Bob Champion
At three days old I was thrown up onto the back of a racehorse (I hasten to add that I was safely wrapped in my shawl and the arm’s of my father!). My father was a professional national hunt jockey and my mother was a keen horsewoman, so it was inevitable that I too would be bitten by the ‘horsey’ bug. I always had a pony, and when old enough, rode in point-to-points, riding eight winners and having many placed rides.
I have chosen Bob Champion as my Silver Saint as his triumph sticks in my memory like no other.
Bob Champion was just 31 years old and one of the top jump jockeys in Britain when in June 1979 he discovered that he had cancer.
Bob was told that he might only have a few months to live and was immediately prescribed a long and drastic course of chemotherapy. The chemo made him feel dreadfully sick, he lost four stones in weight and all of his hair dropped out, he was unrecognisable and nearly died of septicaemia. He had lost all hope and the will to live; he went to sleep at night and prayed that he would never wake up. One day whilst undergoing his treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Bob wandered aimlessly through the corridors and came across the children’s ward. He stood for a while and watched a little girl riding a beautifully carved rocking horse; the little girl spied Bob, dismounted from her horse and approached the strange man. The little girl had a chemotherapy drip attached to her arm and softly spoke to Bob asking him if he was going to die or if he was going to get better? Bob replied “I am going to get better”. The ward was full of children suffering from the same dreadful cancer that had taken hold of Bob’s life and some of them would not be leaving the hospital. From this day onwards Bob knew that he had to change his mental thoughts and concentrate on trying to get better.
Bob set himself unrealistic goals, one of them was getting back to riding as a professional jockey and to ride in the world famous Grand National. Before his illness Bob had struck up a successful partnership with a horse called Aldaniti, who himself had suffered a bad injury whilst in action on the racecourse, and this was the horse that he dreamed of partnering in the big race. Many people had written both of these ‘old crocks’ off.
Bob started the long road back from his illness, minutes in the gym seemed like hours, weak and frail he didn't think that his goal could ever be achieved. But eventually he did get back to competitive riding again, an amazing achievement in itself.
On April 4th 1980, Bob and Aldaniti (trained by Josh Gifford) lined up for the Grand National. The nurses who had been so kind to Bob at the Royal Marsden Hospital were there as was the little girl who he had befriended in hospital. Bob and Aldaniti won the race by three and a half lengths. The noise of the crowd was deafening, there was cheering and shouting and hats being thrown into the air. It was a miracle, a fairytale and I will never forget that day.
I was fourteen and the day was so emotional, coming from a racing family it meant so much to everyone as we had all been talking about the prospect of Bob and Aldaniti getting back into peak condition and how amazing it was that they were even taking part in the ‘big race’ let alone winning it. The racing world is like one big family and we had all followed Bob’s story so closely from the shock of hearing about the cancer to this tremendous day. In the evening our local pub was ‘buzzing’ and we all toasted Bob and Aldaniti’s amazing success.
Bob's very public success gave encouragement to all cancer sufferers.
It taught me that in life there is always hope and battles can be won. Never give in; if you really want something badly enough it can be achieved.
Horses are a great leveller and you never get too carried away with a successful day as things can so quickly go wrong. As in Bob Champion’s case he and Aldaniti fell at the very first fence on their next attempt at the Grand National!
Horses are still a big part of my life, and now my two sons, Tom (12) and Archie (8) are keen young horsemen. Tom has been pony racing this year and rode his first winner in May, qualifying for the pony racing final which was held at Aintree, the same place that my Silver Saint triumphed!
Sue Bellamy