Gloucestershire racehorse trainer Martin Keighley has plenty to look forward to.

He’s closing in on 400 career winners, his teenage son Freddie is one of the top conditional jockeys in the land and the Cheltenham Festival is just around the corner.

The Cheltenham Festival, which this year gets under way on Tuesday 10^th March, is the highlight of the jumps calendar, of course, and the 51-year-old Keighley is excited to be sending a small team of horses to the four-day spectacular.

“We have some nice horses going there that deserve to take their chance and I’m very much looking forward to it,” he told The Local Answer.

At the time of writing, Keighley, who has 40 horses in training, had saddled 16 winners this season.

His best campaign was in 2021/22 when he sent out 43 winners and he said: “We do well for a small yard and we do well at Cheltenham.

“The horses often seem to run well at Cheltenham, maybe because our gallops aren’t dissimilar to the Cheltenham Hill, but I also think it could be because they don’t have too far to travel there.”

Keighley, who is based in Condicote in the heart of the Cotswolds, has enjoyed 25 winners at the home of National Hunt racing and he added: “Any winner at any meeting at Cheltenham is special.”

And the most special was the most recent when his son Freddie achieved a lifetime’s ambition, aged just 17, when he rode De Temps En Temps to victory – his first at Cheltenham – in the novices’ hurdle over two-and-a-half miles in October, beating champion jockey Sean Bowen in a driving finish.

“That was a very special day, one we will never forget,” said his proud dad.

That win was De Temps En Temps’ second of the season – Freddie had ridden him to victory in a two-mile maiden hurdle at Uttoxeter three weeks earlier – and he is just one of several horses who has put a spring in the Keighley step over the past few months.

It’s fair to say Keighley has come a long way since leaving Ossett in West Yorkshire as a 16-year-old.

He was lucky enough to link up with two-times champion trainer David Nicholson, who was based in Condicote back then, and he rode a handful of winners as a conditional jockey.

His biggest win came for fellow Cotswolds trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, however, aboard King’s Road in the Champion Bumper at Aintree.

“He went on to win the Hennessy Gold Cup,” added Keighley.

Keighley retired as a jockey at the age of 25 after riding nine winners – “I certainly wasn’t as good as Freddie!” he said – but he was soon making his mark as a trainer.

Initially he trained point-to-pointers, but he had his first winner under Rules in 2002/03 and since 2009/10 has reached double figures for winners every year except 2020/21 when the season was cut short because of Covid.

And he’s had some good horses too, with Annacotty winning the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day in 2013.

“That was our biggest win,” said Keighley, who also had great success with Champion Court back in the day.

Champion Court claimed three Grade 2 wins and also finished second in the novices’ chase on the penultimate day of the Cheltenham Festival in 2012.

Keighley, who is easy to interview, has unfinished business at the Cheltenham Festival after suffering a huge disappointment 10 years ago following Aidan Coleman’s victory aboard Any Currency in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase.

The horse was later disqualified when a urine sample showed traces of a prohibited substance.

The British Horseracing Authority did not fine Keighley, who was cleared of any wrongdoing, but in August 2016 victory was awarded to the runner-up Josies Orders.

“I was a Festival-winning trainer for six months,” reflected Keighley, who is aiming Escaria Ten at this year’s Cross Country Chase.

He finished eighth in last year’s race and Keighley said: “He ran a cracking race on Trials Day to finish third and we just hope his rating is high enough and he doesn’t get balloted out.”

Escaria Ten is one of a number of runners Keighley is targeting at this year’s Festival.

“De Temps En Temps will have an entry in the Coral Cup and the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle,” he said.

“Sonic Pioneer has entries in the Fred Winter and the Triumph Hurdle, while Yes Indeed will have entries in the TrustATrader Plate and The Grand Annual.”

Moments Away might have an entry in the Johnny Weatherby Champion Bumper while Hung Jury, who has won twice at Cheltenham over the past year, is likely to run in the Kim Muir or the National Hunt Chase.

“Turndlightsdownlow has won twice at Kempton and was second at Sandown at Wincanton. He’ll have an entry in the Pertemps, the Coral Cup and the Martin Pipe, while Continuance has an entry in the County Hurdle,” added Keighley.

Freddie Keighley rode Turndlightsdownlow to his two victories at Kempton, but these days he’s a conditional jockey with top trainer Paul Nicholls.

He still rides for his dad, but how would his dad feel if he was neck and neck on a rival trainer’s horse against one of his own, as they approached the last at this year’s Festival?

“That’s a really good question, it’s something we have joked about,” Keighley laughed.

“I’d have to say with my trainer’s hat on that I’d want my horse to win and Freddie has far more years left to win there than I have, but it would be a very nice position to be in!”