Also that season he teamed up with the best horse he rode, Walwyn’s top-class hurdler Sempervivum, finishing second in Newbury’s Schweppes Gold Trophy. The following season, 1966/67, they won the National Spirit Challenge Trophy at Fontwell but Tommy then experienced the biggest disappointment of his career with the first flight fall of Sempervivum (who was normally a brilliant jumper) in the Champion Hurdle.