- After Dinner Speakers
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- Sport
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Bob Champion
Bob was born 4th June 1948 into a hunting family. His father was a huntsman to the Cleveland in Yorkshire, where he started riding at an early age hunting with his sister and father.
Riding and Recovering From Cancer
Bob’s racing career took him to America where he rode several winners. In 1979 he was diagnosed with cancer and was given six months to live. After several months of chemotherapy he returned to race riding, coming back with several winners both in England and America.
In 1981 Bob won the Grand National on Aldaniti, trained by Josh Gifford. He finally retired from racing in 1983 having won some 500 races. Other major races that Bob won during his career were The Tote Eider Chase, The Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup, The Black & White Hurdle, The SGB Chase, The SGB Hurdle and the Whitbread Trial Chase.
1983 was the year that Bob received the MBE and also formed the Bob Champion Cancer Trust which, to date, has raised ten million pounds towards cancer research. His life story is portrayed in the book ‘Champion’s Story’ subsequently made into a feature film starring John Hurt.
Bob undertook the ‘Ride for Life’ in 1996, riding on several horses from Hollyrood Palace in Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace, where he was greeted by Her Majesty The Queen. The sum of a million pounds was raised and together with a further million donated by the Institute of Cancer, a new Research Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital was opened in September 2000.
After Horse-Racing
Bob retired from training racehorses in 1999 having achieved many winners and later commenced a scheme with the Northern Racing College to encourage school leavers to have a career as stable staff and apprentice jockeys.
