Freddie Gingell thrilled to realise conditional title dream

Freddie Gingell has family in the forefront of his mind as he prepares to be crowned champion conditional jockey.

The 19-year-old is based with Paul Nicholls and hails from a racing dynasty as his grandfather is the Gold Cup-winning trainer Colin Tizzard and his uncle is the former jockey and current Venn Farm licence-holder Joe.

Naturally, both men have been crucial to the success of Gingell’s early career, and so too was his mother Kim before her death in 2020 shortly after a cancer diagnosis.

She has never strayed far from the family’s thoughts, especially in the aftermath of some of the milestones her son has met this term – including winning the Paddy Power Gold Cup aboard Paul Nicholls’ Il Ridoto and now a champion conditional title.

“My mum played a big part in this and also my granddad, Colin. Ever since I could, I’ve been racing with my granddad at weekends and this has always been my goal,” he said.

“It’s five years ago now that my world got turned upside down. I always wanted to give this my best shot because my mum would never want me to go out there and give myself only half a chance, she’d want me to give it my all and everything we do is for her.

“Joe is almost like a brother to me, of course he’s my uncle but we’re so close, he helps me with everything and we’re together here, there and everywhere all the time.

“They’re (Joe and Colin) both strong characters and quite opinionated, but that’s probably a good thing because they’ll tell you where you’ve gone wrong, but also where you’ve gone right.”

Gingell has now ridden out his claim and is approaching 40 winners for the season, a mark he wants to surpass before turning his attention to his first term as a professional.

“My claim has gone now, I’m trying to ride 40-plus winners, to keep improving and to keep going from strength to strength hopefully,” he said.

“I want to ride a lot more for Joe and also ride for other people, but I’m very lucky to be where I am based with Paul, so I’ll figure it out between the two of them and just go from there.”