Karl Burke rode his first winner for Alan Jarvis in an apprentice race at Hamilton on The Britisher. Always likely to be too heavy for the Flat he switched codes to jump racing, and went on to gain 50 winners from 750 rides. The first being Bloemfontein for M Chapman at Newton Abbot.
Karl's career in racing took a new direction as his interests turned to training. Karl and Elaine set up a livery and pre-training yard in Newark where they broke young stock in. It was here they started training a small string of both flat and jump horses.
As the string of horses increased Karl made the decision to move to Ginge in 1990 where he enjoyed further success with horses such as Philistar and Daring Destiny winner of the Ayr Gold Cup, a Group 2 in Germany and a Group 3 in Ireland.
Karl’s profile as a trainer continued to grow and in 1998 he moved to High Havens Stables on Hamilton Road in Newmarket. In 2000 Karl and his family bought Spigot Lodge in idyllic North Yorkshire.
Spigot Lodge is ideally situated between the famous Middleham High and Low moor gallops, and is one of the best equipped horseracing stables in the North of England. Karl has now trained here for over eleven years and has enjoyed the biggest success of his career with Lord Shanakill won the Group 2 Mill Reef stakes at Newbury (G2) before being beaten by only a short head in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. He then followed this up by winning a Group1with him in Chantilly.
