Michael Appleby is a well respected horse trainer. He was born in 1975, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
He always enjoyed horse racing and his biggest influence was his family. In fact, his father worked within racing which exposed Mick to the world of thoroughbred horse racing from a young age. In fact, he went into the horse racing industry after leaving school at 16.
This hands-on experience as a teenager gave him a chance to become a jockey. However, this was short lived and he was soon associated with Andrew Balding’s stable working his way up the ranks to become Head lad at Kingsclere.
However, Appleby’s true ambition was to become a licenced horse trainer in his own name. With the vast experience gained from varied job titles and a number of stables he was able to go it alone in 2010.
Initially, he had a stable based near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. He showed great professionalism in this formative year and sent out 20 winners and by the end of his tenure it had reached 80+. He achieved great success at Manton House Stables sending out over 400 winners. He did particularly well on the all-weather racecourses, often with horse bought at sales, recognised as improving horses that others had overlooked.
In 2016, he relocated to Langham Racing Stables, a former polo grounds, near Oakham in Leicestershire which expanded his operation significantly. The move to Rutland pushed his career to another level.
His achievements have been many. He is known for his exploits on the all-weather circuits and been crowned Champion trainer on a number of occasions.
His first major win came with Danzeno taking the Chipchase Stakes Group 3 at Newcastle ridden by Andrew Mullen. Danzeno would go on to race 63 times and achieve almost £450,00 in total earnings.
Another noted victory came with Art Scholar winning the November Handicap in 2012 at odds of 20/1.
In more recent years, the stable hit the headlines with the exceptional Big Evs who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2023) with prize money over £433,000. A superb horse winning 6 of his 11 races and earning total prize money just shy of £1M. He is now a stallion standing at Tally Ho Stud in Ireland.
He is known as a trainer ‘who can get the best out of horses’ and highly respected. Headlines such as ‘super-trainer’ who can turn modest performers into serious performers has seen him produce lots of winners consistently.
He trains about 100 horses at his Rutland stables which puts him in the mid-to-large category of horse trainers in the UK in flat racing.
Stable facilities include 100 spacious boxes with individual feeding and monitoring. The grounds feature both a private grass and all-weather gallops over one mile. In addition, they have treadmills and horse walkers, tack rooms, feed stores and veterinary prep area, quarantine isolation stable, and secure owners viewing area.
In short, Langham Racing Stables are modern, versatile and tailored for flat horse racing.
