Up until recently, Jonathan Davies’ involvement with horses had been limited to two saddle-less rides in his playing days, both in somewhat surreal circumstances. But that’s all changed now with his part ownership of “Jiffy Boy”, a two-year-old that has just recorded its first victory.
It won a five furlong race on the flat at Leicester on Friday afternoon, having finished third on its debut at Doncaster last week. With Welsh jockey David Probert at the reins, Jiffy Boy romped home to triumph by a comfortable margin, much to the delight of the dual-code great he is named after. So how has Davies' new role as a racehorse owner come about?
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“I share it with Cross Channel Racing. They asked me if I would be interested and I said yeah,” he explains. “They sent me some choices and I picked him out. He is the grandson of Galileo, who won The Derby, so he must have a little bit of genes in him.
“They said do ‘Do you want to name it?’ so I named it Jiffy Boy. It was either going to be Trimsaran Boy or Jiffy Boy. I have got no idea about horses, to be honest. I was just like the general punter, but I have obviously got an interest now.
“If you name a horse and have a little share in it, you have an interest, don’t you? He came third in his first race, now he’s come first. He looked alright actually. He ran well and didn’t look like losing. Lovely!”
So what about Davies’ previous equine experience?
“I’ve been on a horse twice,” he reveals. "When I was about 18, I came out of a hotel bar in Burry Port and there was a horse in the field. Someone bet me I wouldn’t ride it, so I jumped on it and rode it round the field, pi**ed up, in my suit, with no saddle.
“Then, a few years later, me and Ieuan Evans had to ride a horse at the Patagonia Sevens for the TV cameras. No saddle again, hanging on for dear life on the prairies.”
Davies is more than happy to watch on as someone else takes on the riding duties with Jiffy Boy, who raced home at 4/1 in Leicester.
“All my mates are going ‘Why you didn’t tell me?’ If I’d told them and it had lost, I’m in the s**t,” he quips.
Those mates and a fair few others will no doubt be looking out with a keen eye for the next time Jiffy Boy takes to the track.
