicky Henderson’s Afsoun and Phillip Hobbs’ Snap Tie along the way, who have all gone on to be impressive hurdlers.
The following month, Songe went on to compete in another Grade 2 race at Wincanton in the Bathwick Tyres Kingwell Hurdle but on this occasion came up a little short after a mistake two out left him beaten.
As Songe didn’t make it to the Cheltenham Festival for a crack at the Champion Hurdle, the next race on his radar was at Aintree where he raced in the John Smith’s Aintree Hurdle (Grade 1) for the first time. Once again however, the 5-y-o was unable to re-produce the form that saw him successful in the Champion Hurdle Trial but was up against such a world class field.
After a somewhat disappointing end to last season after such promise, Songe has come back even stronger this time around with his recent performance at Hereford most notable after he finished a respectable second in testing conditions behind Paul Nicholls’ Recif De Thaix, and it would seem that there is more to come from him this year.
Dark Horses
Tequilla Bob has showed enough promise to give the yard plenty of reasons to look forward to his performances this term.
After only one start over the jumps earlier this month on December 3rd at Market Rasen, the 5-y-o gelding enjoyed the cut in the ground to finish one and three quarter lengths behind Trevor Hemmings’ King Fontaine.
Charlie’s novice hurdler had tracked the leaders throughout under a patient ride from Paddy Brennan and after narrowly leading towards the line he was headed with just 50 yards remaining.
Trafalgar Road is another that Charlie has his eye on after good form towards the back end of last term has since given the 5-y-o a licence to compete with the big boys at the Newbury Winter festival where he stayed on well for third in a competitive handicap, and more recently at Cheltenham.
Like Songe, Trafalgar Road is owned by Mr Alan Halsall and produced his best effort on his first outing this season at Haydock in the Shammah Nicholls Corporate Solicitors Handicap Hurdle where he was driven out by Tom Siddall to win by two and a quarter lengths.
Ones to watch in 2010
Supplied with the right horses, Charlie looks certain to have an enormous impact on the national hunt racing scene in years to come and while below is just a small selection from Charlie’s yard that look to have exciting futures, the trainers' own future looks to be most promising of them all:
- Songe
- Tara Taylor
- Tequilla Bob
- Our Hero
- Trafalgar Road
© Matthew Salter, 2009
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