Richard Hannon | |
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Occupation | Trainer |
Born | 30 May 1945 United Kingdom |
Career wins | 4,145 |
Major racing wins | |
British Classic Race wins as trainer: Irish 2,000 Guineas (3) |
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Racing awards | |
British flat racing Champion Trainer (1992, 2010, 2011, 2013) | |
Significant horses | |
Canford Cliffs, Don't Forget Me, Lemon Souffle, Lyric Fantasy, Mon Fils, Mr Brooks, Paco Boy, Tirol, Sky Lantern, Toronado, Olympic Glory |
British Classic Race wins as trainer:
1,000 Guineas (2)
2,000 Guineas (3)
Richard Michael Hannon (born 1945), known as Richard Hannon Sr. to distinguish him from his son, is a former British horse trainer. He was British flat racing Champion Trainer four times, achieved more than a century of victories in a season 20 times, a double century five times, and turned out 32 Royal Ascot winners. He operated out of Herridge Racing Stables, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, with a smaller yard at Everleigh on the edge of Salisbury Plain. He retired after winning a final trainers' championship at the end of 2013, when the training operation was taken over by his son, Richard Hannon, Jr.
Hannon's family had a tradition of horse training — his father Harry was also a trainer. In fact, Richard started out as his father's assistant and took over Harry's licence when he retired in 1970. His first winner was Ampney Prince at Newbury on 17 April 1970. At that time, there were only a dozen horses in the yard and in the intervening years Hannon's stable grew to 60 horses by 1977, eventually becoming the largest in Britain in terms of number of horses - 270 in 2012. By the time of his retirement he operated from two sites - Herridge and Everleigh.
His reputation was as a specialist with two-year-olds and twice in the 90s he trained the champion juvenile filly - Lyric Fantasy and Lemon Souffle. He has also trained three 2,000 Guineas winners - Mon Fils (1973), Don’t Forget Me (1987) and Tirol (1990), the latter two of whom also won the Irish equivalent - and one 1,000 Guineas with Sky Lantern (2013). His best known horse, however, was Canford Cliffs winner of five Group One races before his retirement in 2011.