Mick Appleby

Prior to becoming a highly successful trainer, Michael ‘Mick’ Appleby rode six winners over jumps during the first half of the 1990s. 

Born in Barnsley, he did not come from a racing background or have a horsey childhood. His interest was formed when his grandfather took him along to their local tracks of Pontefract and Doncaster. Being a small lad, Mick’s grandfather encouraged him to learn to ride. 

He began his racing career by riding as stable/conditional jockey for three years for John Manners, known universally, according to his Daily Telegraph obituary, as “Mad” Manners. He rode his first winner at Nottingham on December 3, 1993, when Touch Silver, owned and trained by Manners, took the lead approaching the last flight and came home an easy ten-length winner of the Colwick Claiming Hurdle. 

A slipping saddle caused him to be unseated from Touch Silver on their next start together, but he did have one more winner before the end of the season, that being when Waaza beat five rivals in the Barford Conditional Jockeys’ Selling Hurdle at Warwick in May. 

A good finish by Shafayif saw the five-year-old clinch the Blackpole Selling Handicap Hurdle at Worcester on September 10, giving Mick win number three, but he did not score again until March 14, 1985, when Ballet Royal recorded a comfortable success in the Elland Road Claiming Conditional Hurdle at Newton Abbot. The six-year-old followed up 15 days later when taking the Grandstand Conditional Handicap Hurdle at Sandown Park. The following day, Mick’s journey to Chepstow proved worthwhile when Il Bambino, trained like his other winners, by John Manners, hit the front at the last flight and beat Heresthedeal in the Court Selling Hurdle. 

Mick had no further success as a jockey and eventually relinquished his licence. He left John Manners and worked as head lad for Roger Curtis. In 2008 he was offered the post of head lad at Andrew Balding’s Kingsclere Stables. There he worked with top-class horses, gaining much experience in all aspects of training.

He began training in his own right in 2010, based at Langham Racing Stables, near Oakham, Rutland, with training facilities located close to Southwell Racecourse. He trained 20 winners in 2011, then 40 in 2012 including his first big race victory with 20/1 shot Art Scholar in the November Handicap, ridden by Franny Norton. He trained 61 winners in 2013.

He had his first Group race winner in 2014 when Danzeno won the Betfred-sponsored Group 3 Chipchase Sakes at Newcastle. He was crowned champion trainer at Southwell in 2014, 2015, 2016, and again in 2017.

In 2023 the two-year-old Big Evs took Mick to new heights by winning Royal Ascot’s Windsor Castle Stakes, Goodwood’s Molecomb Stakes and Doncaster’s Flying Childers Stakes, then rounding off the year with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. 

Big Evs’ short head victory over Australian sprinter Asfoora in the 2024 Group 2 King George Stakes at Goodwood was Mick’s fourth winner of the meeting. The others included Big Mojo in the Molecomb Stakes, helping him to end the Glorious Goodwood festival as its leading trainer.  

In August 2025, Mick saddled the eight-year-old Intervention to produce the biggest win of his career on his 106th start when landing the £100,000 Great St Wilfrid Handicap, scoring by a length and a quarter under William Pyle.

The following month he recorded the biggest domestic victory of his career at Haydock Park when 16/1 shot Big Mojo landed the Group 1 Betfair Sprint Cup. 

In a career spanning four decades, Mick Appleby has come a long way and seems destined to scale yet further heights. 

Mick Appleby’s winners as a jockey were, in chronological order:

1. Touch Silver, Nottingham, December 3, 1993

2. Waaza, Warwick, May 7, 1994

3. Shafayif, Worcester, September 10, 1994

4. Ballet Royal, Newton Abbot, March 14, 1995

5. Ballet Royal, Sandown Park, March 29, 1995

6. Il Bambino, Chepstow, March 30, 1995