Spurs fan Phil Cunningham ready for Royal Ascot
Mon 17 June 2019, 10:29|Tottenham Hotspur
The domestic football season might well be over and it’s time for some rest and recuperation, but for lifelong Spurs fan and horse racing owner and breeder Phil Cunningham, the hard work is only just beginning.
With his own training operation, Rebel Racing Ltd, in Newmarket, Phil is this week preparing to launch an assault with a number of his horses at Royal Ascot, perhaps the most prestigious and glamorous race meeting in the world. The five-day racing extravaganza gets underway on Tuesday (18 June) and will see the best horses from around the world competing at the very highest level of the sport.
And Phil is hoping to replicate the success he enjoyed two years ago, when his horse Rajasinghe won the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, setting the track record at the Berkshire course for two-year-old horses over six furlongs, which he still holds to this day.
“It’s been a slow start to the flat season for us this year, but it’s just about to kick on now and we’re really looking forward to Royal Ascot this week,” said the 49-year-old, who first came to White Hart Lane with his dad when he was eight and is now a long-standing season ticket holder.
It’s been an incredibly rapid rise to success in the horse racing industry for Phil. He began in a syndicate with a few friends years ago which he described as ‘a great way for anyone to start out and a lot of fun’, progressing to having a couple of horses in training.
“Things really changed for me in 2005, when a horse called Rebel Rebel – which was the start of the Rebel syndicates – finished second in the 2000 Guineas,” explained Phil. “We sold him, I took my share and bought Cockney Rebel at the sales. I was very fortunate with him!”
That’s something of an understatement as in 2007, Cockney Rebel won the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket despite being a 25-1 shot and proved that was no fluke by winning the Irish 2000 Guineas three weeks later, becoming only the sixth horse in history to complete such a double. “I felt that the horse was bred to win races, but obviously not to that level,” he added.
In 2014, Phil established Rebel Racing Ltd with a modest 18 horses in training, but the success of Rajasinghe along with other high-profile wins, together with the appointment of Richard Spencer as trainer, has seen his operation really expand.
Rebel Racing now occupies two different stables in Newmarket – Albert House Stables and Sefton Lodge – with 70 horses across the two sites. Names of his horses include some great 80s pop hits such as One Step Beyond, Material Girl, Too Shy Shy and Sussudio along with a number of characters from films including Katniss Everdeen, Keyser Soze, Jean Valjean and Lisbeth Salander!
His runners at Royal Ascot this week include Too Shy Shy (Wednesday), You Never Can Tell (Thursday) and Alabama Whitman, RumbleintheJungle, Stay Classy and California Love, who all race on Friday.
“We’ve probably trebled in size over the last few years really, in terms of staff and horses, and we’ve strengthened our team everywhere we’ve needed to,” Phil continued. “It’s easy to attract good people with the more success you have and by bringing in these people, it has allowed us to punch above our weight.
“As a training operation, we have my own horses here, some from outside owners and we also have syndicate horses at varying different entry levels for those that want to get involved in racing. It gives people the opportunity to be an ‘owner’, to enjoy the racing and have a bit of fun.”
But while Phil’s focus is currently on Royal Ascot and the flat racing season ahead, it will soon be back on his beloved Tottenham Hotspur once the new campaign begins again. Born in London, he moved to Chelmsford when he was five but was soon hooked on Spurs.
“My first game with my dad was at the Lane against Nottingham Forest,” added Phil, who was at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid recently with his son Aidan for the Champions League Final.
“We’ve had season tickets for years and had a box in the old West Stand, I used to love going in the Boxholders Lounge. Eventually we ended up in the Danny Blanchflower Lounge.
“Now we are in our super new stadium and I have to say, I can’t fault it. We’ve got great seats, great restaurant options and the whole place is brilliant. I try to be unbiased, but for me it’s the best stadium we’ve ever been to around the world.”