UK Horse Racing Tips

Joshua Thomas Gifford, almost universally known as ‘Josh’, is probably best remembered as the trainer of Aldaniti, whose fairytale win in the 1981 Grand National, under cancer survivor Bob Champion, later became the subject of the 1984 film, ‘Champions’. However, before turning his hand to training, at the comparatively early age of 28, Gifford was a highly successful National Hunt jockey; he was, in fact, Champion Jockey on four occasions, in 1962/63, 1963/64, 1966/67 and 1967/68, and rode a total of 642 winners. As much luck you could say, as an online blackjack champ.

Gifford was encouraged to become a trainer by his former employer, Captain Henry Ryan Price, whom he duly replaced at Down Stables in Findon, West Sussex in 1970, when Price moved to nearby Soldiers Field Stables to concentrate primarily on the Flat. In the next 33 years, Gifford saddled 1,586 winners and, while he never became Champion Trainer, was awarded an MBE for his services to horse racing in 1989. At the time of his death, in February, 2012, BBC horse racing correspondent described him as ‘the most colourful of characters, much-loved and admired throughout racing’.

Aside from Aldaniti, whom he nursed back from what were widely considered career-ending injuries, Gifford trained many high-class hurdlers and steeplechasers. Notable horses to pass through his hands included the talented, but enigmatic, Vodkatini, winner of the Grand Annual Challenge Cup in 1988, Deep Sensation, winner of the Tote Gold Trophy Handicap Hurdle in 1990 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1993, Bradbury Star, back-to-back winner of the Mackeson Gold Cup in 1993 and 1994 and Brief Gale, winner of Sun Alliance Chase in 1995.

In his final three seasons as a trainer, Gifford saddled just 13, 20 and 16 winners respectively, with his yard failing to recover the effects of a virus in the late Nineties, which hastened his retirement, at the age of 61, in April, 2003. Nevertheless, his training career ended on a high note, much like an online casino new zealand fan, when his final runner, Skycab, came from a seemingly-impossible position to lift the spoils in the atheraces.co.uk Handicap Chase at Sandown Park on the final day of the season.

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