Captain

“He’s one in a million”, says this Cheltenham Festival-bound National Hunt jockey about the horse who’s as good on the moor as he is over a huge hedge

- Catherine Austen

JOCKEY Matt Griffiths won his first Grade One race recently – the Betfair Ascot Chase aboard the Jeremy Scott-trained Dashel Drasher – and has hopes of scoring a first Festival win next week aboard Bear Ghylls in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle.

However, none of this would be happening if it weren’t for hunting. The 30-year-old only learnt to ride as a teenager, so he could achieve his dream of becoming a huntsman.

“I have no family background in horses, but the West Somerset kennels were two fields away, and so I started helping out there as a child. The trainer Philip Hobbs’ yard was two miles away, and I began to ride out there,” says Matt.