Gihan Arnolda: From East London Streets to Newmarket Trainer

“It’s just unbelievable, isn’t it?” Gihan Arnolda says as he reflects on his first three months as a trainer: five winners from 33 runners, £50,000 prize money banked and a string that is, according to the much-respected Timeform operation’s “run to form” statistic, outperforming every other Flat yard in Britain.

But it could equally apply to the story of Arnolda’s journey from the east end of London to Cadland Cottage Stables at the bottom of Warren Hill in Newmarket. He was the first trainer of black or Asian heritage in Flat racing’s HQ when he received his licence earlier this year, and that is just one among a host of unlikely firsts and Sliding-Doors moments along the way.

It is safe to assume that he is also the first trainer to have slept rough on the streets of east London as a teenager.

“My mum and dad are Sri Lankan and Portuguese background,” Arnolda explains. “My mother passed away of leukaemia when I was very young. My dad was off the rails, really. [From 12 years of age] I used to run away and I was just living on the streets for weeks at a time.

“I was stealing from shops to live, not that I was that person but I had no other way of living. I remember living in people’s gardens and I couldn’t see any way out, and then you’re on the verge of the gang stuff. I could easily have gone down a very, very different path, because people I knew at that stage have gone down very different paths.”

The starting point for Arnolda’s escape from the downward spiral was unexpectedly close to home after a confrontation with his father.

“I went next door to a neighbour and they said whatever happens, we’re going to back you and try to foster you.

“I didn’t believe it really, and obviously the police came and I got taken back into care, but literally a year later that English family fostered me. I went from a rough school in east London to going to Wimbledon College. It was amazing. I got all my GCSEs, six As, four Bs, and went on to a law course at college.”

By this point, though, an alternative plan had already started to form in Arnolda’s mind thanks to his Saturday routine of watching racing on TV with his foster dad.

At 18, he applied for the foundation course at the British Racing School in Newmarket, and sat on a racehorse for the first time on day one. Less than nine months later, in July 1998, his fifth ride in public, Knave’s Ash, squeezed home by a short head in an apprentice handicap at Thirsk.

Arnolda had more than 200 rides and rode five more winners over the next decade, but he struggled to shake off the lingering effects of his tough early years.

“I went on to be a jockey but I really struggled mentally when I went into the big, wide world, and I couldn’t really focus on being a jockey. It’s really tough [to leave the care system], you’re kind of let go. You’re 18, but you’re not a normal 18-year-old that has had that guided upbringing.”

A broken pelvis in 2009 ended his riding career, by which point he had become “disillusioned” with racing. JETS – the retraining scheme for ex-jockeys – helped him to enrol to retrain as a chef. After a spell with the Michelin-starred Andrew Pern in Yorkshire, he moved to Gordon Ramsay’s Maze in London.

Five years on from his injury, though, racing was back on his mind. “I just felt like I had missed something in racing,” he says. “In 2014, I got offered a job at Godolphin with Charlie Appleby, then moved to Chris Wall and then Roger Varian, and I learned so much off them. They were my biggest mentors, and then I moved from assistant at Roger’s to [the Derby-winning trainer] Peter Chapple-Hyam, and he was a massive help too.”

Even with a dozen years of experience behind him, however, training in his own right still felt like a step too far from his East End roots.

“People were saying to me: ‘You’ve got so much knowledge, you’re such a horseman,’ and I’d say: ‘Yeah, well, there’s no chance of training,’ because I didn’t see anyone else like myself training. It’s normally handed down, or people have a massive connection in racing. I thought, I’ll just rattle around as an assistant.”

But an opening appeared when an owner with Denis Quinn, the previous licence holder at Cadland Cottage Stables, offered to support him, and Arnolda seized his chance.

“I’ve got that will to win, and the drive and the work ethic as well,” he says. “I’ve started with my partner [Charlotte] and we have two small children, so it’s a family thing and we’ve got friends that work with us as well, and it’s just slowly growing.

“I’ve got orders for six or seven yearlings at the [autumn] sales and I feel like having two-year-olds will add another string to the bow. Our aim was 10 winners by the end of the year, so we’re halfway there already, fingers crossed.”

Damascus Steel was Arnolda’s first winner, at the 11th attempt, in a handicap at Goodwood in mid-June. The six-year-old grey gelding followed up in a race at Epsom a month later and will attempt to take his trainer a step closer to his target on Monday in the Amateurs’ Derby, one of the feature events of the bank holiday programme.

Arnolda’s blossoming future as a Newmarket trainer is the focus now. “I love the heritage thing, don’t get me wrong,” Arnolda says. “But I want to be seen as just a bloody good trainer, and put it out there that you can have a really horrible start in life, but if you work twice as hard, you can actually get somewhere.”

Breacher bred to relish Sandown

Recent winners of the Solario Stakes have a mixed record in the top three-year-old events a year later, as three – including Masar, the 2018 Derby winner – went on to record Group One wins, but for several more this Group Three prize was as good as it got. Today’s latest renewal, though, looks unusually strong on paper, with three unbeaten colts at the top of the market.

Charlie Appleby’s Rock Montreal, a 1m gns (£1.05m) yearling, was highly impressive on debut at Yarmouth this month, while Sonic Angel is two-from-two in all‑weather novice events. The pick of the field, though, could be William Muir & Chris Grassick’s Breacher (3.30), a comfortable winner on debut at Salisbury in June from a stable whose juveniles find plenty for a run. He is bred to relish middle-distances next year so Sandown’s stiff seven furlongs looks sure to suit.

Goodwood 1.25 Rhythm Of My Heart will appreciate this step up to a mile after a promising run into a three-length second on debut at Kempton this month.

Sandown 1.40 Charlie Appleby’s Flower Show is a definite “lurker” on debut for a stable with a four-in-10 strike rate with its two‑year-olds this year, but John and Thady Gosden’s Thi Qar, second amid greenness first time up, is the one to beat on what little form there is.

Goodwood 2.00 Ghost Mode’s waywardness in the closing stages when successful over course and distance last time is a concern, but he has been nudged up only 4lb for that success and has also drawn well in stall six given his prominent running style.

Sandown 2.15 Alan King’s Alcarath is lightly raced for a four-year-old and looks overpriced at around 8-1 on his close second over track and trip last time.

Goodwood 2.35 Cheekpieces coaxed a first win of the season from High Degree earlier this month and he has decent prospects of a follow-up off 4lb higher.

Sandown 2.50 A highly competitive Group Three for fillies and mares where Owen Burrows’s Calendar Girl could add another Pattern-race win to her record after a convincing victory at Listed level first time up this season.

Goodwood 3.10 A strong field for the Celebration Mile includes three of the beaten runners behind Bow Echo in last month’s Sussex Stakes, and the ease in grade could see a first win of the year for Zavateri, a Group One-winning juvenile last season.

Goodwood 3.45 William Haggas’s Evening Call was last of three on debut at Newmarket a fortnight ago but was not beaten far and could find sufficient improvement to get off the mark.

Greg Wood is away on his sabbatical for the next four weeks but his daily tips will be updated on this page so please check back in for them.