1984/85 National Hunt Season Campaign Summary

How the Racing Journey Began: From Kingsclere to Condicote

Some people spend years trying to find the right career. I was fortunate because I knew exactly what I wanted to do from the moment I started secondary school: I wanted to work in horse racing. Racing was already part of my family’s story. My mum and dad had both worked in racing during the early 1960s and met while working for trainer Roy Whiston. My dad later worked for trainers Tim Brookshaw and Tommy Shone, so horses and racing were never far from our lives.

A pivotal moment came when I was 14 years old. On Saturday 26 March 1983, my parents took me to trainer Ian Balding’s Open Morning at Park House Stables in Kingsclere. It was a fascinating day for a young racing enthusiast. Among the visitors were champion jockeys John Francome and Peter Scudamore, who were there to school Balding’s hunter chasers over fences. Francome rode Ross Poldark while Scudamore partnered Paintbox.

After the schooling session, I managed to speak to John Francome. I told him that I wanted to work in racing when I left school. His advice was straightforward and practical: “Get some work experience first. Working in racing is not for everyone.” He suggested I write to two trainers, David Nicholson and Josh Gifford, asking for work experience. In the end, I only wrote to David Nicholson, known throughout racing as “The Duke”.

The following weekend I found myself at Cotswold House Racing Stables in Condicote, near Stow-on-the-Wold, being interviewed by The Duke himself. His response was direct and typical of the man: “You come here for a fortnight in your summer holidays and you stay for a fortnight. No going home early.” I accepted immediately.

Those two weeks confirmed what I already suspected: racing was where I belonged. I returned for further holiday work experience, living in the lads’ hostel and learning stable life from the inside. The experience proved invaluable, and a full year before leaving school I already knew I had secured a job with David Nicholson when my education finished. While many of my classmates were still deciding what career path to follow, I knew exactly where I was heading.

The 1984/85 Chronological Ledger: Horses Led Up

Reflections Forty Years Later

More than four decades later, I still look back fondly on that first season. It may not have produced a winner for me to lead into the winner’s enclosure, but it provided something far more valuable: the opportunity to learn my trade under one of racing’s greatest trainers and to begin a journey in the sport that has remained a part of my life ever since. Sometimes the most important seasons are not the most successful ones. They are the ones where the foundations are laid.