'He has come up with that racing rarity - a winning system' PROFILE: RICHARD HANNON.

Byline: Alastair Down looks at the secrets of the enduring success enjoyed by the Wiltshire trainer

IF RICHARD HANNON could bottle the secret ingredients of his success he would forever be cracking one open and sharing a glass, but you couldn't buy a case to take home with you.

Of all the top-flight trainers, Hannon's is the operation that is arguably the busiest and the one that we most take for granted. Yet the sheer number of winners is remarkable, as is the ability to produce them season in and season out as reliably as night following day.

This year, the yard is bounding along with more than 140 winners, well on its way to a personal best. From 2003, the winning tallies rack up at 122, 113, 145, 127 and, last year, 148. Some time this month he will pass 800 winners in the last six seasons.

Anoraks of a critical bent tend to get their toggles in a twist and point at the yard's strike-rate of around 12 per cent. But in a sense, that is to miss the point about him. Hannon is not a fighter pilot, he is in the thousand-bomber raid business and the targets always get hit. The skill lies in the sheer scale of the endeavour and the ability to keep them in the air for sortie after sortie.

Somehow, his exceptional tallies are put together almost on the quiet. Although hugely approachable and never reticent, there is almost something understated about the way Hannon goes about his work. He is not one of those trainers who can't see a camera without hurling himself in front of it and unburdening himself of his views on everything from the price of oil, via GM crops, to the future of racing.

So how does he do it? Well, the annoying answer is that a huge amount of it comes down to that indefinable quality of having an eye for a horse, and it serves him brilliantly in two spheres - every morning as they walk round prior to exercise, and every year as they are hauled in and out of their boxes at the yearling sales.

One experienced work-rider at Hannon's says: "He will notice something just as you are ready to go that nobody else has seen. You will have no concept that anything is even fractionally wrong, but he will spot that a horse is just not quite moving right.

"It is that eye that serves him so well at the sales, too. He is not a guy who flaunts his knowledge or wastes his time trying to impress you with what he knows - he just puts it to work every day and keeps his own counsel.

"And the thing that makes him a one-off is that he has burnt the candle at both ends for donkey's years, and not many can do that without showing any sign of it. A great clue to him is that he is more fun and better company on the racecourse than in the yard, because at home it is all about concentrating and worrying about what is in front of his nose."

Owning horses is meant to be fun, and that is something Hannon never forgets. For most folk, owning a horse is a series of expensive disappointments punctuated by rare moments of hope and elation. But Hannon ensures this experience of financial self-flagellation is somehow an enjoyable one, and Hannon's owners tend to become Hannon's friends in a way that is not explained by the fact that he wants to continue receiving the training fees.

He is the trainer as ally and mate, not the trainer as remote figure handing down tablets of wisdom and bad news from some mountain top of his own self-importance.

IT HAS a lot to do with his ability to get on with people and treat everybody much the same. He numbers the Queen among his owning band, but is equally at home with some local walking home with a couple of rabbits for the pot. Hannon is a convivial man, and rivals joke that it is some feat to send out well over 100 winners every season without leaving the bar of his local, The Shears, where over the years countless thousands of pounds of prize-money have been recycled into celebratory pints for all and sundry.

Central to the harvest is the selection of the seed at the sales. The Hannon team largely operate in the 20,000-80,000gns price band, which should buy you a fair horse but is, of course, the very zone in which every other Tom, Dick or Hugo is trying to find one.

They are not looking for long-term prospects or big old boats with staying pedigrees who will need what most modern owners think they are short of - time. What they are after are horses who will be able to run and win at two and be effective at around a mile at three.

Yes, there have been hurdlers and stayers and five-furlong flyers, but the biggest prizes in Britain have come at a mile, with three 2,000 Guineas victories and a Sussex Stakes.

Occasionally, Hannon is heard to mutter that if he had the backing of one of the super-rich owners then he could have fished in deeper waters, but when an owner shelled out half a million on two yearlings he pointed out that if he had bought five or six for the same money it "would have spread the risk out a bit".

One aspect of Hannon that marks him out as smarter than the average bear is not so much something he has done, rather something he has resisted doing. Having started out with a dozen infirm and untalented horses he has, over decades, perfected a method that works. Having turned 100-plus winners a season into a habit, most trainers would try to steam off down the road of richer owners, more expensive horses and middle distances, and along the way lose touch with a loyal owning base of friends while trying to teach themselves new tricks.

But Hannon is cleverer than that. He has come up with that genuine racing rarity - a winning system - and he has stuck to it. Yes, he is trying always to raise the quality - this season's two-year-olds being a case in point, and there are nine Group races in the bag already - but not at the cost of fundamentally changing an amazing operation.

HE HAS made a few quid and managed to keep some of it, despite having six children. He and wife Jo suffered from 'London Bus' baby syndrome - they already had three when three more turned up at once in the shape of triplets.

It is to one of those, Richard jnr, that the yard will be handed on in the half-fullness of time. Hugely affable, it remains to be seen whether the eyes he has inherited include the eye of his father. Bouncy like Tigger and full of beans, Richard tends to think they will all win, but one observer close to the yard and a fan of the man says: "I am going to buy him a bird book of the feathered sort. If he reads it carefully he'll see that there are a lot more geese in this world than there are swans."

Owners at Hannon's know a cork will be popped win or lose. With 150 winners fast approaching, Hannon's neighbours must have been thinking the army had taken his place over this year for target practice. But the trainer doesn't need any practice - he has been hitting the target for years.

'He is the trainer as ally and mate, not the trainer as remote figure handing down tablets of wisdom and bad news from some mountain top of his own self-importance'

CV RICHARD HANNON

Trains East Everleigh Stables, Marlborough, Wiltshire

Licensed from 1970

Marital status Married to Jo, six children: Claire, Fanny, Julie, Henry, Richard and Elizabeth

Last six seasons 122, 113, 145, 127, 148, 142 (and counting)

Best horses trained Don't Forget Me, Tirol, Lyric Fantasy, Mr Brooks, Niche, Reel Buddy

Big races won 2,000 Guineas (three times), Irish 2,000 Guineas (twice), July Cup, Sussex Stakes, Lockinge Stakes, Prix de l'Abbaye, Cheveley Park Stakes, Nunthorpe Stakes, Prix du Cadran 

CAPTION(S):

The prolific Richard Hannon in typically jovial mood at Goodwood yesterday EDWARD WHITAKER RACINGPOSTPIX.CO.UK