Born in Hove, Sussex on March 30, 1951, John Gosden was assistant trainer to Noel Murless at Warren Place, Newmarket and Vincent O’Brien at Ballydoyle in Cashel, County Tipperary before heading to California, where he worked for Tommy Doyle in Bradbury before setting up on his own in Santa Anita in late 1979. After a decade Stateside, he returned to England to train for Sheikh Mohammed at Stanley House Stables, Newmarket in 1989, before relocating to Manton, Marlborough in 2000 and to his current base, Clarehaven Stables, Newmarket, in 2006.
In his own right, Gosden was British Champion Flat Trainer five times, in 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020. He also has 11 eleven British Classic winner to name, having won the St. Leger five times, the Oaks three times, the Derby twice and the 1,000 Guineas once. Beyond British shores, Gosden has also won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe three times, the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
In March 2021, Gosden was joined on his licence by his son Thaddeus – ‘Thady’ for short – and the pair celebrated their new arrangement by saddling a winner with their first runner together, Regent, ridden by Robert Havlin, in a fillies’ novice stakes race at Lingfield on March 26, 2021. Indeed, the Gosdens wasted little time in chalking up their first Group 1 winner on British soil, Palace Pier, in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on May 15, 2021 and the same horse became their first Royal Ascot winner when following up in the Queen Anne Stakes a month later. In 2023, the year in which they saddled their first British Classic winner, Soul Sister, ridden by Frankie Dettori, in the Oaks at Epsom, racked up 130 winners and collected £7.2 million in total prize money in the year as a whole, taking their first trainers’ title along the way.
