South West Regional Day at Beckhampton Stables
Words by Alan Yuill Walker.
On Monday, July 24 Roger Charlton opened the doors of his immaculate Beckhampton Stables to a coterie of TBA members and their guests.
Roger himself spent 12 years as assistant to Jeremy Tree. Having started in the City, Roger arrived at Beckhampton from Lambourn where he ran the equine swimming pool at Windsor House. A competent amateur, he won the 1969 Kim Muir at Cheltenham for Edward Courage.
Beckhampton House is a three-story, red-brick Victorian edifice situated on the old London to Bath road west of Marlborough. Close by is Avebury and this corner of Wiltshire is steeped in mystery and intrigue, from archaeological sites to modern day crop-circles; and the old Bath road would have been the haunt of many a highwayman.
Beckhampton exudes racing history. Sam Darling and his son Fred trained the winners of 26 English classics between them, and Roger Charlton’s predecessors Noel Murless and Jeremy Tree both enhanced that tally.
Roger Charlton achieved a unique treble in his very first season (1990) by saddling the first three colts to finish in the English, French and Irish Derbies with three separate individuals – if only a Maktoum owned filly had not been supplemented for the Curragh classic!
TBA members soaked up much of this fascinating background from Roger’s running commentary as well as the seemingly never ending spell of sunshine which has made this summer one of the hottest on record – ‘We are still able to use our downland turf’ he confided.
Both bits of work witnessed by the TBA group were conducted on two separate all-weather strips, both over three-parts of a mile on the collar. “All 26 are two-year-olds, most of them unraced,” Roger informed. “They are out for an hour every day and will do two canters. We are lucky in having 30 good riders which means we can usually get by with three lots.”
Seldom without a flagship horse, recent Beckhampton stars include Al Kazeem, Bated Breath, Cityscape and Decorated Knight. All four homebreds are currently standing as stallions in the British Isles, John Deer’s Al Kazeem having returned to training after an abortive spell at stud.
John Deer and Khalid Abdullah are two of Beckhampton’s principal patrons and it was for the latter that Roger Charlton also trained Frankel’s dam Kind. One of the most high profile of the current inmates is Withold, a strong Melbourne Cup candidate.
The TBA would like to thank the Charlton family and their staff including head lad Steve Raymont, for a memorable visit which opened with coffee and biscuits and concluded with a glass or two of chilled rose in their charming ‘hidden’ garden.
To round off proceedings there was an excellent lunch at The Bell, just down the road at West Overton.