Tributes paid to Davidson as trainer’s yard claims double
TRIBUTES were paid to Zoe Davison yesterday as the trainer lost her long battle with cancer on the day her family-run yard registered a double at Plumpton.
Brown Bullet and Mr Jack were the poignant winners before Davison, 60, sadly died at her Shovelstrode Racing Stables in nearby East Grinstead, Sussex.
Her husband Andrew Irvine – whom she married in 2018 – was by her side, with her family around her. The couple have two teenage daughters, Charlotte and Harriette.
Irvine said: “She was the most wonderful, incredible person. I am blessed to have spent the last 24 years of my life with her.”
Gemelle Johnson, assistant to her mother, who has another daughter, Georgie, said: “I just feel a bit numb inside because of everything.
“I’m a bit overwhelmed we’ve had a double for mum. Hopefully we have made her proud. It’s surreal.
“Our team is a family business and we put everything into it. She will be thoroughly missed as she is the glue that holds us together.
“We’ve had a few winners around here and it is one of our local tracks. It means everything to us as we want to do her proud.”
Jockey Page Fuller has a long association with the stable and should have ridden Mr Jack, but had been stood down from an earlier fall.
She said: “You couldn’t have written it any better today. She was just a kind and genuine person who was a real horsewoman. She loved her horses and did her best by them.
“She has been struggling for a long time, but fortunately her strength has rubbed off on to everybody else and they showed that by sending out the winners today.
“It has been a great team effort and it is great she has gone out like that. I don’t know anybody who would have a bad word to say about her – she was just one of those really nice people.”
For all the success that Fuller, who joined Davison just before turning professional in 2018, enjoyed with the Sussex handler, it is her association with stable stalwart Finnegan’s Garden she is most proud of.
She said: “Zoe was a real key supporter of mine just as I was turning professional. She has been very influential on my career and many other jockeys.
“We had lots of good days together, but I suppose Finnegan’s Garden is the one we had some of our best days together with.
“We have won six races together around the likes of Plumpton, Lingfield and Fontwell, including a double at Plumpton in April 2019 with Brother Bennett. She will be sadly missed by everyone.”