News

PHIL HALL: Pictured winning the 2008/09 Crawley & Horsham Confined on Delgany Gale
photo: Phil Britt

Our popular ‘Pilots in Profile' series returns for the new season, with Phil Hall being the first to give us an insight.

Phil is one of the South East area's leading riders; he has been Area champion on two occasions, in 2005 and 2007. At the start of this season he had ridden 67 winners, including nine in Hunter Chases, eight of which have been at Folkestone and the other at Fontwell, so no problems with the ‘F' word in the Hall household!

His father Christopher is currently chairman of World Horse Welfare (formerly known as the International League for the Protection of Horses).

Date of birth: 25.02.73 (ouch)

Marital status: Married to former successful Point-to-Point rider Pippa (nee Ellison). We have two daughters, Ruby, (aged five) and Martha (three).

Job or profession: Lloyd's underwriter - sports disability insurance.

Are you from a racing background? If not, how did you get started in Point-to-Pointing? My father rode and trained his own horses, going on to Steward extensively. Mum trained Pointers at home and still Stewards under Rules; we've always had horses about. Both my parents have at one time been Chairman of the Southdown & Eridge hunt.

What was your first ride in public? In April 1990 I rode my mother's Hunter, Crackerjack, in the Hunt race at Heathfield. He was a three-quarter bred and we thought quite speedy - I couldn't hold him and I think we ran him in a gag. I was competitive...for about three-quarters of a mile! He was a super jumper and it was a great way to start.

First winner - name of the horse, owner & trainer, the date & the course: The 14-year-old Glenavey, owned by my brother Colin and trained by my mother Susanna, in our Hunt race [the Southdown & Eridge] at Heathfield on 2nd April 1995. I was having the season off to concentrate on my finals but Colin had gone skiing so I got the leg-up - I was actually quite good at beer drinking at University and was as fat as butter, so I just squeaked in under 12st7lbs! I'd previously been second twice and third twice in the race, so I think it was just about my turn to win. Glenavey went on to win it with Colin the following two years, aged 15 and 16.

Apart from the first winner, what has been your most memorable ride? A very hard one to call, but Satchmo edges it when we were fourth in the 2004 Liverpool Fox Hunters behind Forest Gunner. I had a dream ride until four out, where I went long which caught him out a bit. He went down on his nose and then partially lost his hind end as he recovered. I thought I would have been second without that mistake, but Thomas Greenall, who did finish runner-up, assured me the other day that there had been no chance of me beating Sikander A Azam - I'm not so sure! It was all academic, as we would never have caught Forest Gunner and we still got to unsaddle in the old Aintree enclosure, which to my uneducated mind was a bit like praying in the Sistine Chapel!

Then proceeded a typical Brightling-fuelled evening on the tiles of Liverpool; we ended up calling it quits at about 5.30am in the Adelphi. Quite a day!

The following year I won on Satchmo at the United Hunts meeting at Folkestone to bring up the second leg of a double, which was pretty damn special as well.

Is there a ride you look back on and think "could have done better?" "A" ride? Just one or two!

For which trainers to you mainly ride? Apart from our own yard, Di/Rose Grissell and Peter and Alison Hickman. Most others if they offer!

Who has been most influential on your riding career so far? My parents got me going and have always been supportive and enthusiastic from the word go. When I was 14 they sent me off to ride out for Jeffrey Peate, who was a great character. Latterly it has been a delight to ride for Di Grissell and be a part of her team at Brightling - the extensive celebrations when things go according to plan aren't too shabby either.

Which are your favourite courses? And for what reasons? I loved Parham as a proper stayers' track where you could really get your horse into a rhythm, but last year they turned it the other way round - the jury is still out as to whether it is a success.

Godstone is our home track and I have ridden two trebles there, although it would appear that Nick Pearce has got the hang of the place now, which has made life rather harder!

What car do you drive? A c**p Volvo V40 estate with 105,000 miles on the clock. Glamorous she isn't!

Name your perfect night in and perfect night out: In is half a dozen friends for dinner. Out - pints of bitter and a decent steak in the local.

Where do you like to go on holiday? France is good - the food is excellent, the weather delightful and you don't have to fight your way through an airport to get there.

Who would be your ideal travelling companions to the races? Simon Cowell's got quite a smart car so we could take his - and armed with a vehicle like that Sienna Miller might think about joining us.

What's currently on your iPod? I've been a bit remiss updating my collection over the last couple of months, but I love Ian Brown and White Lies, while my kids are properly into Dizzee Rascal at the moment!

What are your favourite films and TV programmes? I find "Notting Hill" to be a real tear-jerker on a hangover. When I'm more balanced, anything murderous and twisted.

What has been either your own funniest incident, or the most amusing thing you have seen or heard at the races? I tend to find people fighting quite entertaining and have witnessed plenty of handbag action over the years, which always tickles me.

Perhaps the funniest was when I was riding at Cottenham and tried to get up the inside of an experienced old rider. He saw me coming and went to shut me out; what he didn't see was that I had accepted my fate and taken a pull. It was too late - he was riding hard with his head down and didn't notice where the track had been dolled off. He rode straight into one of the dolls and went A over T - happy he distinctly wasn't!

Who are your biggest heroes in racing? The poetic genius of Paul Carberry is hard to get near (Unguided Missile at Cheltenham in 1998), although I have loyalty to Choc Thornton as an Englishman with flair - he was born at our hunt kennels a few miles away so he is by definition a product of the South East!

Which particular horse (in any discipline) would you like to ride? My feet are firmly in the Denman camp, but I'm also a big fan of Pancake's. He's a lovely big horse, and I wouldn't mind him as a Pointer if his connections wanted to give him away!

Apart from race-riding, in what other sports do you participate? I don't get a massive amount of time but I love most types of sport. I captain the South East jockeys' cricket team (I am as equally hopeless as my East Anglian counterpart, Alex Vaughan-Jones, but fortunately Stuart Robinson has a bit of an idea what is going on) and I try to play five-a-side when I am back from London in time.

Do you have any regrets in your riding career to date? My therapist says I shouldn't focus on the negatives. But no, none at all.

What ambitions do you have in racing? The clock is definitely ticking, but a ride at the Festival and another trip to Aintree would be the icing on the cake. Considering my ultimate ambition when I started was just to have a ride round Plumpton, most of my boxes are ticked.

What is your opinion on December racing? It's too early for me, but I am all in favour of it. It is very competitive and at least some of the decent horses have done their winning and will hopefully clear the way for some slightly easier competition in January and February, when we tend to get going.

What are your opinions on the changes in Point-to-Pointing in recent years, and what changes do you think would benefit the sport in the future? I think most of the changes have been very positive and that on the whole the sport has been governed very well. On the future change front, anything to create a greater equilibrium between early meetings (good ground and runners versus bad crowds) and the late (firm ground and poor fields versus huge crowds) would help hugely. We have a support fund in the South East so that cash-rich late meetings help balance the books of the early ones who take a meeting "for the team," but a situation to incentivise meetings on better ground would always help.

Back to Top