Trainer enjoys remarkable Saturday as arrival of baby boy is followed by first Ascot winner

Few will have enjoyed a Saturday as drama-filled as Tom Faulkner, whose first winner at Ascot was preceded with the arrival of his baby boy.

The trainer has 24 horses in training at his base in Monmouthshire and left hospital just hours before Northcliff landed the 6f handicap at the royal racecourse under apprentice Luke Catton, who was completing a double after winning on Morrophore for John and Thady Gosden. 

The five-year-old read the script as he led for most of the way before producing a gutsy late effort when headed to beat Mesaafi by a neck in Faulkner's wife Danika's blue and white silks. It was the gelding's first start for the family after leaving Michael Keady this month. 

"We got home at 11.30am on Saturday and my wife and baby boy are doing well," said Faulkner. "He's my second. I've got another little boy called George, who is mad around the yard here.

"When we got back, I looked at my wife and I joked, 'Babe, I don't get many runners at Ascot, should I go?' She looked washed out and absolutely knackered and she looked at me and said, 'I feel bad that you're not going', and then she said, 'Ah, just do what you want!' I chuckled and said, 'I'll stay here, don't worry!'

Tom Faulkner: Northcliff capped off an incredible Saturday for the trainer

"It's a bit of a running joke really because we haven't named him yet and I said to her, 'What happens if Northcliff goes and wins at Ascot? I seriously think we might have to call him Clifford!' The first thing she said when we watched him cross the line was, 'He ain't called Clifford!'

"It's great to have a winner in my wife’s colours as well, especially at Ascot. Those colours go back a bit to her late grandfather Terry Johnsey, who won the Solario and Craven with a horse trained by Richard Hannon called King's Ironbridge. We're absolutely over the moon and I think we'll be popping a couple of corks of champagne later."

Northcliff was winning for the second time at the track having won the same race the year before when trained by Keady and Mike Murphy, and Faulkner is hopeful he can continue on an upward trajectory. 

"I feel a bit for Michael Keady as he had him in sparkling form," he said. "He said to me since putting the visor on him and riding him from the front, he just seems to have improved a lot. 

"I tried to buy him two years ago and we were the underbidders when he came out of Tim Easterby's yard. We just didn't have the money to buy him then, but we were at the sales the other week and I had a couple of orders to fill. He was led out unsold and I bought him outside the ring."

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