Britain’s most successful point-to-point rider, Will Biddick, says he will not be chasing this season’s men’s championship.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in the Racing Post on Friday 23rd December.
His rivals will raise an eyebrow at that suggestion, not least because Somerset-based Biddick heads this season’s table with six winners, but he says: “I rode 51 winners last season, my third best total, and still didn’t win it, and I missed out on doing other things. This season I’m just going to ride in my local area, I won’t be chasing around the country and if I’m in with a chance of the title in May I’ll take a view then.
“After I finished third for the title [to Richard Burton in 2010/11] I was mad keen to win it and I did, then after Jack Barber took out a licence [to train under Rules] they said I couldn’t do it without his help. That was a red rag to a bull, and I won it the following season.”
His hunger for winners is why he has ridden 516 in British point-to-points over 19 seasons, plus more than 60 in races under Rules while netting seven men’s championships. His CV includes two Champion Hunter Chases at Punchestown, places in both Cheltenham and Aintree’s Foxhunter Chases, and the feat of training Porlock Bay to win Cheltenham’s Festival Hunters’ Chase during Covid when amateur riders could not take part. He maintains the thrill of that win more than compensated for not being in the saddle, and he says of the 11-year-old: “He had a hard race at Aintree [third in the Foxhunter Chase] and so had a longer summer break. He’s a year older, so he’ll start off pointing with no particular goals beyond that.”
Porlock Bay at the yard on Wednesday under former jockey Andrew Glassonbury who works for Biddick
He now runs a yard based around breaking and pre-training but incorporating pointers of all ages, with a view to selling some of the younger prospects. He recently trained and rode four-year-old Il Pino to win on his debut and that horse is now earmarked for a place with Paul Nicholls, who trains in the next village. The runner-up to Il Pino, the Tom Ellis-trained Man Of My Dreams, has since been sold at Tattersalls Cheltenham for £100,000 and has moved to Ben Pauling.
“I’m in this business because I love horses,” says Biddick, “but costs are going up and you don’t want to bust a gut for no reward. If it doesn’t pay I’m in the wrong business.”
Born on a farm in Cornwall, he had no interest in racing as a child, and says: “On Saturdays my dad and sister would sit down to watch racing on the telly and I’d go out on the farm. We all rode, but I preferred rugby. Then I went to Venetia Williams and it all changed.”
His streamlined form over a fence was just the ticket for Williams, but after turning conditional and winning a handicap chase at the Cheltenham Festival on her Something Wells he recognised weight would be his downfall, and so reverted to amateur status.
Since then he has set standards in the sport, yet he accepts that times change, and says: “I’ve not touched a drink for six weeks [since the season started] and these days I wouldn’t go to a dinner party the night before a meeting. It was different when I was riding for Richard Barber, and I could make a mistake and get away with it. The standards in pointing are higher than ever and the good yards have good riders.”
Of his own future he says training with a licence is of no interest, and while he still enjoys riding winners he says: “I’d rather give chances to other people in the yard,” before rolling off a stream of young riders who have worked for and learned from him, the latest being novice Ella Orttewell who Biddick is grooming for more success.
He says: “Everyone that works here works hard, they can’t just turn up and get a wage, but if I can help them get rides that’s rewarding for them and me. I love watching young horses come through here and go on, and I get a lot of satisfaction from watching people improve as riders.”
Of the whip changes which will arrive next month Biddick says: “They should either ban the whip completely or leave the current rule alone. The cushioned whips don’t hurt horses, and if you have to use a stick more than eight times it’s probably not a racehorse. The new rule [whips in back-hand position only] won’t affect me, but for some it will be a challenge, including those amateurs who are not as fit to push a horse as professionals.
“I ride a lot of young horses now, and they are all honest and trying their best, so you only use the stick to encourage them to learn their job.”
