A blast from the past

[Coggy]

Interesting to see the well fancied Al Aqaba win the last at Kempton tonight for Brian Gubby.
I thought that he had retired from the game.
Anyone know where he is based now, how many horses etc ?

[graysonscolumn]

He’s still based in Surrey, as far as I’m aware, and dips in and out of racehorse training as and when it amuses him.

I doubt it’s the 76-year-old’s primary source of income right now and maybe rarely has it been so – he has business interests both as a hotelier and a garage dealership owner (the interest in high-performance cars even taking in a failed attempt to qualify a privately entered Lotus in the 1965 British Grand Prix, which he drove).

Here’s an excerpt from a nice piece from Robin Oakley in the

Spectator

from May 17th, 1997, which may help flesh the bones a little more;

"But visible at Lingfield was another kind of happiness, too, the serene pleasure of a man doing what he enjoys, in the way he chooses to, beholden to no other. The owner-trainer Brian Gubby has made his money, plenty of it, from the motor trade and hotel business. He could afford to have some fancy horses trained by a fashionable name. But instead there he was saddling up the also-rans Utah and Tulsa in the two divisions of the Testers of Edenbridge Maiden Stakes, instructing the jockey, folding up the blankets, checking over his charges when they returned. He was not among the back-slapping champagne swillers. He was unbothered by racecourse gossip. But you could sense his real pleasure in the simple physical acts of preparing his horses and sending them out. The business done, he was due to drive the horsebox home himself as well.

The son of an Epsom-based jockey whose 1926 licence he still possesses, Brian Gubby took to handling horses after he had finished with his previous love. He used to race saloon cars and sports cars and even had a couple of goes at Formula One. He trains all his own horses, and only his own horses, on an 88-acre estate in Bagshot where he has installed a one-and-a-quartermile all-weather gallop. He has another mile on turf in what he calls his `little bit of paradise’. Naturally, he takes the tractor out himself to keep it in trim.

At 63, the quiet, silver-haired Gubby, who has been a licensed trainer since 1976, has decided to cut back somewhat. He recently sold off his jumping and all-weather horses. But he will still keep 10 to 12 for the flat. Bagshot may not be the most fashionable training centre. But Gubby is no hopeless idealist rattling up form-book duck eggs with a string of no-hopers. He has won at least four Group races and scored major successes with his best horse, the sprinter Gabitat. Other useful stable inmates have included Omaha City, Queen’s Bidder and Green Dollar. Last year he had seven winners and 13 seconds with his small string. He says quite simply, ‘I love what I do.’ You know he means it and every movement when he is with his horses shows it."

HTH,

gc

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[Coggy]

Thanks gc, very informative and appreciated

[Author]

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