Jockey

The late Joshua Thomas ‘Josh’ Gifford, who died from a massive heart at his yard in Findon, West Sussex on February 9, 2012, was a force majeure in National Hunt racing for 40 years. As a jockey, he rode a total of 693 winners and won the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship four times, in 1962/63, 1963/64, 1966/67 (with a then record 122 winners) and 1967/68 and, as a trainer, he saddled a total of 1,587. However, for all his success elsewhere, to a wider audience Gifford will always be best remembered as the trainer of the fragile, but hugely talented, Aldaniti, whose ‘fairytale’ victory in the 1981 Grand National under cancer survivor Bob Champion became the subject of the 1984 film ‘Champions’.

Born on August 3, 1941 in Huntingdon, Gifford rode his first winner, Dorsol, trained by Syd Mercer in a maiden handicap at Birmingham on July 30, 1956. Indeed, he would ride 50 more on the Flat, including Trentham Boy in the Manchester November Handicap in 1956 and Curry in the Chester Cup in 1957, before weight problems forced him to turn his attention to the National Hunt code. In that sphere, he rode his first winner, Kingmaker, in a novices’ hurdle at Wincanton on December 17, 1959.

Gifford had the distinction of winning four of the first five winners of the Schweppes Gold Trophy (now the Betfair Hurdle), on Rosyth in 1963 and 1964, Le Vermontois in 1966 and Hill House in 1967, with all four winners trained by Ryan Price. He never won the Grand National, but his mount, Honey End must surely have beaten bona fide 100/1 outsider Foinavon in the 1967 renewal had he managed to avoid the now infamous melee at the twenty-third fence. He did, however, have the consolation of winning the Topham Trophy, over the National fences, twice, on Dagmar Gittell in 1962 and Walpole in 1966.

Born in Sherborne, Dorset on December 13, 1980, Joe Tizzard began his competitive racing career in the point-to-point field and rode his first winner under Rules, The Jogger, trained by his father, Colin, in a novices’ hunters’ chase at Wincanton on May 7, 1996. As a result, Paul Nicholls offered him a job as amateur jockey at his Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset and, on March 19, 1998, while still only 17, won the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on Earthmover, trained by Richard Barber.

By that stage, Tizzard had already had his first ride in the Grand National, in fact, the so-called ‘Monday National’ on April 7, 1997. However, his first experience of the celebrated steeplechase ended in tragedy when his mount, Straight Talk, broke leg after falling at the fourteenth fence and was humanely destroyed. Indeed, the National was never a ‘lucky’ race for Tizzard; in the whole of his 18-year riding career, his highest placing was fifth, beaten 39 lengths, on Montifault, also trained by Nicholls, in 2003.

Nevertheless, it was as a young jockey with the backing of the now 14-time Champion National Hunt Trainer that Tizzard enjoyed some of his best years. In 1998/99, he enjoyed the most successful season, numerically and fiscally, riding 91 winners, becoming champion conditional jockey and amassing just over £707,000 in total prize money. He won the Arkle Challenge Trophy at Cheltenham and the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree on Flagship Uberalles and, having been appointed Nicholls’ stable jockey just shy of his nineteenth birthday, completed a Grade 1 hat-trick in the Tingle Creek Trophy at Sandown the following season.

Later in his career, Tizzard became stable jockey to his father at Venn Farm, in Milborne Port, Dorset. He became known for his association with Cue Card, on whom he won four Grade 1 races, including the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in 2010 and the Ryanair Chase, back at Prestbury Park, in 2013. Tizzard retired from the saddle in March 2014 with 700 winners to his name.

Born in Hawick in the Scottish Borders on September 28, 1994, Jason Hart was still only 15 years old when he took the well-trodden path, previously followed by fellow ‘Teries’ Keith Dalgleish and Greg Fairley, to the Kingsley Park Yard of Mark Johnston in Middleham, North Yorkshire. Having previously ridden out for local trainer Donald Whillans, he had seven, unsuccesful, rides for Johnston in 2011, all on the five-year-old Elusive Flame, before switching allegiance to Declan Carroll in nearby Malton.

Indeed, it was Carroll who provided Hart with his first winner, Spice Bar, in a two-mile handicap at Ripon on August 30, 2011. He rode 7 winners in 2011, 18 in 2012 and 51 in 2013, in the latter season winning the apprentices’ title. However, he had much for which to thank his agent, Alan Harrison, with whom he has remained since the start of his career; just six of his winners were provided by Carroll, with the rest coming from outside rides.

Shortly after riding out his claim, in 2015, Hart suffered ruptured knee ligaments in a pile-up at Doncaster, which kept him on the sidelines for seven months. Nevertheless, he rode his first ‘black type’ winner, Ridge Ranger, trained by Eric Alston, in the Listed Kilvington Fillies’ Stakes at Nottingham on May 7, 2016. The same filly would become his first Group winner, in the Group 3 York Stakes, two months later.

In more recent times, Hart is best known for his association with the sprinting mare Highfield Princess, trained by John Quinn. The daughter of Night Of Thunder was responsible for all four of his Group 1 victories to date, namely the Prix Maurice de Gheest, Nunthorpe Stakes and Flying Five Stakes in 2022 and the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 2023. She also became his first Royal Ascot winner when winning the Buckingham Palace Stakes.

At the time of writing, Harry Cobden is reigning National Hunt Champion Jockey, having clinched his maiden title when winning on Spring Gale, trained by Henry Daly, in a mares’ maiden hurdle at Chepstow on April 26, 2024. With his nearest rival, Sean Bowen, set to take just four rides at the final meeting of the season, the Bet365 Jump Finale Day at Sandown Park, the following day, Cobden could not be caught and took the championship, eventually finishing seven lengths ahead. In so doing, he became just the eighth jockey to win the championship since since John Francome and Peter Scudamore shared the title in 1981/82.

Born into a farming family in Lydford-on-Fosse, Somerset on November 1998, Cobden graduated from the pony racing racing circuit and incurred the wrath of his mother, Sarah, when missing his GCSE English examination to ride his first winner under Rules, El Mondo, saddled by Rachael Honeyball, née Green, in a hunters’ chase at Leicester on March 6, 2015. However, he had been associated with Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat stable, one way or another, since his early teens and rode his first winner for the yard, Ulck Du Lin, in a three-runner handicap chase at Wincanton the following month.

After riding 30 winners in 2015/16, Cobden rode a further 63 in 2016/17, collecting the conditional jockeys’ title on his way to riding out his claim in February. Indeed, on November 12, 2016, he rode his first Grade 1 winner, Irving, trained by Nicholls, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle. In 2018, Cobden was appointed stable jockey to Nicholls, but, on June 1 that year, fractured a vertbra in his neck when unseated by Mick Thonic in a handicap chase at Market Rasen, which kept him on the sidelines for four months. Nevertheless, in an interrupted season, he still rode 109 winners, including Clan Des Obeaux in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, in 2018/19.