THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

EARLY 1970s RACING

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999.

The seventies kicked off in Findon in February with the successful racehorse trainer, Captain Ryan Price of Downs House, Stable Lane, moving to his new home at Solders Field. I understand that he then transferred his flat racers to the nearby yard and confined his interest solely to flat racing and this proved him to be equally successful on the flat as a National Hunt trainer.

Josh Gifford, then aged twenty-nine, had been three times champion jockey during his racing career.  Josh finished riding on the Saturday of the 1970 Grand National and came in seventh on Assad.   

He started his training career the following day with the jumpers at the Downs Stables. He had behind him a record of 122 winners in one season at the age of 21.  In total he had ridden 700 winners, mostly for Ryan Price. 

His sudden decision to quit riding stunned the racing world.   Why finish at such a young age?   Josh says that Ryan Price asked him what he was going to do when he retired and he replied that he hadn't thought about it.    Ryan said he was not riding well and suggested he took up training at the Downs Stables and he didn't look back after that..

I have found that forge in Findon, which was run by the father and son team in the 1970s, (Fred and Dennis Goddard, who shod many of the horses with their racing plates,) also hit the news temporarily in February 1970. This was when an employee at the smithy, Mr. G. Dinsmore, noticed a distressed Siamese cat crouched on the top of the high roof.

Two hours past and the cat was still shivering in freezing rain and sleet, so Mr. Dinsmore called the Animal Rescue Service. The animal ambulance arrived — but the ladder carried by the vehicle was not long enough. The cat was finally rescued from its lofty perch when the fire brigade arrived on the scene.

I understand that what Dennis Goddard did not know about making plates for the Findon racehorses, (all of which had to have their own type of shoe for various purposes), was not worth knowing. Dennis shod approximately sixty horses each week, depending on the season and the race card. There was always extra work at the stables if the horses needed their normal shoes changed and the lightweight racing plates put on. The process then had to be reversed when the horses returned from their racing. The Goddards also undertook the shoeing for farm horses, hacks and ponies in the area.

Alan Oughton the racehorse trainer at The Vale Stables on the A24 played golf during the 1960s/70s at the Hill Barn Golf Course (established in 1935) situated on the southern slopes of Cissbury Ring.  He played along with Findon's Josh Gifford and the then champion jockey, Paul Kelleway —see my write up on him entitled Paul Kelleway (1940-20011). 

Another jockey who played golf fairly regularly at Hill Barn below Cissbury Ring was Doug Barrott.  You may read by article on the lad from Cowfold in my piece entitled Doug Barrott (194)-1973).

In April 1972 the racehorse trainer at The Vale Stables, Alan Oughton, died at the age of 43. He had been a former jockey and had started riding as an amateur after the Second World War. He had turned professional in the 1954-55 season and rode a total of 126 jumping winners, and three in amateur flat races. He suffered several serious falls and it was one of these — a broken thigh sustained at Epsom —that put an end to his career as a jockey before he became a trainer at Findon.  You may read about his career in my article Alan Oughton of The Vale.

Ginevra was entered for the Oaks but disaster nearly struck one week earlier on the Findon Downs. She was participating in a seven-furlong gallop when she reared and dumped her rider. With her ears pricked, head held high and tail erect, (and reins and stirrups flapping), she set off at a smart trot on an excursion of the Downs. Deciding there was life beyond the training gallops, the determined young lady jumped the rails at the top of the field and disappeared. Aid from the racing stables was enlisted to track her. Following an exciting adventure on the Downs and byways, lasting an hour, she was found munching grass on the central reservation of the A24 with lorries and cars passing close by her. The following week she gave Ryan Price his first Classic win in the Oaks. He was also the champion flat trainer for the year of 1972.

In 1973 a film was made of Dick Francis’s first novel (published 1962) called Dead Cert. This starred Judy Dench and Michael Williams, and was filmed partly at Downs House, Stable Lane.

The film crew arrived and many nearby Findon locations were incorporated in the making of the film. These included Nepcote Lane when the string were riding out, passed Nepcote Green, (with the old Wattle House and ancillary shed clearly noticeable in the background). Other scenes were shot around the hurdles on the Gallops near the Mill House. Judy Bradley (Josh Gifford’s secretary) played a walk-on part, as did other staff, and Josh Gifford acted in a weighing room scene.

The photograph shows from left to right, Albert Allen on Drawing Pin, Colin "Prof" Bates on Don Fox and Josh Gifford with Trianon. Albert Allen was Ryan Price's oldest stable lad and a permanent fixture at the Downs Stables in the seventies, as well as approaching seventy himself.

Continue if you would like to read Dead Cert in Findon.