Classic winners, Pattern scorers and big Flat handicap victories galore

Full name Charles William Carlton Elsey

Born Clyde House, Ayr, December 8, 1921

Father Charles Elsey (champion trainer 1956, winner of 6 Classics)

Assistant to Charles Elsey 1951-60

Stables Highfield, Malton, North Yorkshire 1961-96

First winner Storm Cone, Liverpool, March 25, 1961 (owned by William Hill)

First winner over jumps Mark Henry, Newcastle, December 27, 1975

Classic winners Pia (1967 Oaks), Peleid (1973 St Leger)

Eclipse Stakes winner Henry The Seventh (1962)

St James's Palace Stakeswinner Don (1977)

Lockinge Stakes winner Don (1978)

Sun Chariot Stakes winner Lucaya (1966)

Other Pattern-class winners Oakville (1961 Dee Stakes, 1964 Paradise Stakes), Black King (1961 Queen's Vase), High Noon (1962 Craven Stakes), Henry The Seventh (1962 Rous Memorial Stakes), King Of Babylon (1962 Champagne Stakes), Without Reproach (1965 Lancashire Oaks), Lucaya (1966 Cheshire Oaks), Pia (1966 Cherry Hinton Stakes, Lowther Stakes, 1967 Park Hill Stakes dead-heat), French Vine (1967 Dee Stakes), Tantivy (1969 Queen's Vase), Angels Two (1974 Nell Gwyn Stakes), Line Slinger (1983 Yorkshire Cup), K-Battery (1987 Earl of Sefton Stakes), Linpac West (1993 John Porter Stakes)

Big Flat handicap winners Henry The Seventh (1961 Cambridgeshire dead-heat, 1962 Zetland Gold Cup), Sostenuto (1962 Ebor Handicap), Romp Home (1965 Great Metropolitan Handicap), Alignment (1968 Ebor Handicap), Brother Scot (1969 Zetland Gold Cup), Double Cream (1971 Lincoln Handicap), Peleid (1973 Zetland Gold Cup, Magnet Cup), K-Battery (1985 Zetland Gold Cup, 1986 Lincoln Handicap)

Other placed horse in a Classic Cold Storage (3rd, 1968 St Leger)

Big winners over jumps Mark Henry (1977 Ascot Long-Distance Hurdle), Broomley (1978 George Duller Hurdle), Rag Dancer (1982 Billy Bow Hurdle), Past Glories (1988 Welsh Champion Hurdle, Swinton Hurdle), State Jester (1989 Swinton Hurdle)

Last winner Manful, Southwell, December 3, 1996

Highest position in trainers' championship 3rd in 1962

Most wins in a season 82 in 1964 (Flat), 12 in 1977-78 (jumps)

Total wins 885 (814 Flat, 71 jumps)

FIVE OF THE BEST

Henry The Seventh
Owned by Jim Joel, the blinkered Henry The Seventh just held on to dead-heat with Violetta for the Cambridgeshire in Elsey's first season as a trainer in 1961. As a four-year-old in 1962 he defied 9st 10lb in the Zetland Gold Cup, took the Rous Memorial Stakes at Royal Ascot and justified odds-on favouritism for the Eclipse when scoring by three lengths to land his seventh consecutive victory.

Pia
Elsey's first Classic winner, Pia won the Cherry Hinton and Lowther Stakes in 1966 for owner-breeder Countess Margit Batthyany, but proved no match for champion Fleet in the Cheveley Park Stakes and the 1967 1,000 Guineas. In the Oaks her stamina enabled her to prevail under Edward Hide, and in the Park Hill Stakes she dead-heated with Pink Gem. She was inferior to Lucaya, the trainer's 1966 Sun Chariot winner.

Peleid: landed the St Leger under Frankie Durr in 1973

Peleid
Like Pia, Elsey's other Classic winner was among the least distinguished horses to achieve that status. Bred and owned by Bill Behrens, Peleid was a handicapper and in 1973 he won the Zetland Gold Cup (under 7st 12lb) and John Smith's Magnet Cup (7st 9lb), and came fourth in the Ebor, before Frankie Durr guided the 28-1 shot to victory in a weak St Leger by two and a half lengths from Buoy. He ended up in Hungary.

Don
The best horse Elsey ever trained, Don won the St James's Palace Stakes and the Lockinge when they were still Group 2 races. A 1,600gns yearling, Eugene Ryan's colt came sixth in the 1977 2,000 Guineas and ran the race of his life to beat Marinsky and Guineas runner-up Tachypous in the St James's Palace Stakes. In the 1978 Lockinge he was a supremely lucky winner, as Jellaby unseated his rider when clear with 100 yards to go.

Past Glories
Past Glories was a grandson of Elsey's St Leger third Cold Storage and half-brother to his Yorkshire Cup winner Line Slinger. Having come second in the 1987 Triumph Hurdle he landed the Welsh Champion Hurdle and Swinton Hurdle the following year. After being transferred to James Hetherton (son of his owner-breeder Noel Hetherton) the entire finished third to Kribensis as a 150-1 shot for the 1990 Champion Hurdle.

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