Karl Burke
Spigot Lodge
Coverham
Leyburn
North Yorkshire
DL8 4TL
History
The history of Spigot Lodge.
Karl was born over The Black Swan pub in Rugby and later moved to the Red Lion in the town which his father ran for 16 years. At school Karl met Elaine Jarvis, daughter of Alan, the Didcot trainer. They later married and have 2 daughters Kelly and Lucy. Karl rode his first winner on the flat at 17 for Alan Jarvis in a boys' race at Hamilton on The Britisher. He was always going too be heavy for the flat and moved on to jump racing, riding 50 winners from 750 mounts, the first being Bloemfontein for Michael Chapman at Newton Abbot.
Starting a livery yard at Newark, Karl and Elaine moved into training there and then moved to Broadway, near Cheltenham, where they used the base of Michael Berrow, the manager of pop group Duran duran. In 1990 Karl and Elaine moved to Ginge then in 1998 to High Havens Stables on Hamilton Road in Newmarket.
Karl and Elaine have now moved to Spigot Lodge, ideally situated between Middlenham's
famous High and low moor gallops, and is steeped in racing history. The property,
named after St Leger winner Jack Spigot, also produced the 1849 Epsom Derby winner
"The Flying Dutchman" trained by John Fobert. Famous trainers such as Henry Hall,
Colonel Lyde and more recently, Sam Hall and Chris Thornton have continued to produce
high-
