Adam Houghton chats to Karl Burke, who discusses his star two-year-old and Royal Ascot memories, plus his strongest ever squad for the meeting in 2023.
The week before Royal Ascot is a nervous time for any trainer, especially one with several high-profile runners to get there in one piece, but Karl Burke doesn’t let on that he’s feeling any pressure as a few members of the Sporting Life team descend on his Spigot Lodge base.
Instead, it’s the ghostly legs of Sky Bet’s Michael Shinners which find themselves in Burke's crosshairs as we shoot the breeze once a busy work morning for the yard is done with. The horses have seemingly come out of their exercise with a clean bill of health, but there are concerns in the camp that the outlook won’t be quite so positive for Shinners if some sun cream isn’t quickly applied.
Burke’s high spirits and fears of sunburn are well founded on a simply glorious morning in Middleham. The breathtaking views from the Low Moor gallops alone would be enough to put a smile on anyone’s face, while the trainer is entitled to have an extra spring in his step having picked up this year where he left off at the end of a record-breaking season for the yard in 2022.
117 winners on the board and nearly £3 million in the coffers were the key figures in Britain that made last year the best of Burke’s training career to date. A strike rate of 15% was also his best since 2014, reflecting a consistency throughout the year which generally made Spigot Lodge a very happy place to be, rain or shine.
“Everything went right for us last year,” Burke sums up. “To get those sorts of numbers, you need everything to go right. Through the winter all the all-weather horses hit their targets and the likes of El Caballo were flying.
“It carried on into the turf season and we probably only had one or two bad weeks through the year. I remember one of them was at Goodwood. We didn’t have a particularly good Goodwood, but again it picked up after that and generally it was great.”
Speedy pedigrees key to two-year-old success
This year Burke is around 15-20 winners behind where he was at the same stage last season, but it’s the quality of the races he’s been winning which give him plenty of encouragement, already having won three Group races in Britain, plus another two in France. Listed wins for the two-year-olds Elite Status and Got To Love A Grey also bring the promise of more big-race success to come, perhaps at Royal Ascot next week.
We get to that shortly, but first it’s interesting to learn more from Burke about his methods when it comes to sourcing and then nurturing his two-year-olds, especially at a time like this when that age group has been flying the flag for the yard in a big way. For context, Burke has already won 14 races with his two-year-olds in 2023, more than any other trainer in Britain and Ireland.
“I’m always looking for a bit of speed when I’m looking at yearlings,” Burke begins when explaining what he's after in a potential purchase. “I would never buy a horse just off a page, but equally, when I’m looking through that page, I’m always looking for a bit of speed in the family.
“Whether they’re a sprinter or a staying horse, they need to have some speed. I remember riding horses like Kildimo, who was a three-mile chaser, and they could work with six-furlong handicappers. They always had that bit of toe and could travel well.
“The main reason why we’ve been successful over the last 10 or 12 years is because we’re buying the right type of horse. When I first started training, I’d be trying to get horses breezing in December before giving them a break over Christmas and New Year. I just found that was a false policy really. For every horse that you educated the right way, you probably broke one or two because it’s just too early for them.
“Every trainer does things differently, but for me up to Christmas it’s all about education with the horses now. At the same time, you’re building muscle and mentally you’re getting them to enjoy the job. We never push any buttons really until towards the end of February, but along the way you have the horses who move well and show a bit of class. They don’t have to go quick to show class.”
Big talent brings big expectations
One two-year-old who has already shown class and an ability go quick easily is the aforementioned Elite Status, who looked potentially something out of the ordinary when making it two from two in the National Stakes at Sandown last time, pulverising what looked a strong field by five lengths.
A general 6/4 shot in the betting for the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, Elite Status could be the next big thing for Burke, who doesn’t hesitate when asked whether he’s ever had a juvenile look so good, so early in the season.
“Not really,” is the immediate reply. “The beauty of Elite Status is he doesn’t look just a speedball. He’s got a bit of length and a bit of quality about him. Looking at him now, he could be a miler.
“He looks that type of horse and he’s got scope. He’s a powerful horse, but he’s got a big, long stride. He’s not just your typical early, five-furlong sprinter. He’s an exciting horse.”
Bought for 325,000 guineas as a yearling, Elite Status carries the colours of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, who is just one of several high-profile owners to have become involved with the stable in recent years, an association which has already yielded encouraging results with others such as the Group Three winner Cold Case and the Group One-placed Novakai.
There could well be more exciting horses to come via this relationship in the years ahead, though it does bring its own pressures with it, a point Burke betrays for the first time in our chat once he’s finished ribbing Shinners.
“We are getting supported by some of the bigger owners,” Burke explains. “The likes of Sheikh Juma, Sheikh Rashid and Sheikh Hamed, the three brothers. They were great supporters last season and more so this season.
“Sheikh Obaid has been brilliant to deal with and he’s really supported us with some lovely homebreds who are not necessarily two-year-old types on paper. And obviously there’s Clipper Logistics as well. Steve Parkin has been a fantastic supporter of ours and we’ve been very lucky for him, so long may that continue.
“It’s great to get those owners in, but those people want results, so it does bring a different type of pressure to the job. That said, the only pressure really is what I put on myself to do the job well for them.”
Remembering a breakthrough Royal Ascot winner
Few owners who have had horses with Burke in the last few years will argue that he hasn’t done the job well for them, particularly those lucky few for whom the trainer has managed to provide Group One success with horses bought for relatively small sums.
Prix Jean Romanet winner Odeliz (€22,000) and Prix Morny hero Unfortunately (€24,000) were both cheap yearling buys who went on to win at the highest level, while Quiet Reflection is a filly who holds a special place in Burke’s heart considering what she went on to achieve after being bought for just 44,000 guineas at the breeze-ups.
Nearly seven years to the day, Burke recalls: “Quiet Reflection was our first Royal Ascot winner when landing the Commonwealth Cup and obviously to get a Group One Royal Ascot winner was fantastic. It’s the place you want to be and the place you want to be competitive.
“That win was probably the most important we've had, because it was a Group One on a big stage and that was huge. Publicity-wise and to put the yard in the spotlight, it was probably Quiet Reflection who helped more than anything really, certainly as much as Laurens.”
Still, as important as Quiet Reflection was to the whole operation, Burke can't help but fall down on the side of Laurens when he's asked about the most talented horse to have come through the ranks at Spigot Lodge.
“She was a six-time Group One winner and a Classic winner in the Prix de Diane,” he elaborates. “She very rarely let us down on the track and had a great constitution.”
Strong team set for latest Ascot raid
One of the few things that Laurens failed to achieve was to win a race at Royal Ascot – she finished sixth in the 2019 Queen Anne Stakes on her only try – but Burke didn't have to wait much longer to add to his tally at the meeting.
In fact, his total now stands at five having sent out four winners in the last three years, including a memorable two-year-old double in 2022 courtesy of Dramatised (Queen Mary Stakes) and Holloway Boy (Chesham Stakes).
As such, compared to many previous years when Burke headed to Royal Ascot more in hope than expectation of a winner, he confesses that he’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t get on the scoreboard at the sport’s premier fixture in 2023, especially with such a strong team heading south.
Burke adds: “We’re going in there with probably one very good chance [Elite Status] and four or five good chances, so it will be disappointing if one of them doesn’t hit the target. But it’s Royal Ascot and there will be a lot more trainers than just myself thinking the same thing.
“Everything has to go right and the horses have to land down at the start in top condition. That’s our job now, just to make sure everything is spot on. Most of the work is done and it’s just a case of making sure they’re healthy and sound.”
As we prepare to go our separate ways, one of our party promises to greet Burke amidst the celebrations should he make it into the Ascot winners’ enclosure next week.
Only time will tell whether that reunion between Burke and Shinners becomes a reality, but the Sky Bet man is safe in the knowledge that the Ascot dress code will at least protect those legs from the elements, plus more verbal sparring from a trainer who could be in for a big week.
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