Jim Lewis, the owner of legendary three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate and passionate Aston Villa fan, has died aged 88.
Lewis raced all his horses in claret and blue colours, based on Aston Villa's 1957 FA Cup-winning strip, and was never seen at the races without his Villa scarf.
He enjoyed a string of big races successes in the 1990s and early 2000s with horses who went on to become household names like Edredon Bleu, who won the Queen Mother Champion Chase and King George VI Chase in 2003.
None more so that Best Mate, trained by Henrietta Knight, who became the first horse since the all-time great Arkle to complete a hat-trick of Cheltenham Gold Cup victories in 2004.
With husband and former top jump jockey Terry Biddlecombe, Knight delivered consistent success for Lewis, who gained his first Cheltenham Festival success with Nakir in the 1994 Arkle Trophy.
“I was incredibly lucky to have an owner like Jim Lewis who had huge enthusiasm for the game and was very patient with his horses,” she said.
“He left the training of them to Terry and myself but hugely enjoyed discussing where they were going and how they were getting on.
“He was a colourful person and he was very much a part of the Best Mate era – he loved being in the pictures. We used to call him ‘Lucky Jim’ because he was lucky and he had some very nice horses that won some very big races.
“In those days it was extraordinary because there were no mobile phones or social media as there is today and all our correspondence was done on the fax machine.
“Every weekend I would send him a handwritten fax on how the horses were, he would reply to it and we would plan what we were doing.
“Everything was at a slower pace and it suited my way of training and the way we were with the horses – it was brilliant.”
Both superstitious, neither Lewis nor Knight would watch any races together but they would meet up in the winners’ enclosure after for joyous celebrations where Lewis would sing his ‘Best Mate’ song to the tune of Amazing Grace.
Knight said: “Those Gold Cups were magic and it was a pretty amazing day in 2000 when Edredon Bleu won the Queen Mother Champion Chase – that was a great day. We just had some great days and a lot of fun.
“I think Jim’s passing is a big reminder of how things were 20 years ago when everything was done much slower. We were amateur and it is much more professional now.”
