Brian (Barney) Clifford

Hungerford-based Brian Martin Clifford (always known as Barney) was born in Cork on 10 November, 1968, and rode his first winner - Watersmead Down - at Ludlow in October, 1989.

He won the 1994 Midlands National on the Jim Wilson-trained Glenbrook D'or and also the Bonusprint Novice Hurdle at Kempton.

Brian first appeared on our racecards on 29 November 1988, riding Basket Weave for Toby Balding.

Barney later rode for Philip Hobbs and Con Horgan before retiring with a career total of 100 winners.

(Though given the name Brian at birth, he has been nicknamed Barney since his days at Horgan's yard, which at the time housed a horse by the name of Brian, a colt by Indian King. "Those drawing up the work lists of a morning thought it would be too confusing having both a horse and a rider named Brian, so they had to do something about it," Clifford explained.

"One said 'Well, we can't change the horse's name, so we'll have to change the name of the new lad, and we'll call him Barney. I thought I would lose Barney when I left Con's, but when I turned up at Toby's, there were a couple of lads I had worked with before and then they greeted me with 'Hi Barney' that was it. It just stuck.")

Eventually he became clerk of the course at Kempton and took over the responsibility of producing racing's showcase in top shape over the Christmas period.