'I've come to Salisbury and it's turned into a f***ing jumps meeting'

Alan King is now well established as the finest dual-purpose trainer in Britain – but there was a time when being beaten by one of his runners on the Flat wasn't so readily accepted by one of the elder statesmen of the training fraternity.

Speaking to the Racing Post as part of a major interview in Sunday's newspaper, King recalled with glee the moment in August 2002 when his two-year-old Salsalino edged out Mick Channon's Sheriff Saint in a maiden. To compound Channon's frustration, his inaptly named Good Loser was then beaten into second by Philip Hobbs's Potwash half an hour later.

King revealed: "Mick walked into the bar afterwards and said: 'I've come to Salisbury and it's turned into a f****** jumps meeting.'"

Alan King: enjoyed his first top-flight successes on the Flat this year courtesy of TrueshanCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

The Barbury Castle trainer's early forays into the Flat didn't go far, with the likes of My Way De Solzen, Voy Por Ustedes and Katchit ensuring the jumps took over completely, but the tide has turned since then, with his first Group 1 successes this year courtesy of Trueshan complementing his 31 Grade 1 wins over jumps and ensuring he already has one eye on the summer even in December.

"We had a few Flat horses," he said, "but then the jumping went completely crazy and I stopped with the Flat for a bit, which I do regret, but in the last eight or nine years we've been building it up again."

And King's success under both codes means he is accepted as part of the Flat landscape rather more than in the days of Channon's verbal volley.

"I've been doing it for long enough now that I don't think I'm looked at as just a jumps trainer now," he added. "William Haggas is a good mate, so there's plenty of banter, and Sir Mark [Prescott] always gives me plenty of abuse, but we enjoy that. We're taking it very seriously and long may it continue."

Read more from Alan King in the Big Read, available online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday or in Sunday's Racing Post newspaper. Click here to sign up.

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