It is tough at the bottom, as Adam West pointed out after winning the Nunthorpe Stakes at York on Friday with Live In The Dream, his first runner at Group One level. “Quite simply, it’s not viable,” West said. “The BHA do their best but realistically, unless you are on the top, top scale, [training] is not a viable option. But that’s not why any of us do it, we do it because we love the animals and the sport.”
But it can be tough at the summit as well, as Charlie Appleby, the reigning champion trainer on the Flat, could currently affirm. Having been a fairly constant presence in the winner’s enclosure at the major meetings in his title-winning campaigns in 2021 and 2022, Appleby has won as many Group One races in Britain this year as West’s 46-horse yard in Epsom, thanks to Modern Games’ success in the Lockinge Stakes in May.
