RACING POST FRIDAY MARCH 2nd 2012. JOSH GIFFORD TRIBUTE AT CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL YESTERDAY MORE THAN 800 ATTEND

RACING POST FRIDAY MARCH 2nd 2012

RACING POST WEEK MONDAY FEBRUARY 27th TO SUNDAY MARCH 4th 2012

http://www.turfcall.co.uk 

TODAY'S CARDS Newbury. Doncaster. Lingfield Park. Wolverhampton. Dundalk.

http://www.racingpost.com/horses2/cards/home.sd  

. JOSH GIFFORD TRIBUTE LEGENDARY TRAINER'S THANKSGIVING SERVICE HELD AT CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL YESTERDAY AFTERNOON

Bob Champion partner Aldaniti
Trainer Josh Gifford Findon
Aintree Hero's Winner Grand National 1981

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSH GIFFORD A TRUE BLOODHORSE LITERATE ACHIEVER OF THE HIGHEST CALIBRE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0dilqfsE3w&feature=player_embedded

FOLLOWING JOSH GIFFORD'S (70) DEATH LAST MONTH

A thanksgiving service was held by family in Chichester Cathedral yesterday afternoon joined by friends with over 800 guests  to celebrate Gifford's 'magical Boy's Own life'  they told of 'the brilliant sportsman' who started out in racing aged just 11, rode his first winner at 14, and went on to be associated with well over 2,200 winners.'

GRAHAM DENCH "Chichester Cathedral founded in 1075, was described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as 'the most typical English Cathedral ", but there was nothing typical about yesterday's congregation , which had swelled to near bursting point long before the service began, on the most beautiful of spring afternoons, many of them household names, and not just in racing households.

"Bob Champion and the Embiricos family represented Gifford's 1981 Aintree hero Aldaniti , while fellow Grand National winners included Tony McCoy, , Jonjo O'Neill, JP McManus, Toby Balding, David Elsworth, Graham Thorner, Hywel Davies and Liam Treadwell. There were more champions too from both branches of the sport including Nicky Henderson, Paul Nicholls and Stan Mellor from jumping, and Jo Mercer from the world of Flat racing, which was also represented by Barry Hills, Jimmy Lindley and Roger Varain, who was once an amateur with the stable.

"Sir Peter O'Sullivan, who called home so many of Gifford's winners came too, along with Jockey Club members, BHA and racecourse administrators, bookmakers representatives and Gifford's former jockeys Declan and Eamon Murphy, Richard Rowe, Peter Hobbs, Tom Grantham, Charlie Burnett-Wells and many more."

"Gifford's niece Clare Pond set the tone with a short reading from the prologue to Chaucer's Knight's Tale which included the lines: "In all his life to any, come what might; He was a very perfect, gentle knight."

"Addresses by Gifford's former vicar Zachary Allen, by broadcaster Nick Luck, and by Claude Duval of the Sun recalled an always jovial Gifford, a man who always saw the funny side of things and never took himself or life to seriously; a man with enormous zest for life and love of his fellow man; a different, special man who one always looked forward to seeing; a man who Luck's parents chose as their son's godfather because  "as young owners with him in the seventies they were having more fun than they knew what to do with. The emotional Gifford who they recall could weep buckets simply watching the video of Aldaniti's triumph.