The old saying that ‘a change is as good as a rest’ might sound fanciful to the millions who flock to holiday resorts abroad for their annual holiday, but those who don’t believe it should just take a look at the busy summer that former champion conditional Freddie Gingell has enjoyed.
While some of his weighing room pals were no doubt jetting off to exotic destinations during jump racing’s summer break, Freddie was working late into the evening on the family farm every day, helping his dad Dave with the harvest and other duties. What’s more, he couldn’t have been happier.
For as much as Freddie enjoys the thrill of hurtling over fences at 30 mph and more on one of the top-class chasers trained by his boss Paul Nicholls or his uncle Joe Tizzard, he is just as at home behind the wheel of a tractor or a combine harvester.
“I really enjoy the farm,” he says, talking on the phone and barely pausing while hitching a trailer to a tractor. “I’ve been busy with the harvest and it’s been a complete change for me. Racing can be a long old slog through a wet and cold winter, so it’s quite nice to get back on the farm and shut off from all that. I can forget about racing, clear my head, and then start afresh again come the jumps season proper in October.
I’m still riding out four lots at Paul’s every morning but then I come home to the farm and get on with that. People think I must get bored, but I’ll have some music on the radio while I work and there’s no end to the number of different jobs I could be doing on the farm, so it’s a complete escape and a reset for me.
We’ve just started the maize harvest, both for ourselves and other people, and after the hot, dry summer we’ve had we’ll have it all wrapped up around three weeks earlier than normal. Much of the farm is arable, but we’ve got 200 head of cows and calves too, so that keeps us busy through the winter.
Believe me when I say it can be nice to get back to the cows when you’ve had a bad day.Harry Cobden does the same sort of thing, and it’s not doing him any harm.”
Although he was brought up on the farm, horses, and racehorses in particular, have always been a big part of his life too. His mum Kim, who tragically died of cancer before his career truly blossomed, worked for her father Colin Tizzard, the multiple Grade 1-winning trainer, and she was a sister of Joe, who enjoyed major wins as a jockey on the likes of Flagship Uberalles, Joe Lively and Cue Card before taking over the training licence.
Freddie was pony racing at the age of nine and the experience he gained in that arena clearly stood him in good stead when he started out as an amateur over jumps, for he was barely 16 when he enjoyed a first success on his grandfather’s West Approach at Wincanton early in 2022. Only two years later he gained a first Grade 1 win on Elixir De Nutz in the Clarence House Chase at Cheltenham, taking the notable scalp of long-odds-on Jonbon no less.
“Winning that day at Cheltenham was an obvious career highlight,” says Freddie, who never forgets the part his mum played in making him the rider he is. “I didn’t know until afterwards, but I was the second youngest rider ever to win a Grade 1 (ahead of McCoy, Walsh et al and beaten only by Jack Kennedy), so that was massive for my career. Also, Joe had the licence by then and it was his first Grade1 as a trainer, so it was a very special day for all of us.
My first big winner for Paul, on Il Ridoto in the Paddy Power Gold Cup later that year was another highlight obviously, and that season I went on to be champion conditional, which was another big moment for me.”
In the end Freddie finished seven winners clear of Callum Pritchard in the conditionals’ championship, but there was a scare on the way and he is grateful to the IJF for the part it played in getting him back on the racecourse in time to finish the job off.
“I had a bad fall the weekend after Cheltenham and I missed four weeks,” he recalls. “I was knocked unconscious and the IJF played a massive part in getting me back, organising scans and MRIs and then giving me the fitness tests that were needed at the new Taunton hub. I can’t thank them enough.
Last season wasn’t the most rewarding numerically, but there was another big day when Hitman won the Old Roan Chase at Aintree and the campaign ended well.
“I had a really good time towards the end of the season, with eight winners in a week, and it was nice to keep the ball rolling through the summer, which was my best so far, with nine winners before the break.
It was great to get on board Rickety Bridge, who won his first three over fences, all at Newton Abbot, and also on Outmaster, who won his first two hurdle races there by a long way and was a point-to-point winner before that, so is another promising young horse with a very bright future.
Hopefully we’ll be kicking on again in October, when there should be plenty of nice horses to ride for both Paul and Joe. I’ve been full time with Paul for three or four years now and so he has first call, but if Joe has something for me when Paul doesn’t need me I’ll ride for him.
I still ride out and school for Joe once a week, on a Wednesday, and so far I’ve ridden roughly the same number of winners for both stables. Luckily for me they are both only half an hour or so from the farm so it works well.”
Freddie won’t be 21 until Christmas time but he’s well aware that a jockey’s career doesn’t last forever and so he’s glad to have the fall-back option of the farm when the time comes. However, that hopefully won’t be for many years, and in the meantime he is firmly committed to the day job.
“I’m giving racing a good go and we’ll see where that takes me,” he says, “but the farm will always be here. I love the racing side of my life, but the farm is a big part of it too. I can go back to it whenever I need to, and it’s more than likely where I’ll end up.”
This article has been kindly written for the IJF by Graham Dench