Downs Stables:Gifford following in his father's successful footsteps

"When I took over from Dad, we had 28 horses here and a lot of them were at the top of the handicap and reaching the end of their careers. I took the decision to go down Dad's old route of buying store horses from Ireland, which take three to four years to come into their own.

"We bought horses like Push the Port, By George, Give Me a Dime and Cathedral Rock, who are now starting to do well and I am beginning to reap the benefit," he said.

That is why he started out comparitively quietly in his training career, but in each of the last two seasons he has had 14 winners. At the moment he is already on 12 wins and hopes he will achieve 20 this term.

He is praying for rain for Cheltenham, where he has two definite runners this year- the classy Straw Bear for the Champion Hurdle, and Wee Robbie, who could go either in the Arkle Trophy Challenge Chase or the Royal and SunAlliance Chase, and a number of other options including the Jewson, Racing Post Plate and Willliam Hill.

For full feature and more pictures see West Sussex Gazette February 6