‘Maybe These Two Have Come Along at a Good Point in my Career’: Fellowes on Luther and Shes Perfect

[Wandering Eyes]

Charlie Fellowes could be forgiven for any lingering frustration over the events at Longchamp just over a fortnight ago. After all, there he was, poised to receive the trophy for winning his first Classic. Shes Perfect was in the winner's circle after the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and the photos had been taken with her throng of happy owners. Then came the dreaded verdict. 

By now, the records show that after a stewards' enquiry and subsequent unsuccessful appeal, the hampered Zarigana was the winner of the race. Who knows what private and proverbial kicking of cats there may have been behind closed doors at Bedford House Stables, but Fellowes appears to have taken it all with a 'that's racing' shrug of his shoulders. It's the grown-up reaction of one who has now been training for 12 years and has seen enough lows – though perhaps none quite so public or profound – to know that in this sport, nothing can be taken for granted, not even when you've crossed the line in front.  

“I'm very much what will be will be,” says Fellowes as he watches Shes Perfect and his other exciting Classic prospect Luther as they warm up for first lot. “A lot of people were surprised at my reaction after the demotion. I got so many kind messages about the interview afterwards with Sky Sports Racing, although at that time it was all still such a blur; it hadn't really sunk in. 

“But I can't change what happened, I'm not going to change their decision, and getting wound up and angry over it achieves absolutely nothing. We are still in the enviable position of having two really exciting horses and, okay it didn't happen that day, but I feel sure that it will happen for her this year, and hopefully for Luther. The only way to help is by focusing on what's happening here and having the horses spot on for the next time they go to the races, and hopefully Lady Luck will shine down on us one day.”

Instead then, in Fellowes's rose-lined corner of Newmarket at the yard which has housed a number of Derby winners, including Hermit, Isinglass, Pinza and, most recently, Luca Cumani's High-Rise, it is a case of onwards and upwards. And the next up could come as soon as this Sunday as Luther, whose valiant fourth in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains has been all-but forgotten in the hullabaloo of the fillies' race, returns to France for a crack at the Prix du Jockey Club. He will once more be partnered by Kieran Shoemark, of whom Fellowes is a staunch ally.

“Not only is Kieran an incredibly nice human being and a joy to work with, but he's a very good rider. He makes very few mistakes, he's got brilliant hands, you never see a horse pulling with him,” he says.

“He rode nigh on a perfect race. Luther has on occasion been a stride slow out of the gates so we put him through the stalls a few days before the race and then he absolutely pinged the gates. We sat a lot closer to a very strong pace than the other three that we reoppose [on Sunday] did.”

Fellowes continues, “Luther is not a big, strapping, scopey, staying type. He's neat and quite well made but he's strong.”

 

Fellowes alongside Luther and Stuart Ritchie on Warren Hill | Emma Berry

 

A son of Frankel and the Musidora Stakes winner Give And Take (Cityscape), Luther was bought by Will Douglass for owner Paul Hickman, with his breeder Nicholas Jones staying in for a share. His dam is out of a full-sister to the brilliant Fame And Glory (Montjeu), whose five Group 1 wins included the Irish Derby. This gives Luther a strand in common with his stable-mate Shes Perfect, whose granddam Desertion (Danehill) is a sister to Irish Derby winner Desert King. 

Hickman, originally from Wolverhampton but now residing in Singapore, has long been a supporter of Fellowes, largely through his friendship with Chief Stipe King, the owner of dual Group 3-winning sprinter Vadream (and also of Coventry City FC).

“Paul loves the middle-distance pedigrees – he's not interested in sprinters at all – and we buy one or two a year for him to try to win the Derby,” Fellowes notes. “When you've got one, maybe two if you're lucky, bullets to fire at the sales it's not easy. But I think Paul would definitely settle for a French Derby – so much so that he had the choice whether to go to Epsom or France and he's going to France.”

The trainer is also “leaning towards” a return to France and the Prix de Diane instead of Royal Ascot for Shes Perfect.

“She has always worked like she wants slightly further, so I am keen to explore a step up in trip,” he says of the daughter of Sioux Nation. “We put her in the Arc at the end of the year. You look at the Coronation [Stakes], and Lake Victoria was very good the other day, and Zarigana has beaten us twice – well, sort of. But it looks like quite a good race and, although I think the round track at Ascot would suit her, as she likes to just get on with things, I think that stepping up to ten furlongs now in France would just give us some clarity as to where we go for the rest of the season – whether we genuinely train her with the Arc in mind, or whether ten furlongs is the limit, or whether we are dropping back to a mile.”

He adds, “The beauty of her is that she goes on any ground, which few horses genuinely do. She's a big girl. She is literally perfect physically and that is how she was named.”

 

Shes Perfect and Poppy Watson | Emma Berry

 

With one of the town's most historic stables as his home, Fellowes is now fully embedded in Newmarket. It is not all that far from where he grew up at Abbots Ripton in Cambridgeshire, and where he was first bitten by the bug when coming racing with his mother, who owned shares in horses with Geoff Wragg. 

“Mum would give me a pound to bet on each race and I was utterly hooked on it,” he recalls. “Friends would come over on a Saturday and want to play in the garden and I just wanted to watch Channel 4 Racing.”

Far too tall to be a jockey, which was his initial ambition, he settled on a career as a trainer and set about learning from some of the most established names in the business, which included a stint in Australia with Lee Freedman and five years as assistant to James Fanshawe, who Fellowes says is “one of the best horsemen in the country”. He is not alone in this belief. 

“I don't come from a racing background so horses weren't in my blood,” he says.  “But I think every trainer would say that they are always learning. I know this place like the back of my hand now – I've been here 20 years in Newmarket, and maybe these two have come along at a good point in my career. Maybe they have have timed their runs beautifully so I can showcase their careers.”

There will be plenty of folk in his home town cheering for him if either Luther or Shes Perfect manage to land a Group 1. Fellowes is not just instantly likeable, with an openness now much more common to the younger breed of trainer, but he does his bit for the town, too. This includes chairing the committee for Newmarket's popular Henry Cecil Open Weekend in September.

As Fellowes watches Luther have his last gentle exercise up Warren Hill before heading to Chantilly, Sir Mark Prescott calls out “bonne chance” to him, while David Simcock wanders over to enquire where Luther has been drawn for the Jockey Club. Along with George Scott, Fellowes was an early adopter of the podcast craze, and he is engagingly candid on his social media channels, which are actively driving ownership in the stable. 

“Basher does all my social media now,” he says of Basher Watts, the syndicate manager behind Shes Perfect and other horses. “I am generally relatively relaxed about information I send over. I would get an email or two a week now from people who are interested in shares in horses, which we never had before. We're reaching people now which we never touched before. We have about 12,000 followers on Instagram, which has grown significantly since Basher took over, and I'm now on TikTok, apparently.”

Fellowes continues, “Twitter is a funny one. I find it can be a really toxic place. We don't use it as a marketing tool and I should really delete it from my phone as it just seems to be a breeding ground for negativity. But I like Instagram and it's definitely been a good marketing tool for us, and a lot of it is just explaining what we are doing – the day-to-day training of the horses, the farrier, etc. I think the everyday guy in the street still thinks that racing is fixed and horses are badly treated, but racing in England is incredibly clean and horses generally live exceptional lives through to retirement and then have a happy and peaceful time after racing. It's up to us to be getting that message across.”

While Fellowes has enjoyed his share of success at the royal meeting, he points to Prince Of Arran's win in the G3 Lexus Stakes, which qualified him to run in the Melbourne Cup, as the high point of his career to date. Luther could yet take his trainer back to Australia, as Fellowes and Hickman are keen to aim him at the Cox Plate.

“That's the potential end-of-season target,” he says. “I love Australia and I have been desperate to go back for a long time. Luther wants decent ground so he won't be running on Champions Day or anything like that. I think three-year-olds have a good record in the race and I think he would handle the tight track at Moonee Valley.”

He continues, “It's really exciting to have these things to think about, and to have it for these owners as well. You couldn't find a nicer or more enthusiastic man than Basher. All he cares about is his shareholders. He just wants them all to have a good experience. He has all these what's app groups and it's a real community. 

“And then for Paul Hickman, he's been one of my biggest supporters and I speak to him almost daily at the moment. He's a lovely guy who I get on really well with.

“I feel like [Luther and Shes Perfect] are just a little bit different to the other good ones that I've had. Prince Of Arran was a wonderful horse but he came alive in Australia and never really loved English tracks. Vadream is talented but quirky – everything has to go like clockwork for her and if it does she'll run a screamer.  

“But these two, mentally, they are just very tough and straightforward. I think that's what sets them slightly apart.”

 

 

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