Daniel and Claire Kubler have become the first husband-and-wife team to be officially licenced as a training partnership in the UK following a change in the rules in May 2020.
Prior to that, a British training licence could only be held in one name but, following a Twitter plea to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) from the couple on International Women's Day in March 2019, the rules were adjusted to follow countries such as Australia and France in allowing licences to be held in multiple names. Father-and-son partnerships Paul and Oliver Cole and Simon and Ed Crisford have already taken advantage of the new arrangement.
The Kublers, who train at Sarsen Farm in Lambourn under the name of Kubler Racing, announced on their website on Wednesday that Claire's application had recently been approved by the BHA.
“We have always worked together, so it's very much business as usual. We started out with just six horses and have grown the business to around 35 horses. Training winners is a team effort, a joint licence goes some way to reflecting that,” the statement read.
“We've been keen to operate as a training partnership since we started out. We floated the idea on social media and received a positive response that led to the BHA getting in touch. We worked closely with the BHA and the NTF to get the concept off the ground. We would particularly like to thank Henry Bradley at the BHA for going above and beyond to make this happen.”
Kubler Racing hopes to have a first runner for the new partnership at Ascot this weekend, where 2-year-old maiden winner Bowland Park (GB) (New Bay {GB}), who was bred and is owned by Claire's parents Gary and Lesley Middlebrook, is set to contest the listed Pat Eddery S.
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