THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — the Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain great stories from her home village of FINDON, West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday tales about real people...... in fact, a potted history of the village.   The topics today, are history tomorrow.

 IN RETIREMENT

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

Findon has had a long association with horse racing, epitomised by the trainer, Josh Gifford.  Retirement is sometimes not all it is cracked up to be...especially in the racing world.  

It did not take long for Josh Gifford to come out of his much earned retirement at the end of May 2003 after fifty years in racing.   He had an appointment at the dentist — but his son, Nick, telephoned and asked if he could travel north to the Doncaster Sales for him instead.   Nick had a couple of runners 400 miles away from Findon — at Kelso that day. 

Josh did his duty

and promptly set out to pick a winner.  He secured one of the valuable lots at Doncaster for £240,000 and
this proved to be the most expensive horse purchased at auction to race under National Hunt rules. 

All thoroughbreds celebrate their birthdays on 1st January and those destined for flat racing start from the age of two but jump racing or National Hunt is different.  

The horse selected by Josh was six-year-old Joly Bey, bought for a mystery owner who remained anonymous for the time being.  As it turned out, the horse was destined for the world champion amateur jockey (and Nick Gifford's cousin) 21 year old David Dunsdon.   The horse was a very expensive 21st birthday
gift from his parents.
 

Joly Bey was not the only costly purchase for Josh to undertake at the Doncaster Sales.  A loyal Findon owner, Pat Betts, was looking for a horse to replace his ill-fated Rouble.   He paid £81,000 for a promising unbroken three-year-old by the good jumping stallion Bob Back.  

Nick had retained his father's two in-house masterful jockeys, Philip Hide and Leighton Aspell and had inherited the staff who had worked at the stable before Josh's retirement. 

The Doncaster purchases helped fill some of the fifty five boxes in the yard at the Downs Stables during 2003.

 

22nd August 2004

Hello!,

It was a pleasant surprise to see "The Downs" Stable Yard and all of the information on Josh Gifford.

I am writing from the United States.  My intended, Paul Harriss , is presently employed by Nick Gifford as Head Lad/Assisitant to the Trainer.

I never dreamed that when I typed in Josh Gifford' s name into the websearch that I would be able to see your beautiful area.  Now I have a feel for what Paul tries to share with me during our phone conversations.  Before I could only use my imagination and now I can see for myself thanks to you. What a thrill!

If all goes well for Paul and his work I will be able to see Findon for myself come October. It is very beautiful. I am going to keep browsing through your website now.

Thank you!

Mary Allison
P.S. I am with my mom in Wisconsin and she too is enjoying searching your sight with me.
Paul visits me where I live in Colorado and helps me train my American Quarter Horses.

Mary Allison, Colorado, U.S.A.
 

 

Nick's three-day-eventer sister, Kristina Cooke, has also been known to help him out at Downs Stables when not busy in her own yard.

Continue to read the Tribute to Tommy Winters

 

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This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.

MAIL VALERIE

Do let me know of anything you hear about Findon - not too controversial.   Please note that opinions expressed in the Findon Chronicles are not necessarily reflective of my own thoughts.... but just sometimes they might be!