Jefferson loses his long battle with cancer
MALCOLM JEFFERSON, the Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer who became a stalwart of the northern jumps racing, died yesterday aged 71.
Jefferson’s passing after a long and courageous battle with cancer was confirmed by his daughter Ruth, who will now take over the running of the Newstead Stables in Norton, North Yorkshire.
“He trained four Cheltenham Festival winners and, while he was never a fashionable trainer, he was a very good one,” she said.
“He would never rush a horse — he would always say, ‘Let the horse come to you.’”
Jefferson’s career in racing began with the late Gordon Richards in Cumbria before he moved to North Yorkshire to take out a licence in 1981.
Paying tribute, fellow trainer Donald McCain said: “Malcolm has been a shining light in the north — and an absolute gentleman with it.”