Xavier Aizpuru

His father was Basque, his mother was Spanish but had lived in England for over forty years.

Xavier's father, from San Sebastian, ran the Horse & Groom pub at Bourton-on-the-Hill near Cheltenham. Local trainer David Nicholson would bring his owners to the pub.

Xavier recalled. “I guess I was being a pain in the butt to my parents, who were just trying to get on with their jobs, and David said, ‘Why don’t you send him up to me in the mornings, and I’ll keep him busy for you.’

“I’m pretty sure he actually told them he’d just tire me out. I was 9, and the lads at the yard would teach me how to ride at the end of the mornings,” he continued. “It just went from there. Every weekend, every school holiday, I would spend at his yard. I worked and learned how to ride, and then obviously the race riding came along. It just all snowballed from there.”

Xavier made his racecourse debut on Thursday, November 30, 1995, when unsuccessfully piloting the stable's Fly By North  at Leicester. 

His first winner came at Windsor in December 1996, riding Severn Gale. Then aged 21, Xavier showed how much he had learnt from Nicholson by beating champion jockey Tony McCoy to land a major gamble. Xavier was in front virtually throughout and, when McCoy loomed large on Seasonal Splendour, he determinedly drove out Severn Gale for a length and a half victory.

Nicknamed 'Shav', Xavier later elected to join Robin Dickin's yard.

He took his first ride for his new stable when partnering Dr Rocket in a conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle on Saturday December 7, 1996. He enjoyed some moderate success but, by 2004, after a long losing sequence, it was all over.

Eventually he was not just short of winners but of any rides at all and, quitting England, decided to try his luck in America.

He recalled “It had got to the point in England where I was riding bad horses and bad races, and I had started questioning whether it was the horses or if it was me. I couldn’t have bought a winner. I came to America and the first ride I had won, and it made me realize that it wasn’t me. It had been the quality of horses I’d been riding. It was a pure confidence thing. It gave me my belief in the sport back again.”

In England, he hadn’t ridden in his first race until 1995.  “I was 21. I was a late bloomer. I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted to do, and I’d seen so many talented riders come and go through David’s yard and not really make the grade. So, I stayed on and got myself an education just in case.

'But the opportunity came, and he gave me my first ride. I got a taste for it and really enjoyed it. But 21 was quite a late age to start, especially in England.”

Xavier had only 10 rides that first year for Nicholson, but in 1998 trainer Robin Dickin offered him the opportunity for many more, and Xavier rode 21 winners for him in the first of their five years working together.

In 2003, Xavier decided to ride on a freelance basis, but his career began to stagnate. “It didn’t go very well for me. There were always plenty of horses to ride; it was just finding the right ones to ride,” he said.

His good friend Rob Massey had made the move to the United States and quickly earned the 2002 NSA Leading Jockey Title and urged Xavier to follow in his footsteps. In 2004, he travelled to the States to explore his options.

It was a good decision.

He began riding for Hall of Fame trainer Janet Elliott. He also teamed up with another powerful trainer, Jack Fisher, and became the National Steeplechase champion jockey in 2007 & 2008.

Xavier spent four years riding out in the mornings at Fair Hill for top trainer Graham Motion, then a further two doing the same thing for Tony Dutrow.

Aged 39, he continues to accept mounts on the steeplechase circuit and, in 2013, guided Alajmal to victory in the Grade 1 Colonial Cup for his former boss, Janet Elliott.