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PAUL WAITE - FCA FCCA CHIEF EXECUTIVE ASPEN WAITE GROUP
Meeting my hero. I have loved Horse Racing since I was a small child. I remember watching the legendary “Arkle” and, on the flat, “Nijinsky”. My father loved his Saturday gamble, as he still does to this day, and he loved to take us racing with Wincanton, Devon and Exeter and Chepstow being his favourites. An early memory was watching the Champion Hurdler “Persian War” win the Welsh Champion Hurdle. I followed the horses studiously, as I still do, and in my late teenage years my favourite trainer was Tony Dickinson who retired and handed over the licence to his son, Michael, arguably the most successful and innovative trainer of all time. He is also the inventor of a world leading artificial horse racing surface called Tapeta. Three British tracks use Tapeta – Newcastle, Southwell and Wolverhampton. In 1980, a young apprentice jockey called Graham Bradley got his first ride for the Dickinsons, finishing third on a horse called “Talon”, who soon provided Graham with his first winner. In November 1981, Graham rode a young horse called “Bregawn”. In 1982, Graham rode “Bregawn” to come second in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and then win the Hennessey Gold Cup.
At the Cheltenham Festival in 1983, “Bregawn” went one better, leading home a Michael Dickinson first five. This had never been done before and almost certainly never will again. Graham had tremendous talent but also lived life to the full. This attitude to life combined with a smattering of naivety would get him into numerous scrapes, not least with the Jockey Club who remain his nemesis to this day. Graham rode for 22 years and, while riding an amazing number of superstar horses such as “Wayward Lad”, “Collier Bay”, “Morley Street”, “Badsworth Boy”, “Suny Bay”, “Couldn’t Be Better” and “Rhyme ‘N’ Reason”, he also had barren periods where he could not get a good ride for love nor money. For some reason I identified very closely with Graham and I was with him every step of the way. The only sportsman I held in anything like the same esteem as Graham was Jonny Wilkinson. Jonny is another genius who can find life hard and has had more than his share of mental issues.
