RIP Josh Gifford

By Rod Gilmour

1:08PM GMT 09 Feb 2012

Gifford had only recently returned home from hospital after suffering from septicaemia. His son, Nick, who took over his father's license at his Findon yard in West Sussex, confirmed the sad news.

"I'm afraid he passed away in the early hours," he said. "He'd been back home for about three weeks but he took a turn for the worse yesterday evening.

"By the early hours he was in a really bad way and in the end it was a heart attack."

Gifford, himself an accomplished rider who was crowned champion jockey four times, will be most remembered for Aldaniti's victory at Aintree 31 years ago after his jockey Bob Champion recovered from cancer. He was also the father of event rider Tina Cook.

As well as Aldanitti, Gifford trained a string of high-profile horses - notably Deep Sensation and Bradbury Star - during a career which forged over 1,500 winners.

Despite his association with sending out winners at Cheltenham - he won seven in all at the Festival - it took him 17 years before he landed one in the winners' enclosure when Golden Minstrel won 1988. He retired from racing in the 2002/03 season.
Paying his tribute, champion jockey Tony McCoy tweeted: "Very sad to hear that Josh Gifford trainer & former champion jockey passed away this morning a great man my thoughts are with his family RIP."
Top Irish jockey Barry Geraghty also paid his respects, saying: "Very sad to hear that Josh Gifford passed away overnight a great Trainer and former Jockey, thoughts are with his Family RIP."
Meanwhile, former stable jockey Richard Rowe, who rode most of Gifford's best horses, said there was "no one better to learn off".
"Some of the horses I rode for him were top-class," he said. "Kybo was the best, it was just unfortunate that he broke a leg before the Gold Cup. I was only talking about him with Josh last week.
"When you look at the others like Door Latch, Royal Judgement, Deep Sensation and Bradbury Star that I rode in their early days, and I won a Schweppes on Deep Sensation.
"The reason my dad was so keen for me to join Josh was that he'd been a great jockey and he said there'd be no-one better to learn off - he was right.
"And so it's been with my training, I often think 'what would