'I owe her everything' - the chance conversation that meant Lily Bradstock could keep the Mr Vango party going

It’s been quite a fortnight for Lily Bradstock. The successful point-to-point jockey and event rider got great joy out of a heartwarming family success with Mr Vango in the Midlands Grand National on the Saturday after Cheltenham. Exactly a week on, she was among the winners at Siddington last weekend.

Bradstock is from one of racing’s best-known families and is a key member of her mother Sara’s successful training operation, for which Mr Vango has been a magnificent standard-bearer over the last couple of seasons.

Bradstock recalls the moment she first saw him when winning a British maiden point-to-point at Horseheath in 2022, a race from which the runner-up, the 142-rated hurdler Santos Blue, and the third, multiple winner Forest Chimes, also emerged.

“It was pouring down and freezing,” she says, “but I remember the performance being very impressive and back in the weighing room Gina Andrews and Alice Stevens were equally impressed.

"I said to Mum on the way home that we ought to buy him, never thinking we would have enough money to do it. We went to the sales and I think because he was a six-year-old and 18 hands, nobody really wanted him.”

Mr Vango’s subsequent exploits, culminating in that Uttoxeter victory – partnered by Jack Tudor, himself a graduate of the point-to-point scene having been champion novice rider in the 2018-19 season – have meant the world to the Bradstock family, who have certainly had their fair share of both good and bad days.

The loss of Lily’s father Mark in 2024 saw Sara take over the licence at their Oxfordshire base, supported by Lily and her brother Alfie, who competes at the top level in showjumping.

However, while no win can top the Cheltenham Gold Cup success of Coneygree in 2015, Bradstock says: “A horse doesn’t know how good it is, nor the class of race it is running in, and we celebrate each victory in the same way, each one means a lot to us because each horse has its own story.”

The next story for Bradstock was written at Siddington last weekend when she rode her 38th winner on Angela Yeoman’s Southfield Lily.

Southfield Lily: “The mare has never been easy"

She says: “The mare is contrary, she has never been easy, but she and I just get on. I have ridden her every day of her life. She never goes on the gallop at home; we just do everything around the farm. I have fallen off her more times than any other horse! But that is what makes this season’s results so rewarding, she and I love each other. That was her fourth win this season, which is unreal.”

Like so many associations in the horse world, Bradstock’s partnership with Yeoman came about through a chance conversation.

“I had a rotational fall at Nunney Horse Trials, which is Angela’s event on her farm," says Bradstock. "We were in the stables there because my horse was injured and got chatting to the groom.

"Southfield Theatre had just come home from Paul Nicholls and she was saying they didn’t know what they were going to do with him. I made a passing comment that we would love to have him for pointing and that was that, we had him.

"I have now ridden 30 winners in her colours, so I owe her everything. It’s brilliant; she comes pointing with the family when she can and we all have a nice day.”

Bradstock has since enjoyed an extraordinary 20 victories on Southfield Theatre, including a Cheltenham hunter chase.

“He is more than a horse of a lifetime, he is very special,” she says. “No words really do him justice and when he retires I will ensure he has the retirement that only a king deserves.”

Bradstock describes herself as a “jack of all trades” but she is a natural horsewoman who has built successful partnerships with tricky horses in the pointing field and on the eventing circuit. Tout Chocolat, owned by Ann Solis, is her best event horse and one she has ambitions to take to the Badminton five-star horse trials next year.

She has been a complex project, as Bradstock explains: “She came to us as a lunatic. She still is mad but she is phenomenally talented.”

When asked whether she prefers pointing or eventing, Bradstock replies simply: “I prefer them both!”

She acknowledges that life is a juggling act, but the close-knit team of herself, Sara and Lexi New get the job done. She says: “Lexi joined the team four years ago and has herself ridden a few point-to-point winners. Alfie recently moved to Frome in Somerset with his girlfriend and can now concentrate on showjumping full-time. The yard is full-on and a year-round commitment.”

Being a Bradstock, a childhood filled with all things horsey was inevitable. However, an accident at the age of 12 caused serious damage to her leg, meaning that eventing took precedence as she grew older. She says: “I had to tie the stirrup to my girth so that my lower leg stayed still, obviously in racing, that wasn’t a possibility, so I didn’t have my first ride in a point-to-point until I was 18, by which point my leg was better.”

That first ride was on none other than Carruthers, winner of the 2011 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, who provided Bradstock with her first winner and a ride around Cheltenham.

She recalls: “I was so nervous going out on him, I felt so much pressure because he was Mum’s baby. He knew his job and I hadn’t a clue. It all happened so fast and I could not see a stride!

"We, as a family, were so new to pointing. Alfie had a go but didn’t have many rides, so it was all very new to us. We love pointing, everyone is so friendly and we have had so much fun.”

Lucky bonus

Captain Tommy, trained by Cheshire-based Fred Timmis, heads to Kempton on Tuesday in pursuit of a hat-trick in the hunter chase. If victorious, he will provide his owners with a generous £5,000 bonus donated by Nick Luck.

The Nick Luck Daily Podcast offered the bonus to any horse who could win hunter chases at Catterick in January and Kempton on Tuesday that are run in its name. Although it seemed unlikely one horse could win over such differing tracks and trips, Captain Tommy has so far proved his versatility.

Dom D’Antonio, who runs the Pointing Syndicate Racing Club, said: “He has been amazing. The plan is to run on Tuesday. We have been swayed by the bonus, our original plan had been to run at Aintree.”