Training a horse good enough for a championship race is one thing, winning it with a substitute quite another.
This article first appeared in the Racing Post on Friday 24th March.
That was the luxurious position Welshman Bradley Gibbs (pictured above in Premier Magic's owner Julian Sherriff's colours) found himself in earlier this month when he trained and rode Premier Magic to victory in Cheltenham’s St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase. Had the nine-year-old mare Highway Jewel not suffered an injury last month, Gibbs would have been in her saddle.
The disappointment some of her owners are feeling has been alleviated by their involvement in another rising star of Gibbs’ Hertfordshire yard, seven-year-old Theshoddytradesman, who is unbeaten in four point-to-points and is being aimed at the intermediate hunters’ chase at Cheltenham’s meeting on May 5.
Gibbs lives with his fiancée Claire on a farm owned by her father Julian Sherriff, whose colours are carried by Premier Magic and also Fier Jaguen, who has been demolishing opponents this season. An eight-year-old, he overwhelmed Looksnowtlikebrian by 70l in December, and the beaten horse defeated a previous Cheltenham winner next time out. Fier Jaguen then thrashed the Tom Ellis-trained Dundrum Wood by 60 lengths – the vanquished horse won his next two.
Fier Jaguen and Bradley winning at Ston Easton
On Sunday, Fier Jaguen beat Luke Harvey’s Notre Pari by a mere 25 lengths at a meeting in Somerset, but that tees him up for Aintree’s Randox Foxhunters’ Chase. Since 1945 no rider has won hunter chases at Cheltenham and Aintree’s Festival meetings on different horses in the same season, but Gibbs has a live chance assuming Fier Jaguen gets a run – there are 42 entries and 30 places, and the horse was beaten in his sole hunter chase which is little help to his rating. Premier Magic targets Punchestown’s Champion Hunters’ Chase or the Ineos Grenadier mixed open series final at Cheltenham.
