Lycetts Leadership & Team Champions Awards presented at the Northern Racing Awards

Lycetts prestigious Leadership and Team Champions Awards 2022 has recognised and rewarded the most outstanding racehorse training yards in Britain.

Girsonfield Stud and Racing, based in Otterburn, Newcastle, received the Lycetts Team Champions Award, while Kinneston, a jumps yard in Fife, won the Lycetts Team Leadership Award.

Susan Corbett, whose family own Girsonfield, said she was delighted – and surprised – to win.

“We’re a small, rural operation, and we have only been going for eight years, so we were very much the minnows in the pond.”

Kinneston’s Nick Alexander, whose family is steeped in Scottish National Hunt racing, started training in 2002 and has since sent out more than 300 winners.

“We have a great team of 20 staff and our mantra is to inform, include and involve at every stage of the training and racing process,” he said.

Kinneston also received the Excellence Award in the Inclusive Recruitment and Effective Induction Systems category. The Excellence Awards were supported by Cavalor.

Both winners were presented with their awards, and £4,000 each, at a ceremony at the ROA Northern Racing Awards at Newcastle Racecourse.

Lycetts and the National Trainers Federation (NTF) created the Awards to celebrate the British racehorse training yards with the highest standards of employee management, outstanding leadership qualities and innovative working practices.

Lycetts’ Piers Plunket said: “It is wonderful to see so many trainers and teams recognising the importance of these awards to drive forward their business and to showcase the brilliant work, high standards and team culture at their yards.”

Paul Johnson, NTF chief executive, added: “By entering these awards, trainers let us in on the myriad of ways that great team ethos is developed and sustained, how staff are encouraged and developed, and how to lead by example.

“We have some incredible employers in this industry, inspiring leaders, brilliant managers and exciting newcomers. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate them all.”