If you want to know about George Baker then you’ve got to be careful what it is that you’re looking up. You might think that narrowing things down to the horse racing industry might help but you’d be wrong. That is because in 2009 an owner of horses, Harry Findlay, bought a horse named George Baker and sent him to the yard of the trainer George Baker to be trained.
The jockey George Baker was then employed to ride him and a north London businessman called George Baker bought a half share in the horse. The George George Baker we’re talking about is the trainer, who first got a licence to train horses in 2008.
About
George Baker’s relationship with horse racing began when he became a racing journalist. His love of the sport led him to taking out a licence to train the animals, which was grand in March of 2008. He started his new career by working with 15 horses at Far Westfield Farm, training 15, 26 and then 40 winners in his first three seasons as a trainer. He moved around a couple of times, then in 2017 he bought a state-of-the-art training facility that had previously been owned by Sheikh Fahad Al Thani. Located in Chiddingfold, Surrey, Baker’s career to date as seen him train more than 500 winners across the world.
Major Successes
Though the 500-plus winners that Baker has trained are all noteworthy as far as the man himself is concerned, it isn’t outrageous to suggest that some of the races that he’s enjoyed success in will be more important to the average reader than others. As a result, here is a look at some of the races that he’s won at least once:
- Scarborough Stakes
- Prix Saraca
- Royal Hunt Cup
- Hessen-Pokal
- John Smith’s Handicap
Horses Trained
It would be untrue to suggest that George Baker is one of the most prolific trainers ever to work in the sport of horse racing, but he has certainly worked with some decent horses over the years. The win that he managed with George Baker in the John Smith’s Handicap at Leicester back in 2011 will always be noteworthy, for example, but here’s a look at a couple of the more interesting horses that he’s worked with:
Boomshackerlacker
Even aside from the excellent name, Boomshackerlacker is noteworthy on account of what he managed to win during his racing career. Humidor was Baker’s first Listed winner, but Boomshackerlacker was his second and, arguably, more interesting. That is because he won the Prix Saraca at Maisons-Laffite in France, following that up with other wins on the continent. The first came in the Hessen-Pokal in Germany, whilst the second was the Prix Jacques de Bremond at Vichy in 2015. In a career that spanned five years, Boomshackerlacker won five races, being one of the most important horses to a fledging trainer’s career.
Belgian Bill
There aren’t many people that get to say that they trained a winner in a race at Royal Ascot, but George Baker is one of them. In 2013 he entered Belgian Bill into the Royal Hunt Cup during the famous week of racing and witnessed his horse finish first. He also trained him to victory at another important racecourse when he won the Betfred Mile run at Goodwood in 2015. Having begin life with a second-place finish in June 2010 and followed that up with a win later in the month, Belgian Bill won seven other times before his career came to an end in the December of 2017. He also came second nine times, proving how close the line is between success and just missing out.