Being crowned champion All-Weather trainer back in April was the proudest achievement of Tony Carroll’s 30-year training career. He finished the winter season with 57 winners – 11 clear of his nearest pursuer James Owen – after ending 2024 with his first ever century.
Six months on and the Worcestershire trainer is determined to tighten his grip on a trophy he’s in no mood to relinquish. He’s already reached 100 winners again, two months faster than last year, and plans to hit the ground running with a team of around 60 for All-Weather Championships Season 13.
“I’ll be relying on a lot of the old names but plan to bring in some fresh blood at the sales in the coming weeks,” he says. “A lot of my horses have had a hard paper round but have never let me down. They’ve performed well all year, some of them achieving personal bests, and a lot of them have been turned out in the field to be freshened up for the winter.”
Behind Carroll’s tried and tested equine battalions is a settled team of riders and stable staff, spearheaded by one of the brightest young talents in the weighing room, the teenager Jack Doughty. Champion apprentice on the All-Weather last season, he equalled last year’s total of 60 winners for the calendar year when Carroll’s River Wharfe won at Wolverhampton on 11th October.
Doughty will again ride most of Carroll’s runners, supported by William Carson and a raft of top jockeys including former winter champions Rossa Ryan and Luke Morris, while stable apprentices Molly Gunn and Matthew Lloyd Slater will utilise their claim.
“It’s going to be tough, especially with the level of interest in the monthly bonus prizes,” he adds. “I’m under no illusions but we’re ready to give it a good go. The important thing is to not run out of ammunition by the new year, so we have a strong second wave of horses to run after Christmas.”
Here, Carroll talks to Simon Mapletoft of attheraces.com about the credentials of 12 of his leading performers.
