Michael Attwater

Born in December 1973, Michael James Attwater is far better known as a trainer, based at Tattenham Corner Stables, Epsom, from where he has sent out a steady stream of winners. 

However, before joining the training ranks he enjoyed a brief period in the mid-1990s as a jump jockey, winning five races, the first of which was on 25/1 outsider Sophie May, trained by Mark Dixon at Ermyn Lodge, Epsom, in the Le Touquet Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle at Folkestone on December 30, 1994.

He rode as a conditional jockey for Gary Moore at Cisswood Racing Stables in Lower Beeding, West Sussex for the whole of his riding career. Over the next two seasons, he rode four more winners, from a total of just 27 rides.

His three winners in the 1995/96 season were all gained on Tickerty’s Gift at Lingfield Park. The first was on 3 January when registering a comfortable success in the Crowhurst Conditional Jockeys’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle, scoring by a distance. The six-year-old followed up over the same course on February 14, this time beating Prince Nasha by 12 lengths at the end of the Warlingham Handicap Hurdle. 

After finishing second at Newbury on March 1, the pair returned to Lingfield five days later and won the Gummer Handicap Hurdle by two and a half lengths. AP McCoy took over in the saddle for Tickerty’s Gift’s next assignment, the Lingfield Gold Cup Handicap Hurdle, winning by a length and a quarter. 

Michael recorded one more victory on Tickerty’s Gift, that coming in the Edenbridge Handicap Hurdle back at Lingfield Park on January 31, 1997. Mattie Batchelor then took over and won twice more on the gelding at Lingfield that season.

Having grown too tall and too heavy to continue race riding, Michael subsequently joined John Akehust at South Hatch Stables, back in Epsom, as head lad. 

He began his own training career with a salaried appointment in Nottinghamshire before brief spells in Lambourn and at the Racecourse Stables in Epsom on his way to his current home at Tattenham Corner Stables. There, he holds a combined licence and trains around 40 horses, the main focus being on the Flat.

He enjoyed his numerically most successful Flat season in 2017, saddling 25 winners from 237 runners. Financially, his best year was in 2022, when he amassed £209,613 in total prize money. 

On May 30, 1995, Michael achieved the notable feat of training the first three in a nine-runner handicap at Brighton. Even more remarkable was the fact that they were all longshots, with Big Time Rascal (25/1) beating Professor Tickle (16/1) and Mehmo (20/1). The Tricast paid a whopping £7,936.04.