Trainer Michael Dickinson received the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Award during a Nov. 27 luncheon in London, England.
Dickinson received a perpetual bronze in the shape of O’Sullevan’s own racing binoculars. The record-breaking trainer, who recently announced his retirement from training to concentrate on his Tapeta Footings business, received the award from O’Sullevan during a lunch attended by almost 500 people.
Dickinson had flown in from the United States, where he is based. Past winners of the award, for a lifetime’s contribution to the sport, include The Queen (2002), The Queen Mother (1999), Vincent O’Brien (2001), Lester Piggott (2000), Dick Francis (2004), and last year’s recipient, the Aga Khan.
Dickinson made his name as a steeplechase trainer in Great Britain. He won three trainers’ championships, sent out 12 winners in one day, and trained the first five finishers in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup. He moved to the U.S. in 1987 and saddled Da Hoss to win two editions (1996 and 1998) of the Breeders’ Cup Mile (gr. IT).
The luncheon has raised more than £1.5 million in its first 10 years and is expected to bring in more than £200,000 Nov. 27 for the trust’s charities: the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Center, Racing Welfare, the Blue Cross, Compassion in World Farming, the Brooke, and the International League for the Protection of Horses.