Lucinda Russell, horse trainer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

Lucinda Russell is a Scottish racehorse trainer. Her stables in Kinross have sent out almost 900 winners, including two Grand National champions. She is one of only two Scottish trainers and four women to have celebrated a Grand National win since the event began in 1839, and her yard is the most successful in the history of Scottish jump racing. Lucinda was born in Edinburgh in 1966. Although she didn’t come from a racing background – her father ran the family’s whisky business – she was obsessed with horses from a very young age. After many years of pleading, she finally got her first pony at the age of 10. A few years later the family moved from Edinburgh to Arlay Farm near Milnathort in Kinross-shire, where she still trains her horses today. After studying psychology at the University of St Andrews, Lucinda began riding competitively, which she funded by buying and training horses before selling them on. She took out her professional trainer’s licence in 1995 and built up her stables on the family farm. Lucinda’s first success at the Grand National was in 2017 with One for Arthur, ridden by Derek Fox. She had helped buy the horse for the owners, two self-described ‘golf widows’. She was awarded an OBE for services to horseracing in the Queen’s Birthday Honours the following year. Then in 2023 she won again with Corach Rambler. Lucinda runs her stables with her partner the former National Hunt jockey Peter Scudamore. DISC ONE: Some Nights - Fun. DISC TWO: Forever Young - Alphaville DISC THREE: Wand'rin' Star - Lee Marvin DISC FOUR: Piano Man - Billy Joel DISC FIVE: This Is The Day - The The DISC SIX: To Win Just Once -The Saw Doctors DISC SEVEN: Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Andy Williams DISC EIGHT: Andante, Andante - ABBA BOOK CHOICE: Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery by Andris J. Kaneps, Kenneth William Hinchcliff, and Raymond J. Geor LUXURY ITEM: A camper van CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Andy Williams Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Katy Hickman

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern, and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.3	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.6	For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:20.7	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	My cast away this week is the race horse trainer Lucinda Russell.
0:45.4	She has sent out almost 900 winners from her stables in Kinross, including not one but two
0:51.6	grand national champions.
0:53.5	She's considered royalty in the so-called sport of kings, one of only two Scottish trainers
0:58.3	and four women to win at entry in the fixture's 184-year history.
1:03.6	In 2017, she clocked up her first victory there with one for Arthur, owned by two self-described
1:09.8	golf widows who bought him as a weekend hobby.
1:12.8	This year she did it again, with Korak Rambler, bought for a modest sum and owned by a syndicate,
1:18.5	including a widower, an ex-pat Scott in Australia and a 21-year-old student.
1:23.7	She's been fascinated by horses since childhood.
1:26.3	When she hit her teens, her family relocated to the rural town of Milnerthort, her love
1:31.1	of the area where her stables are still located and the animals she trains has never wavered.
1:37.0	She says, I didn't spend my whole life wanting to train race horses.
1:41.0	I spent my whole life wanting to be with horses and then found out that I had the time
1:45.4	to train them.
1:46.4	Lucinda Russell, welcome to Desert Island Isks.
	...

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