(This is the text of the tribute written for the racecard at Fontwell’s 26 February 2012 meeting)
Today we pay tribute to local trainer Josh Gifford MBE, who died of a heart attack on 9 February at the age of 70. For 33 years he trained nearby at Findon, sending out 1,586 winners, including Aldaniti, the memorable winner of the 1981 Grand National. Prior to that he was champion jump race jockey four times, and before that he rode winners on the flat.
Joshua Thomas Gifford, born in Huntingdon on 3 August 1941, was the son of a farmer. He rode in gymkhanas and went out with the local hunt from an early age. He had his first ride in a race at Newmarket when he was twelve. His first winner came at Birmingham racecourse in 1956 shortly before his fifteenth birthday. Big race wins soon followed, on Trentham Boy in the Manchester November Handicap, and next year in the Irish Lincolnshire and the Chester Cup. He was a successful apprentice, but his weight crept up and he was compelled to turn to National Hunt racing.
Josh first visited Fontwell Park to go schooling after racing with Captain Ryan Price. It was the first time he had ridden over jumps on a racecourse. He was on a horse called Hellofadin and fell at the third hurdle. He was white as a sheet but, as he said later, “I tried not to show I was a soft flat race jock”. He did not admit that he was hurt, and schooled again, before being sent for an X-ray and finding he had broken his collarbone.
But from that inauspicious beginning, his new career developed – slowly at first. His first winner over jumps was at Wincanton in 1959, and his first at Fontwell Park, Do Not Disturb, was in March 1961, two and a half years after his initial ride there. He worked his way up to become second jockey at Price’s Findon yard. Despite being second in the pecking order he rode for many other local trainers and by the end of the 1962/63 season he had accumulated 70 winners, which was enough to make him champion jockey. Aged only 21 at the time, Josh is the youngest champion jump jockey in the last hundred years.
After Fred Winter retired as Price’s first jockey, Josh took over in that role. He was champion again in 1963/64 with 94 wins and in 1966/67, when a treble on the last day of the season enabled him to reach a score of 122, beating Fred’s record total by one.
He and Price won the Schweppes Gold Trophy, one of the first and best-known sponsored races, four times. Two of these were accompanied by great controversy. Rosyth’s second win in the race represented such a big turnaround in form on his previous performances that season that the Jockey Club banned Price from training temporarily and suspended Josh for three weeks. Price was unpopular with the racing establishment, who appeared to be out to make an example of him. The same case today would be very unlikely to arrive at the same verdict.
In 1967 Price’s Hill House won the Schweppes easily, another horse laid out for the race that showed a dramatic improvement on its recent form. Josh came in to unsaddle to a chorus of boos. Sensationally, a dope test showed the presence of a high level of steroids in the horse’s bloodstream. Another ban looked likely for Price until he was exonerated, when it was proved that the horse had a naturally high level of this steroid in its system.
Josh rode Honey End to finish second in that year’s Grand National, the year the 100/1 no-hoper Foinavon won after evading the carnage caused by a riderless horse bringing the rest of the field to a halt at the 23rd fence. Once he got Honey End going again, Foinavon had an unassailable lead and Josh could only narrow the gap to fifteen lengths by the end of the race. He thought he would have won with a clear round. Ironically the loose horse had been ridden by his brother Macer until it fell at the first fence.
In the 1960s some of the leading jockeys enjoyed a glamorous existence. Josh once posed with Diana Rigg for a fashion shoot promoting the TV series The Avengers. Regularly he and his fellow riders would dance the night away in London’s top nightclubs. As dawn broke they would make their way to the Turkish baths to relax and sweat off some excess pounds. They then set off to that afternoon’s race meeting.
After a decade working for Price he had amassed four jockeys’ championships and his fair share of falls (including a year off with a twice-broken thigh). Any thoughts of retirement or a training career were accelerated by a generous gesture on Price’s part in 1970. The Captain had decided to concentrate on flat racing. He offered Josh a ready-made yard with 35 jumpers and some loyal owners. They agreed a price for Downs House, the stables and a paddock and Price moved a few hundred yards across Findon to concentrate on flat racing.
Josh had ridden 642 winners, including four at the Cheltenham Festival and 50 at Fontwell Park. One who didn’t win for him was Red Rum, who he rode to finish second in that horse’s first race over hurdles in 1968. His very last winning mount was Pendil, who developed into a top class chaser; many still believe he was the best horse never to win the Gold Cup.
As a trainer he steadily built up a successful stable, with as many as 120 horses in the peak years. He was well known for favouring chasing types – proper jumpers, bred for the purpose by people like the Embiricos and Wigan families and Jim Joel. They had patience and allowed their horses time to mature. Door Latch, Ballyhane, Aldaniti, Brave Highlander, Approaching and Tiepolino were examples of these jump-bred, well-schooled horses. They could be sent to Fontwell Park in the early stages of their careers. They didn’t have far to travel and competition was less intense. They often made the running, outjumping their opponents and winning easily, before graduating to stiffer tests elsewhere.
Josh did not generally aim for any particular races at Fontwell Park, but he enjoyed the buzz from winning at a local track for local owners. The former owner of the racecourse, Isidore Kerman, used to have the word “Kybo” in the names of his horses as a reminder of his mother’s advice to him at school to “keep your bowels open”. The Kybo horses were unrelated to each other, and by modern standards they were bought fairly cheaply. The best of them, Kybo, won the National Spirit Hurdle in 1978, beating Comedy of Errors amongst others. Later that year he beat Birds Nest in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton. In the 1979 Champion Hurdle he was in second place with every chance when he came down at the second last flight. Ironically the winningmost Kybo at Fontwell Park was not owned by Kerman. Sweet Kybo scored five times there, trained by Josh for Lady Becher.
A high class performer in his prime, Major Derek Wigan’s Approaching bucked the trend by winning at Fontwell Park three years after his most prestigious triumph, the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury. He won a hunter chase at the May Bank Holiday meeting in 1981, partnered by Oliver Sherwood, when the stable was basking in the glory of its greatest achievement.
Aldaniti, bought by Josh in 1974 and later sold on to Nick Embiricos, only ran at Fontwell Park once. That was in April 1977, when he was second to a good horse that had won the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham a few years earlier. Aldaniti went on to finish third in the Hennessy Gold Cup, and in 1979 he was third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and second in the Scottish Grand National. That autumn he broke down, not for the first time. He was carefully nursed back to fitness by Josh while his jockey Bob Champion was undergoing arduous chemotherapy to treat testicular cancer. Josh promised Bob that he would keep his job as stable jockey open for him, even though he privately doubted he would ever make it back as a jockey. Bob overcame not only the cancer but also the effects of the debilitating treatment, and gradually got fit enough to ride again. After over a year on the easy list Aldaniti won his comeback race at Ascot, ridden by Bob. Together they won the 1981 Grand National amid scenes of great emotion, the climax of a miraculous story that was told in the film Champions.
Josh was particularly pleased to be played by an actor of the calibre of Edward Woodward. The Gifford yard had also been used in the filming of the Dick Francis novel Dead Cert in the summer of 1973. They provided some horses and lads to act as jockeys. Josh appeared briefly in the film, but despite the care given to creating the racing scenes, it was a flop.
Although a stream of good horses won big races, Josh seemed to have a Cheltenham hoodoo. Year after year passed without a winner at the big Festival meeting. However, when he broke his duck he did it in style, with three winners in 1988. They helped him end the season with 91 winners and second place in the trainers’ championship measured in terms of prize money won.
More Festival winners followed in every year bar two up to 1995. They included Vodkatini in the Grand Annual. He had run twice at Fontwell Park in the latter part of 1987, making all in exciting style and winning unchallenged. Despite his Cheltenham victory and a highly creditable third in the King George VI Chase at Kempton to Desert Orchid, he was tremendously frustrating as he developed a habit of refusing to race. Sometimes he was left at the start, set off belatedly and still won, but when he refused to run at all punters lost thousands and left Josh tearing his hair out.
These were golden years, when he also had Deep Sensation and Bradbury Star in his stable. The former was a well beaten favourite in the 1991 National Spirit Hurdle in his only run at Fontwell Park. A winner of 13 races, Deep Sensation became a high class two mile chaser, rarely finishing out of the first three in spite of running in top races all through his career. Its peak came when winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1993, on the day that Josh trained his 100th winner at Cheltenham.
Bradbury Star never ran at Fontwell Park, but won 18 races, two and a half miles being his forte. Amazingly although eight of his wins came at Cheltenham, including two Mackeson Gold Cups, none were at the Festival. He always showed his best form in the autumn.
The stable could never completely shake off the effects of a virus in the second half of the 1990s, and the number of horses in training declined. Josh decided to retire in April 2003 and pass the reins to his son Nick. His last runner was Skycab, at Sandown on the day many of us refer to as Whitbread Day (even though they stopped sponsoring it years ago). Skycab seemed to have no chance when struggling in fifth place half a mile out, but ran on tremendously to score an unlikely yet immensely popular victory. Josh was notoriously prone to tears on big occasions but there were many others in the crowd at Sandown who felt the same sense of joy as his career ended on such a high note.
Of his 1,586 winners, 189 were at Fontwell Park. Three of them were in the National Spirit Hurdle, Kybo (1978), Random Leg (1981) and Rouble (2002).
He was renowned for his loyalty, not just to Ryan Price but also to the jockeys who rode for him. Bob Champion, Richard Rowe, Philip Hide and Leighton Aspell did so for many years. Several people who worked for him became successful trainers, notably Paul Nicholls, James Fanshawe, Richard Rowe and Roger Varian. Bob Champion recently said, “What I’ll always remember about Josh is how good he was after you came in at the end of a really bad day. He would just keep giving you confidence – he never moaned – and was great to ride for.”
Josh married Althea Roger-Smith, the champion show jumper, in 1969. Their son Nick took over Downs Stables when Josh retired, but he was still on hand to provide assistance or advice when necessary. All of the family, including their daughter Tina Cook, who won two Olympic bronze medals for eventing, have been involved in the running of the yard.
Josh was always a good friend to Fontwell Park. He had a hospitality box at the course for many years and formally opened the new 888sport Premier Grandstand in 2010. He also agreed to sign copies of the book of The History of Fontwell Park when it was launched. He didn’t know what he had let himself in for. Long queues formed of people wanting his autograph and to have a few words with him. With his typical good humour he signed over a hundred copies, and remarked at the end of the day that he hadn’t done that much writing in all his time at school. But his was not a misspent youth, for he became a champion jockey, a master trainer, a great character and a much admired man. We shall not see his like again.
Lovely to read about not only a great asset to National Hunt racing but also such a nice man. As a young lad, the 1960’s were my golden era for jump racing. I don’t believe we’ll ever see another Arkle, and, much as I admire star riders of today McCoy and Walsh, neither gives me as much pleasure as watching Josh Gifford. The sixties had so many great jockeys, and I know that many rated Fred Winter the best – others Terry Biddlecombe, Stan Mellor or Jeff King. The outstanding horseman John Francome placed David Mould at the top of his list. To me, Josh Gifford’s judgement of pace. his tactical genius and above all his strength and style in a finish lifted him above the rest. Josh’s early flat race training shone out in in every tight finish. Had rising weight not forced his transition to the winter game, it would have been marvellous to see Josh alongside Joe Mercer in the last furlong!
Thanks, Peter. It was a real pleasure for me to meet him at Findon when I was researching my Fontwell book. It was good to see his son Nick get another winner on TV today at Ascot.
Yes, Josh was a very good jockey, his association with Ryan Price is legendary . In winning the Schweppes four times in the first five years of the race and then being second on Major Rose to the great Persian War in 1968 was both incredible training by Ryan Price and riding by Josh Gifford . In the first running of the Schweppes at Liverpool in March 1963 there were 41 runners, extraordinary.
Josh was a class act