Karl was born over the Black Swan pub in Rugby and later moved across town to the Red Lion which his father ran for sixteen years. During his time at the Red Lion Karl gained his first interest in racing through watching it with his dad. At school Karl met Elaine Jarvis, daughter of trainer Alan. They later married and had two girls Kelly and Lucy.
Karl 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. The family then moved to Broadway near Cheltenham where they rented a yard, with much more space, from Michael Berrow the manager of pop group Duran Duran.
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 steeped in racing history. Karl has now trained here for over fifteen years and has built up the string to over 100 horses. He has enjoyed Group 1 success with Lord Shanakill who won the Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly in 2009 and most recently with Odeliz who won the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville & The Premio Longines Lydia Tesio in Italy along with many placed efforts.
Contact details:
Spigot Lodge, Coverham, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 4TL
Tel: 01969 625088
Mobile: 07778 458777
Email: karl@karlburke.co.uk
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