Griffiths ready for his career to go wild by joining Bear Ghylls
Grade One success on Dashel Drasher just the beginning for rider who has become go-to jockey for Exmoor trainers
Eight days ago Matt Griffiths had the first Grade One winner of his career when riding Dashel Drasher, a horse he broke in as a youngster, to victory in the Betfair Ascot Chase.
But things could get even better next month when he partners Bear Ghylls, the unbeaten novice hurdler, in the Ballymore Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham. Griffiths, 30, has become the go-to jockey for Exmoor, which is where both horses are trained, Dashel Drasher by Jeremy Scott near Brompton Regis and Bear Ghylls by Nicky Martin in Withypool.
Brought up on the edge of Exmoor to a non-horsey family, his most immediate interest was hunting, and as a boy he helped out at local hunt kennels which were just across the field. “If you’d asked me 12 what I wanted to be I’d have said ‘huntsman’,” Griffiths said. “But I then thought if I’m going to do that I’ve got to start riding. I hated school and as Philip Hobbs was just up the road I rode out for him on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday – in the end for about five years.”
Without a background in the sport, he found it hard to put himself forward, but he realised his early potential by becoming national novice champion point-topoint rider, before deciding to turn professional. But it was not until he hooked up with Scott six seasons ago that his career began to take off. “I don’t think you’d ever improve one from Jeremy,” he added. At home Griffiths and his girlfriend, Fiona Rawle, have 28 horses on their own yard, including half a dozen eventers, hunters, liveries and young jumping store horses being broken – as Dashel Drasher was – for local trainers.
“I think Bear Ghylls is the best I’ve ridden at this stage of his career,” he said. “He’s 17.1 hands tall, a big tall frame, and when he won at Lingfield first time out he did everything wrong and still won doing headstands.”
After Dashel Drasher’s win it had to be pointed out to Griffiths that some of his colleagues riding 100 winners a season do not ride Grade One winners, before the enormity of it sank in. “It was quite a big deal,” he reflected.
“When I started I had three ambitions; to ride a winner at Cheltenham [at any meeting], to ride a winner at Aintree [at any meeting] and ride over the National fences. I’ve done that and, looking back on it, riding out my claim [75 winners] was also quite big for me, because a lot of jockeys don’t do it.”
It is undecided whether Dashel Drasher goes for the Ryanair. “He’s actually come out of this race much better than his previous race,” said the jockey. “He lay down for three days after that one, but he’s bounced back. The last time I saw him he was off on a jolly round the farm.”