Will Biddick: Retires with career total of 705 wins
Author Carl Evans First published on GB Pointing
Will Biddick, Britain’s most successful point-to-point rider, has announced his retirement from the saddle.
Speaking just a few days after his 39th birthday, he said: “I’ve lost the buzz. I’m not broken and the sport has been great to me, but I had a word with Harriet [his wife] at Christmas and decided it was time. I’ve had some amazing glory days and I’m grateful for that.”
Biddick ends his time in the saddle with a career total of 705 wins, of which 623 were achieved in British point-to-points. He was Britain’s men’s champion on eight occasions, a record he shares with David Turner, and the 68 victories he achieved in the 2014/15 season is a record.
Biddick, nearest camera, one of the most stylish amateurs over a fence (Ce)
Never one to mince words, Biddick said: “It got to the stage where every winner is just a winner and it wasn’t exciting me anymore. I wasn’t driven and obsessed with it as I had been when I was younger – it should be an adrenalin rush.”
After riding in races for nearly 23 years Biddick can look back on a largely injury-free career which involved just one broken ankle in the 2020/21 season, although he said: “I’ve had plenty of slaps and falls and they weren’t all good days, but the memories and glory days have been great. But not one part of me wanted to go out on a winner or ride to the end of the season.”
Biddick says the pleasures he has gained from the sport have been divided between those on the course and those off it, but still connected. He said: “There have been so many highlights from point-to-pointing, and the fun I had with great mates like Sam Allwood, Josh Guerriero and Robbie Henderson all came off the back of it. We were all from different backgrounds, different parts of the country and we came together because of the sport. We would ride against each other in the afternoon and then all go into Minehead after racing – it was such fun. It’s been a memorable time with a lot of fags, a lot of port and meetings with a lot of memorable people. I enjoyed standing by the boot of a car with owners after a day at a point-to-point. I’ve given over half my life to the sport, but I’ve had so much back.
Close-up of Biddick riding Road To Rome to victory in a Ludlow hunters’ chase (Ce)
“Winning the two races at Punchestown [on Caid Du Berlais] was a highlight – it was overseas and we had to go over there and do it – but a lot of the best moments were lesser occasions. My second winner came on Let’s Fly [at Bratton Down in 2004] and there was just me and Ashley Farrant [who was about to become men’s champion] with a circuit to go. Another that meant a lot at the time was riding Richard Barber’s final winner [Whataknight at Bratton Down ten years later].”
A Cornishman whose father hunted and trained pointers, Biddick’s racing career has largely revolved in and around the Wessex and Devon & Cornwall areas. For a time he was based with Venetia Williams in Herefordshire and while there switched from amateur to conditional jockey status (and did not ride in the 2009/10 point-to-point season), but despite recording a Cheltenham Festival win in 2009 on the Williams-trained Something Wells, he reverted to the unpaid ranks in the summer of 2010. Explaining that decision some years later he said occasional rides under rules (Williams’ jockey roll including Aidan Coleman and Grand National winner Liam Treadwell) held little appeal when he was guaranteed regular spins at weekends on the point-to-point circuit.
At Tattersalls Cheltenham with parents Elaine and Mike in March 2024 on the day he sold No Drama This End (Ce)
As the 2010/11 point-to-point season opened he was encouraged by Ian Popham to join him in schooling at the Dorset yard of legendary trainer Richard Barber, and a few months later he picked up five rides for the stable at Larkhill, rode a double and began establishing a relationship that was to carry him to a raft of titles. Other riders for the yard at that time included Popham and Ryan Mahon, who both became conditional jockeys, and while Barber’s grandson Jack was also involved his ambition was to train.
Reflecting on that auspicious Larkhill debut, Biddick says: “Venetia had asked me to take a ride for her and I said ‘I can’t, I’ve got my first rides for Richard Barber’. I finished fourth on the first one and third on an odds-on shot in the next, and I was thinking ‘what am I doing wrong?’. Then Richard pulled me to one side, told me how to ride the course and the next two won.”
Third to Richard Burton in the national men’s championship marked a good return to the amateur sport, and the following year, having been made Barber’s no.1 rider, Biddick homed in on the first of eight titles, his 42 wins leaving him 14 clear of runner-up John Mathias.
With Gina Andrews after they collected national titles for the 2022/23 season (Neale Blackburn)
The Barber/Biddick combination continued for two more title-winning seasons until Barber announced his retirement at the end of the 2013/14 season. Appropriately Biddick rode the boss’s final runner, Whataknight, and the pair beat 11 rivals to win a Bratton Down maiden.
As one Barber door closed for Biddick, another opened as Jack set about creating a yard along the road from his grandfather’s stables. The transition proved seamless, the winners flowed and, with Biddick also receiving backing from a number of other yards he landed a fourth title with a score of 68, more than double that of runner-up Mathias and a British record which remains intact.
Two more titles followed while Barber supplied the bulk of the winning ammunition, but his decision in 2018 to become a licensed trainer removed the tools Biddick needed to win the title, and while Ed Walker among others provided winners the champion had to settle for second place behind Alex Edwards.
Winning on the Jack Barber-trained Chapoturgeon at Woodford in 2016 (Ce)
The hunger for more had not left, however, and Biddick roared to a seventh title in 2018/19 when reversing placings with Edwards and notching the second of two wins in Punchestown’s Champion Hunters’ Chase. Both victories came on Caid Du Berlais, trained by Rose Loxton. Since 2000 just three British horses have won that race, the others being Baby Run, who carried Sam Twiston-Davies to victory in 2009 and Bob And Co who scored under David Maxwell in 2021.
James King has since become the man to beat in the men’s championship and has won four titles, but Biddick headed him in 2022/23, a season in which he opened with a win at Larkhill on Great Schema from the stable of the latest member of the Barber family to train, Jack’s cousin Chris.
Then based near his family home on the Dorset/Somerset border, Chris Barber was to help Biddick to more than a championship, for he trained (and still does) Famous Clermont. With Biddick in the saddle Famous Clermont won Haydock’s Walrus Hunters’ Chase in 2023 (Biddick won that race again on My Drogo in February this year) and two months’ later landed the Randox Foxhunters’ Chase.
Triumphant on the Chris Barber-trained Famous Clermont at Aintree in 2023 (Debbie Burt)
It is a pity that one of Britain’s finest amateur riders, and a strong candidate to be named the most stylish, failed to win Cheltenham’s Festival (formerly Foxhunters’) Chase, and that sense is heightened because Biddick was denied the chance to ride the 2021 winner Porlock Bay, who he trained for John Studd. Covid restrictions meant amateur sport was severely curtailed, and therefore hunters’ chases were restricted to professional jockeys. Lorcan Williams therefore deputised for Biddick and duly won the race, although the trainer has always maintained he felt no sense of loss, just utter pleasure at seeing the horse he trained land the spoils.
Of the future Biddick said: “There’s lots going on. I’ve always trained a few horses from yards that were dotted around, or had pre-trainers to earn a bit of money, and things have evolved from there.” He is now based at a yard near Yeovil owned by his father-in-law, Rupert Nuttall, and from there is training pointers and handling breakers and horses out of training.
He said: “Absolutely no way do I want to train under rules. Travelling round the country doesn’t float my boat. I’m married with two young boys.”
Buying stores and converting them into young racehorses is right up his street, no better example being No Drama This End, who he trained and rode to make a winning debut at Badbury Rings last year, and who yesterday won the Gr.1 Challow Hurdle at Newbury for Paul Nicholls. Biddick said: “It was pretty special to think that horse came through us.
“I’ve not got anyone in mind to take over the riding from me. I’ll just use friends and acquaintances for the time being.”
Biddick the trainer/rider winning on Regatta De Blanc at Cheltenham in May 2024 (Ce)
Biddick’s stat pack
Born: 27th December 1986 to Mike and Elaine Biddick
Married: Harriet Nuttall, sons Archie and Oliver
First ride: Just Bert (2nd), February 1, 2003
First winner: Let’s Fly, Stafford Cross, April 25, 2004
Final winner: Another Furlough (Harry Ryall), Badbury Rings, November 16, 2025
Total winners: 705
British point-to-point winners: 623 (British record)
Record set: Upcott Cross, April 2019, winner no.415 (passing Richard Burton’s total)
First Cheltenham Festival placing: Mon Mome (2nd) Fulke Walwyn/Kim Muir Chase 2006
Cheltenham Festival win: Something Wells, Freddie Williams Plate, 2009 (one of three winners as a conditional based with Venetia Williams, but returned to amateur status summer 2010)
Featured hunters’ chase wins: Punchestown Champion Hunters’ Chase 2018 and 2019 on Caid Du Berlais (trained by Rose Loxton). Randox Foxhunter’s Chase 2023 on Famous Clermont (Chris Barber)
Classic point-to-point wins: Coronation Cup 2013 Mendip Express (Richard Barber), 2015 Benedictus (Jack Barber), 2024 Regatta De Blanc (Will Biddick)
Cheltenham Festival win as a trainer: Porlock Bay, St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase 2021 (amateurs could not ride due to Covid restrictions, so Lorcan Williams deputised)
National champion: Eight, a men’s record shared with David Turner. Six in a row from 2011/12 to 2016/17. 2018/19 and 2022/23
National title placings: 3rd to Richard Burton in 2010/11, 2nd to Alex Edwards in 2017/18, 3rd to Jack Andrews 2019/20, 2nd to James King 2020/21, 2021/22 & 2023/24
Most British point-to-point wins in a season: 68 in 2014/15 (British record)
Breakdown of victories: Total wins 705. British point-to-point 623, Irish point-to-point 2, British races under rules 77, Irish races under rules 2, British Flat 1
