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Leyburn
Karl Burke is based in Coverham, North Yorkshire, slap bang in the middle of the busy Middleham training hotspot. Training at Spigot Lodge, the yard is named after the 1821 St Leger winner Jack Spigot.
He took out his license in 1991 and trained his first winner over hurdles at Towcester. Many successes have followed since and he now has more than 2000 winners across Britain. Most of those have come on the Flat, however, and he had his best ever season in 2024.
When Libertarian won him the Dante Stakes back in 2013, he was the first Yorkshire-trained winner of the iconic Derby trial in over 70 years. The son of New Approach then went on to finish second behind Ruler Of The World in the Derby.
Whilst known as a Flat trainer these days, his first winner as a trainer came over hurdles at Towcester. He has trained a total of 92 National Hunt winners in Britain.
Daring Destiny provided Burke with his first ever Group winner and he named him as one of his favourite horses of all-time, alongside the yard flagbearer Laurens, who gave the trainer one of his most significant wins in the prix de Diane at Chantilly.
Burke has had a total of 1992 winners from 14,461 runners on the Flat in Britain, which gives him a total strike-rate of 13 per cent. He has a particularly good record at the all-weather tracks, as 593 of those winners have come on artificial surfaces.
He also has 18 winners from 103 runners in Ireland, and that includes Classic success with Fallen Angel in the Irish 1000 Guineas. Naas has been particularly good to him over the years and he has a 36 per cent strike-rate there, with four winners from 11 runners.
It?s worth noting that he has trained a total of 145 Stakes winners and that is broken down into 18 Group 1 wins, 25 Group 2s, 37 Group 3s and 65 Listed races. Burke had his best season ever last year, earning more than #4,000,000 in prize money.
Laurens won five Group 1s for the trainer between 2017 and 2019. The first of which was the Fillies? Mile, with seven-time Group 1 winner Magical well beaten back in fourth. The Prix de Diane is perhaps the most significant of them, but she also won the Prix Rothschild at four.
Quiet Reflection gave Burke his first-ever Royal Ascot winner in 2016, when coming out on top in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup. Beating Kachy by a length that day, she also went on to take the Sprint Cup at Haydock the following September.
Fallen Angel was an impressive winner of the 2024 Irish 1000 Guineas and she remains in training this year, winning consecutive Group 1s in her last two starts. The first was the Prix Rothschild and the second came in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown.
