Jim Lewis: Owner of triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate dies
- Published
Jim Lewis, second left, with jockey Jim Culloty and Best Mate
Jim Lewis, the owner of triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate, has died at the age of 88.
Best Mate won a third Gold Cup in 2004, becoming the first horse since Arkle 40 years earlier to seal the treble.
Trained by Henrietta Knight and ridden by Jim Culloty, the horse ran in the claret and blue colours of Lewis' beloved Aston Villa.
Lewis and friends had a Best Mate anthem, singing the words 'Best Mate' to the tune of Amazing Grace.
"He was a great racehorse - there can have been very few in the world like him," said the affable Brummie of Best Mate.
Before his first Gold Cup win, Lewis said: "Don't look back if you can't smile. Don't look forward if you can't dream."
His widow Jennifer told BBC Midlands Today that Lewis died on Sunday due to kidney failure.
As an owner, Lewis also enjoyed success with the likes of Edredon Bleu, who won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 2000 and the 2003 King George VI Chase, and Impek.
He ran the SilentNight bed company, then set up his own furniture importing business.
His business success allowed him to indulge in his lifelong passion for jump racing - he recruited Henrietta Knight, who trained alongside husband Terry Biddlecombe, after reading an article about her in a magazine.
Best Mate died after a suspected heart attack at Exeter Racecourse in 2005 and his ashes were laid to rest by Cheltenham's winning post.
Lewis' racing colours were modelled on Aston Villa's 1957 FA Cup-winning strip. He and his entourage wore Villa scarves at the races.
Lewis paraded the Gold Cup at Villa Park, home of his beloved Aston Villa