Richard Michael Hannon (born 1945), known as Richard Hannon Sr. to distinguish him from his son, is a former Britishhorse trainer. He was British flat racing Champion Trainer four times, achieved more than a century of victories in a season 20 times, a double century five times,[1] and turned out 32 Royal Ascot winners.[2] He operated out of Herridge Racing Stables, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, with a smaller yard at Everleigh on the edge of Salisbury Plain.[2] He retired after winning a final trainers' championship at the end of 2013, when the training operation was taken over by his son, Richard Hannon Jr.
Hannon's family had a tradition of horse training — his father Harry was also a trainer. In fact, Richard started out as his father's assistant and took over Harry's licence when he retired in 1970.[2] His first winner was Ampney Prince at Newbury on 17 April 1970.[3] At that time, there were only a dozen horses in the yard and in the intervening years Hannon's stable grew to 60 horses by 1977,[4] eventually becoming the largest in Britain in terms of number of horses - 270 in 2012.[2] By the time of his retirement he operated from two sites - Herridge and Everleigh.
His reputation was as a specialist with two-year-olds and twice in the 90s he trained the champion juvenile filly - Lyric Fantasy and Lemon Souffle. He has also trained three 2,000 Guineas winners - Mon Fils (1973), Don’t Forget Me (1987) and Tirol (1990), the latter two of whom also won the Irish equivalent - and one 1,000 Guineas with Sky Lantern (2013). His best known horse, however, was Canford Cliffs winner of five Group One races before his retirement in 2011.
When he first started out, most of Hannon's horses, including the Classic winning Mon Fils, were ridden by Frankie Durr, who had also ridden for his father.[4] After that initial Classic success though, it was to be another five years before Hannon landed another big race - the 1982 Ebor Handicap with Another Sam.[5]
Towards the end of his career, his son-in-law Richard Hughes was the stable jockey.
In later years, his son Richard was the assistant trainer, Hannon announced in November 2013 that he would retire at the end of the year, at which point Richard Jr. took over the trainer's licence.[6]
He was champion trainer in Britain for a fourth time in 2013 with 235 winners, a record total, and retired having saddled the winners of 4,193 races in Britain and overseas in a training career spanning forty-three years. His total of winners was a record for a British-based trainer[7] until overtaken by Mark Johnston in August 2018.[8]
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Hannon was honoured as champion trainer in 1992, 2010 and 2011. Richard was awarded The Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit in 2010 for his lifetime contribution to European racing.[2]
He is married to Josephine and has six children - Claire, Fanny, Julie and triplets Henry, Richard Jr. and Elizabeth (who is married to Richard Hughes).[10]
Mortimer, Roger; Onslow, Richard; Willett, Peter (1978). Biographical Encyclopaedia of British Racing. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN0-354-08536-0.
Wright, Howard (1986). The Encyclopaedia of Flat Racing. London: Robert Hale. ISBN0-7090-2639-0.
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