interview I lee westwood
It’s a well known fact that golf star LEE WESTWOOD is a racing fanatic. He tells TOM PEACOCK about his love of the sport, ambition to captain the Ryder Cup team, and how he backed 11 out of 12 winners on the first two days of the 2018 Festival FAIRWAY TO FURLONG
A day on the golf course is the first choice for plenty of us to relieve the stresses of working life. So too the racing professionals, many of whom disappear off for 18 holes whenever there’s a spare moment. What, though, if the game happens to be your day job? For former world number one Lee Westwood, a visit to Cheltenham is high on the relaxation agenda. “There aren’t many sports you can do when you’re a golfer that aren’t going to get you injured,” Westwood chuckles. “Luckily going and watching racing’s one of them.” The 45-year-old’s enduring career has allowed him
to be more than simply a spectator of the sport but his curiosity was piqued at an earlier age. “I think I first remember seeing racing at Christmas-time,” he recalls. “I was watching Kempton, the King George, on TV with my dad and grandad, and then races like the Grand National. “We didn’t really go racing when I was young. My dad followed it, not very seriously, but he always had an interest in the bigger meetings whenever they were on. “I might actually have even been racing at Southwell first, and then we went to places around Worksop, the area that I’m from. Tracks like Pontefract, Thirsk, Doncaster and Market Rasen. “It sort of took off from there. I earned a few quid playing golf and was able to buy a few horses and get involved in syndicates. I had two Flat horses and two jumpers and gradually got more and more into it and started to buy some better horses.” Westwood’s initial venture into ownership, however, proves that no-one is immune to finding themselves with a dud. “The first one I ever bought was with (local
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