Willy Twiston-Davies (son of trainer Nigel) has just won the Foxhunters Chase over the National fences at Aintree at age 16 with the fittingly named Baby Run. I last saw Willy in action at the 2007 Charles Owen pony racing championships at the Liverpool course, where he was riding a 13.1hh pony called Sparky Boy. He finished 3rd, and his older brother Sam – also an up and coming jock – won the 148cm race on Otterburn Lady. Checking an old Olympia programme, I now realise that the first time I saw Will in action he was riding Ulverscroft Drambuie in the Shetland Pony Grand National in 2006. Plenty of race-riding experience on a smaller scale!
Bit of an Aintree theme here, no? I wonder when we’ll see him in the National itself.