Gordon Hall and his wife Su have been living the dream from the moment £55,000 purchase Truckers Lodge set foot on the racecourse. The couple team up with top trainer Nicky Henderson at the 2026 Cheltenham Festival
Gordon Hall’s racing ritual is to wear the same pair of socks, kiss a lucky coin and keep his nerves in check with a couple of pints of Guinness.
Many good things come in threes – and with two fancied Festival contenders from just ten horses – the owner daren’t make any changes.
Hall went from being a racing fan on the sofa to paying six figures for top thoroughbreds, thanks to the success of his construction company TJ Hall. He is now the envy of others with Supreme Novices’ Hurdle favourite Old Park Star and Turners fancy Act Of Innocence in his select squad.
“We are in a lucky situation,” said Hall, 61, who shares his sporting passion with his wife Su and daughter Elle.
“The business has done well and increased in size, so we have had the money to buy some lovely horses.”
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Hunt is happy overseeing operations at the family firm which was named after his dad Tom and fits out offices, hospitals and schools.
The boss even went in to work on his birthday, February 5, pausing for a quick tea break to tune into live coverage of Act Of Innocence scooting clear in the Listed Sidney Banks Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon.
“We were expecting these two young horses with Nicky (Henderson) to be nice,” said Hall. “But every time they run, they seem to get better and better.
“They love to tear into the hurdles and then look for the next one. Both have been having a whale of a time – it’s really important our horses enjoy what they do and have a nice retirement.”
In awe of Kauto Star, the only horse to win a Grade One chase in seven consecutive seasons and his superstar stablemate Big Buck’s, Hall sent his first thoroughbred Truckers Lodge to Paul Nicholls.
The dour stayer repaid his £55,000 purchase price four times over, ploughing through the mud for an 18-length supremacy in the 2020 Midlands National at Uttoxeter.
Now aged 14, ‘Trucker’ is happily munching on the grass in front of Hall’s house, with his summer equine pals split between four trainers – Henderson, Ben Pauling, Jeremy Scott and Olly Murphy.
“We had eight very good years with Paul and there was no fall out,” said Hall, a former master of the Readyfield Bloodhounds.
“I apply what I do in business to racehorse ownership and the trainers prove themselves against each other. I thought a change might pay off.”
Thankfully for Hall – and his bar tab – Old Park Star opens the show in the first race of 28, when the future chaser will cross the starting line to the sound of the ‘Cheltenham roar’.
One of the ‘bankers’ of the entire week, the £140,000 buy will raise the roof if he can get punters off to a flyer under Nico de Boinville.
“Nico comes back in with a cheeky grin on his face after riding him so we know he’s good,” added Hall. “He stormed up the hill at the December meeting – it was like the others were standing still.
“It’ll take a good one to beat him.”
