Meeting my hero Graham Bradley

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.

Great ability, while being entirely human, did it for me. The story of him missing schooling on “Alderbrook”, the Champion Hurdle favourite, because he got drunk at a big party in Lambourn, has gone down in folklore. This led to him losing the ride, but at the 23rd hour, he got the ride on another horse, “Collier Bay”, who he had ridden to win at Sandown a few months earlier. “Collier Bay” needed the ground to have some give in it but, up until the night before, the ground was firm. Then the skies opened and it rained incessantly.

“Collier Bay” duly won the Champion Hurdle beating “Alderbrook” into second place.

Graham has always mixed in the top circles with people like Steve McManaman, Gary McAlister and Robbie Fowler being good friends.

I was in the gym during the time of his last ever ride. The TV happened to be on and, as the race started, I went on the running machine so I could watch. I got quite emotional as “Ontheboil” duly won. The end of an era. My love of horse racing has been heightened by our regular sponsorship of a race at Taunton and acting for a few trainers, notably Jonjo O’Neill, who rode my favourite horse of all time,

“Sea Pigeon”.

I regularly watch old races on YouTube and one evening I had a prompt on LinkedIn to link up with Graham Bradley. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and he accepted my invitation.

One very useful thing about having the radio station is that it is a great way of making an impact. I asked Graham if I could interview him and he readily agreed.

Corresponding with my long time sporting hero was a rather surreal experience but it soon became clear that I knew more about Graham’s career than he did. Also, he was a bit of a Tech Dinosaur. Drew did a lot of preparation with him to make sure the interview went well.

Even so, when the time came for the interview, we had some teething issues before the great man came onto the screen.

I thought I would be a little nervous but I was very well prepared and we established a great rapport.

Graham really enjoyed himself and he proved himself to be somewhat of a character.

It was an amazing and rewarding experience. Graham wrote a best-selling book in 2000 called “The Wayward Lad” and I have encouraged him to write another. Even better, I will ghost write it.

We are now friends and I am looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together.