Cliff Holgate

Cliff Holgate

Article by Alan Trout

Having ridden one winner on the Flat in 1981, Clifford Stanley Holgate did the same over jumps two years later. 

He started out on the level as an apprentice with Willie Musson and had his first victory at Ripon on April 8, 1981, when eight-year-old Skin Deep led inside the final furlong and beat The Old Feller by a length in the Hackfall Apprentice Handicap. He then had two unplaced rides on the mare before others took over in the saddle.   

His first ride over jumps, at Worcester on April 14, 1983, could not have gone better. Approaching the last fence in the Newland Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Chase he looked destined for second place on Space Bridge, only for the leader, Pomposity, to fall, leaving Cliff to bring his mount home seven lengths clear. 

It was the nine-year-old Space Bridge’s first start since December and, remarkably, despite having ridden a winner at his first attempt, it appears to have been Cliff’s only ride over jumps.