Dai Burchell
1937-2024
Welsh trainer Walter David Burchell, always known as Dai, was born on February 4, 1937. He rode four winners as an amateur in the mid-1960s.
Dai first saddled horses in flapping races in the 1950s, while working at a local steelworks. He took out a permit to train and registered his first win when Commissary landed the Westgate Hurdle (Division 1) at Warwick on March 3, 1962, ridden by fellow Welshman David Lewis. Commissary won unchallenged by eight lengths, giving Lewis the sole success of his brief riding career. It was the third race on the card and it only just beat the weather, the remaining three races having to be abandoned due to a heavy snowstorm.
Dai held an amateur jockey’s licence and rode four winners, all on Commissary during the 1963/64 season, in hurdle races at Chepstow, Wincanton, Warwick and Wolverhampton.
Eventually he quit his at the steelworks to focus his attention on training permanently, taking out a full trainer’s licence. Based at Drysiog Farm, Briery Hill, Ebbw Vale, in Gwent, he went on to train more than 430 winners during a career lasting seven decades.
He recorded his best season in 1991/92 with 18 wins. Most of his successes were in low-grade contests with cheaply bought horses. His son, David, rode for many years as stable jockey.
Dai’s best horses were Gay Ruffian, runner-up in 1989 Finale Junior Hurdle and 1992 Welsh Champion Hurdle; and Maamur, who finished third in the 1992 William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Sandown.
He was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Welsh Horse Racing Awards, while a race was run at Chepstow in January 2022 – the Happy Retirement Dai Burchell Novices’ Hurdle – in recognition of his impending retirement from training.
His last winner was Good Impression at Uttoxeter on January 29, 2022. He retired the following day having watched his last runner Adherence finish fifth at Fontwell Park.
Dai Burchell died in the early hours of Sunday, March 3, 2024, aged 87. He is survived by his second wife and assistant trainer Ruth and five children
