Alex Chadwick heads to Stratford on Friday evening to collect the Amateur Jockeys’ Association’s NH Championship for the second year in succession.
It continues a success story which has defied a stack of odds, and is one which every frustrated amateur who feels they are under-used when race rides are handed out should read for inspiration.
He says: “If a few years ago someone had told me I would be champion amateur under rules I would never have believed them.”
At 30, Chadwick (pictured above) is at the peak of his game, admired and used by a clutch of talented trainers, none more significant than Newmarket-based James Owen for whom he is first choice on numerous runners under rules. Owen, a former point-to-point rider, has become one of the most talked-about trainers to have emerged in racing over the past two seasons after saddling a number of high-end winners including Wimbledon Hawkeye in the Royal Lodge Stakes, Champion Hurdle runner-up Burdett Road (who runs at Sandown tomorrow] and recent Chester Cup first East India Dock.
He says of the amateur rider: “Alex is an incredibly hard worker who is fantastic on the schooling grounds teaching our juveniles. He’s been an asset since he started with us.
“Riding a variety of horses has improved his riding and he now has the confidence to do his own thing in a race. I never have to give him orders because he’s very solid on studying form, and having a 5lb claim has been really useful. It’s given me great pleasure helping him become champion amateur twice and he’s certainly one of the best riders on the point-to-point circuit.”
Chadwick’s association with Owen carried him to 25 winners during the jumps season which ended at Sandown in April, and to 23 winners in the AJA’s title race which opened on June 1 last year and runs through until Friday evening. None other than Grand National winner Patrick Mullins lies in second place, but with a score of 14 he is too far adrift to prevent Chadwick repeating his title triumph.
In point-to-points he enjoyed another rousing season with 19 wins from just 50 rides. Five victories have been gained for Owen’s wife Jenny, a veterinary surgeon responsible for the yard’s pointers and who has won the Foran Equine trainers’ championship for yards with six to 14 horses, while there have been eight wins on horses trained by Nick Wright, who finished third in that same title race.
Chadwick riding for Ed Turner on Graveside Lad at Edgcote recently (Ce)
Turn the clock back ten years and Chadwick was fast heading into oblivion as an amateur rider who couldn’t get a ride. He says: “My career started at Paul Nicholls’ yard, where I worked for four seasons and had two rides. I wasn’t going anywhere, so I went to Polly Gundry’s to ride out and she took me back to basics. She taught me to think about horses and gave me confidence. I owe so much of where I am today to Polly.
“At Paul’s yard I was riding up a hill most days, but at Polly’s it was different. She is a horsewoman who looks at horses and understands them. I rode out on a young horse in the yard who had just been broken in and she said to me ‘that horse will win a Gold Cup’. It was Santini [who three years later was beaten a neck by Al Boum Photo in the Gold Cup].”
Gundry’s husband Ed Walker – who looks after the stable’s pointers – provided Chadwick with some rides in his second season at the yard and a longed-for first winner, which came in the Berkeley members’ race on 13-year-old Ned The Post. There was progress but it was very slow. He says: “I was 22, I’d had a total of 16 rides and one winner, and recognised I had to give it a kick. A jockeys’ agent called Bruce Jeffrey, who sadly died two years ago, rang me, said he had noticed that I had ridden for Paul Nicholls, and asked if could do 9st 7lb. I said I’d give it a try. He said if you’re prepared to go to Scotland I can get you 50 rides next season in points and under rules, so I took the job and went to work for Sandy Thomson.”
The move worked up to a point, for in the 2017/18 season Chadwick gained 46 rides under rules – without adding to his win column – but another 20 in point-to-points which resulted in two victories. Then a visit to a girlfriend led to another career move.
He says: “My girlfriend at the time worked as assistant trainer to Mark Tompkins [in Newmarket]. On a weekend visit I realised this was the area I wanted to base myself. I was born nearby in Huntingdon and so I stayed, and rang James Owen, who seemed to be training lots of point-to-point winners. He said, ‘I can’t give you any rides because I’ve got all my jockeys’, but there’s a job here riding out if you want it. At that time James was using Jack and Gina Andrews for his pointers, and Jo Mason and Simon Walker for the Arab horses he trained, so he had every avenue covered.”
Unbeknown to Chadwick and Andrews, a serendipitous moment was about to change their lives. Property developer Tim Gredley, an enthusiastic amateur and former showjumper who Owen had guided to a meritorious seven point-to-point wins from 25 rides, had decided to hang up his saddle. Gredley and his father, Bill, head Newmarket’s Stetchworth and Middle Park Studs from where a number of high-class racehorses have been bred, and while Tim had decided it was time to give up some of life’s greatest thrills after marrying TV presenter Rachel Wyse a few months earlier he chose to keep his pointers in Owen’s care.
Continuing the tale, Chadwick says: “I had been riding out for James for six months when he asked if I wanted to ride a horse at Cottenham. It wasn’t a very nice ride and had unseated other riders, but we finished third. Then with Tim Gredley having retired I got to ride his horse Silvergrove and after a couple of placings in hunters’ chases I rode him to victory in the Queen’s Cup at Fakenham [in April 2019].
“When I got off the horse James said to me ‘You’re going to ride all my Arab horses in the summer’ and I replied ‘I don’t want to’. I didn’t know anything about Arab racing and didn’t much like them as horses, but he said ‘I’ll put you on a nice ride and you’ll enjoy it’. I rode the horse, won the race and I did enjoy it, and I would now say to any young rider have a go at Arab racing because it would teach them so much. If you can ride an Arab you can ride anything. You learn pace and how to get down in the saddle and really push. I did that for two seasons and was champion rider each time.”
Two seasons later Chadwick rode 21 point-to-point winners, which remains a personal best, and his association with the likes of Ragnar Lodbrok, Fiddler Of Dooney, Castle Trump, and, this season, Allmankind and Aramax, have helped make him one of the sport’s most respected riders. He says of Ragnar Lodbrok: “I’ve won nine races, all opens, on Ragnar Lodbrok. He’s a personality, but he’s played a massive part in my career.
Riding Ragnar Lodbrok, a horse who has played a big part in Chadwick's career (Ce)
“When I was a kid my dad was mad keen for me to be a jockey. He just liked racing, and because my older sister went to a local riding school I went along just to be competitive. I was about five at the time and useless at first, but at the age of seven I turned to my dad and said ‘I’m going to be a jockey’. He and my mum have been huge supporters.”
Chadwick is now turning his thoughts to a possible move into the ranks of conditional jockeys, a late starter given his age, but who would bet against him proving successful?
He says: “I suppose a lot of people would have given up in the early years and taken another job, but I don’t like taking no for an answer. You have to believe you’re good enough, and I wanted to prove to people that I was.”