UK Horse Racing Tips

Born on May 23, 1955, Oliver Sherwood began his career in racing as pupil assistant trainer to Gavin Pritchard-Gordon in Newmarket in 1974, before becoming assistant trainer to Arthur Moore in Co. Kildare, Ireland, where he first rode as an amateur National Hunt jockey. However, in 1978, Nicky Henderson relinquished his position as assistant trainer to Fred Winter to start training in his own right, so Sherwood took his place at Uplands, the most famous racing stables in Lambourn, Berkshire. He continued riding, with no little success, and became Champion Amateur Jockey in 1979/80; all told, he rode 96 winners under National Hunt Rules but, in 1984, made what he later called the ‘obvious transition’ to training in his own right, at nearby Rhonehurst Stables, where he has been based ever since.

Nowadays, Oliver Sherwood is best known as the trainer of Many Clouds, who won seven high-profile races, including the Hennessy Gold Cup – a race that Sherwood had first won with Arctic Call 24 years earlier – in 2014 and the Grand National in 2015, before suffering a fatal pulmonary

haemorrhage after winning the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham in 2017. However, while he may lack the firepower that he once had at his disposal – his last Grade One winner, for example, was Cenkos in the Sandeman Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree in April, 2000 – it is worth remembering that Sherwood has saddled over 1,000 winners. Albeit some years ago, his successes at the Cheltenham Festival include The West Awake in the Sun Alliance Chase and

Rebel Song in the Sun Alliance Novices Hurdle in 1988, Aldino in the Grand Annual Handicap Chase in 1991, Young Pokey in the Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase in 1992 and

Coulton in the Cathcart Challenge Cup Chase in1995.

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