Let's talk about... Training achievements of John Gosden including Enable, Nathaniel and Oasis Dream

What are your all-time favourite John Gosden horses and who are you looking forward to seeing most from the class of 2020? Share your thoughts with us via racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and they will appear at the foot of the article.

If the little green men descended on Earth tomorrow and you could nominate a single spokesperson to go and sell the concept of horse racing to the totally uninitiated, John Harry Martin Gosden would have to be high on your shortlist.

He won Cambridge blues for both discus and javelin in his youth - of course he did - and has since launched the careers of countless top-class thoroughbreds, from his first big triumph with Royal Heroine in the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Mile in 1984 through to current queen of the turf scene, Enable, and latest budding middle-distance superstar Logician.

Gosden really learned his trade in California and has done it in just about every major racing jurisdiction throughout the world, rising to become without doubt the dominant force in Britain from his Clarehaven Stakes in Newmarket.

It's hard to know quite where to start when it comes to such a Goliath of the sport, but here goes.

Memorable Gosden moment

Everyone who loves and follows racing knows that the highly-charged thoroughbred can be just a single false step from calamity and one such - thankfully rare - example of disaster striking in a principal, televised Flat race played out in the 2011 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

The agony surrounded Mahmood al Zarooni and Godolphin's colt Rewilding, who broke down with around two furlongs to travel and suffered a fatal injury in front of 30,000 spectators live at the track, and thousands more who tuned in to the BBC coverage.

That the winner of the race, Nathaniel, was trained by Gosden was something of a public relations blessing as in the face of achieving one of his long-held ambitions - following in the footsteps of his father 50 years earlier - the successful handler was able to explain calmly, precisely and compassionately, in front of camera, exactly what we had all just witnessed.

Gosden was one of the first people to get to the stricken Rewilding and openly admitted to feeding him a 'pick of grass' in his final moments down by the rail not far from the winning post.

It was the kind of moment that you remember for a long time, one which made you proud to be associated with the sport, and to people like Gosden.

Favourite quote

"I am not worried about his handicap mark. I think that if you have a mature three-year-old that stays a mile and a half well then you are a bit of a wanker if you worry about a handicap mark. I prefer in life to throw the big dice." - 'Percussionist in tune', Guardian May 9 2004.

No doubt a fairly opportunistic, punter-friendly journalist had all the right intentions in asking Gosden about Percussionist's lenient-looking official rating (88) in the build-up to the Lingfield Derby Trial of 2004, but probably lived to regret ever doing so.

The stoutly-bred son of Sadler's Wells - who later went on to be a hurdler for Howard Johnson don't forget - had failed to register a win from his couple of starts at two and had hardly appeared blessed with a natural turn of speed when getting up late over a mile and a half on his three-year-old debut at Newmarket.

So the middle-distance handicap route would have looked quite an attractive option, to your ordinary trainer at least.

But this is no ordinary trainer we're dealing with and rolling the 'big dice' paid off to some degree as Percussionist hacked up by 10 lengths at Lingfield en route to finishing a respectable, two-lengths fourth behind North Light in the Derby itself.

The horse's next victory came over two miles and one furlong on soft ground at Carlisle, and he did go on to win two handicaps... over hurdles - so we'll leave it up to the reader to decide who really had the last laugh.

Best horse

Not an easy one to nail down, admittedly, but for sheer brilliance I'll kick off the bidding at Oasis Dream.

He didn't have anything like the longevity of Enable, Stradivarius of even Cracksman but you need only revisit the summer of 2003 for two of the most sensational back-to-back displays of sprinting in modern times.

Victory is sweet but revenge is even sweeter and for connections of Oasis Dream the dish was best served in the white-hot heat of the July Cup at Newmarket's big summer festival.

Gosden's colt, the Middle Park winner at two, had shaped like he'd needed it when third to Choisir in the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot on his belated return and duly turned the tables on the Aussie in a spine-tingling Group One battle, the pair fighting out a brilliant race from the two-furlong pole, Oasis Dream eventually emerging a length and a half to the good.

A subsequent odds-on victory in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York cemented the winner's racing legacy and he has since gone on to be one of the greatest sires in the world.

Greatest achievement

In short, the illustrious and ongoing career of Enable.

It was May 10 2017 when a fork in the road appeared for Gosden, Teddy Grimthorpe and the rest of the Juddmonte team. All the talk, externally, in the early-spring had been about stablemate Shutter Speed and the daughter of Dansili looked to have lived up to her billing as the number one Classic prospect from the yard when beating Enable into third at Newbury.

But as Cheshire Oaks day came into view there was still clearly a great deal of faith being placed in Enable and by the close of play she'd not only won well on the Roodee but nestled up behind her much-vaunted stable companion in the antepost lists for Epsom.

A week later Shutter Speed was officially rerouted to the Prix De Diane following her win in the Musidora Stakes at York, but it was Chester where the decision was surely all but made.

Enable's monumental, history-making moment may still lie ahead of her, but to win the Arc de Triomphe twice in succession is a rare enough occurrence if she were to never appear on a race track again, and with 10 Group One wins and counting, of all the horses he's overseen, she has to give Gosden the greatest satisfaction.

Finest training feat

The ill-fated Roaring Lion sticks out when looking for one to highlight under this particular banner.

Here was a horse who was on a knife-edge at the start of the 2018 campaign. He'd obviously shown a huge amount of potential in winning the Royal Lodge and finishing a close second in the Racing Post Trophy, but there were just the odd signs of quirkiness, especially when beaten by Saxon Warrior at Doncaster, and his Craven comeback smacked of a horse who had taken significant strides in the wrong direction over the winter.

But like a wily old schoolmaster Gosden worked away at his pupil, allowing him to gain more experience of top-level competition when fifth in the 2000 Guineas before a dip in class for the Dante Stakes at York worked the trick.

The French Derby came under consideration after his resounding success on the Knavesmire but finishing third at Epsom instead obviously didn't do any harm, after which he won four Group Ones on the spin.

The horse had been turned inside out from the spring by the time he was asked to drop back to a mile for the QEII on Champions Day - stablemate Cracksman having been inked in for the Champion Stakes over 10 furlongs - and the grey delivered on the plan with a tenacious display in the face of adversity.

All things considered Roaring Lion is a pretty awesome project in the trainer's bulging portfolio.

Class of 2020

The future remains extremely bright which is almost inevitable given the power Gosden now wields in the sales arena and we can clearly expect more of the same when racing finally resumes following the enforced lockdown this year.

There is a somewhat sick irony to him being sent Waldkonig, a half-brother to Enable's Longchamp nemesis Waldgeist, but he has all the hallmarks of the next three-year-old ace to emerge from the Clarehaven pack.

The nine-length Wolverhampton winner is a son of the brilliant Gosden miler Kingman and his dam is a half-sister to Masked Marvel, with whom he won the St Leger, so in terms of pedigree all the lights are green.

At a slightly lower level, and potentially over a shorter trip, look out for Tsar, another son of Kingman.

He has taken the 'Enable route' in so much as he won his novice on the Tapeta surface at Newcastle and, like Roaring Lion, he's shown signs that he might be a bit of a lad.

It's safe to say the promising young colt could hardly be in better hands.

Send us your views

Send in your favourite John Gosden tales other contributions to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and if you’ve any ideas for more topics you want covering over the coming days and weeks, please let us know.

Feedback from readers

Ed Gerber (California): Matt, Great piece on John H M G. Used to be a kick, back in the day, to watch him up close out here in California. A brilliant, consummate, horseman and professional. One thing you didn’t mention....can the title “Sir” be very far behind? Sir John has a nice and fitting ring to it, in his case...no? Cheers!

Tim Williams: This is a man who knows how to prepare a horse. He has been going sometime. I remember seeing Royal Heroine win the Prix de l'opera. He is always very confident, extremely articulate. Loyal as well, I get the feeling he has stood by Rab Havlin really well. Definitely one of racing's greats. A good egg.

Tony Harbour: I really enjoy watching his interviews talking about his horses. Very open and I always feel as if i have learnt something. The first horse i have chosen is RAVEN'S PASS. A good 3yo who got better as the season went on beating Henrythenavigator in the QE2 at Ascot before becoming the first English trained horse to win the Breeders' Cup Classic beating Henry' again. The other horse is one that i enjoyed watching and betting on when I first got into racing was MUHTARRAM. Not many horses win the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot twice. It was a Group 2 then and if you watch both on youtube Willie Carson squeezes through two horses in identical fashion. Brilliant.

Dave Youngman: How lucky we are here at Newmarket to have John Gosden as a trainer among many excellent handlers. Being the son of Towser Gosden, himself a fine trainer in Sussex and having been assistant to both Noel Murless and Vincent O'Brien what other than a success could John Gosden have really been, I am sure he would have been a brilliant success in anything he had gone in for as he is a very intelligent person. Winning the 1997 Derby with BENNY THE DIP was my special moment of him as in 1966 CHARLOTTOWN ridden by Scobie Breasley for trainer Gordon Smyth this horse won the Derby, John Gosden's father had trained Charlottown as a two-year-old but became sick and had to retire so missed out on the Derby success the following year, that was a Derby that got away from the Gosden family so Benny The Dip put the record straight, Golden Horn has been a more recent Derby success for the Gosden team. What a season the master of Clarehaven could have this year when racing return, in ENEMY, WALDKONIG and HEIRESS he has three very nice types that should do the stable proud. In his son Thady, Gosden has a son looking most capable of keeping the Gosden training dynasty going for the future too.

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