LUKE LITTLER has taken the sporting world by storm – but there’s an 18-year-old jockey already drawing comparisons to the darts sensation.
Three years after losing his mum to cancer, Freddie Gingell hit the bullseye on 22-1 outsider Elixir Du Nutz at Cheltenham’s big Trials day last Saturday.
The emotionally-charged defeat of Nicky Henderson’s red-hot 4-11 fav Jonbon in the rearranged Clarence House Chase sent shockwaves around the racing world.
Not only for the manner in which Gingell kept his cool in a nail-biting finish, but for how the win puts him ahead of icons such as AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh and Barry Geraghty.
Gingell, whose uncle Joe trains the ten-year-old Haldon Gold Cup winner Elixir De Nutz, sealed his first Grade 1 win aged just 18 and 37 days.
Champion jockeys Johnson and Walsh got there at 18 as well in 1996 and 1998 respectively, but both were more than 100 days older than Gingell.
And the teenage jockey is three whole years ahead of 20-time champ McCoy, who rode his first Grade 1 winner in 1996 at the positively elderly age of 21.
Reflecting on his breakthrough win and slice of history, Gingell told Racing Post: “I had absolutely no idea I was ahead of those big names. It’s mad.
“Days like Saturday are the ones you dream of so it was unreal.”
Only Jack Kennedy, who went on to become the youngest jockey ever to win the Gold Cup, has been quicker reaching the sport’s top tier, winning a Grade 1 at 17 back in 2016.
For all the joy, there was a sadness too that Gingell’s mum, Kim, could not be there to watch.
She passed away from cancer aged just 43 in 2020.
Following his first winner in February 2022, the youngster remembered his mum when he said: “Mum is probably up there crying now, wishing all the best to me.
“It is a shame that she can’t be here to see it but that is life. She wanted me to do my best.”
A few years on, he has done just that, sparking comparisons to 17-year-old phenom Littler.
The darts genius enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame when he became the youngest ever player to reach the PDC World Darts Championship Final earlier this month when he was still 16.
And though he lost to Luke Humphries he won next time out in Bahrain and is arguably the most talked-about sportsman in the country right now.
With Saturday’s triumph under his belt, who’s to say Gingell couldn’t be racing’s own Littler?
He’ll have to win a few more times to justify such lofty comparisons…
But he still hasn’t ridden out his 5lb claim so will be a tempting jockey for any trainer looking to knock off a bit of weight on their handicap runners at the Festival.
First, though, comes – hopefully – a shot at more Grade 1 glory in the Champion Chase.
Gingell added: “Elixir De Nutz’s owner Mr Warner has been very good to me and I might be able to keep the ride on him.
“He’ll go to the Champion Chase, there’s six weeks until Cheltenham, and that’d be pretty special.”
