Season 1 · Episode 2

Legends of Welsh Sport: Norton’s Coin

In 1990, Carmarthenshire-based dairy farmer Sirrell Griffiths, who kept horses for a hobby, entered a horse into one of racing's most prestigious competitions, the Cheltenham Gold Cup... by mistake. Sirrell had his eye set on another race at the festival but missed the deadline, and the only race left to enter was the Gold Cup. Trained in the mountains and beaches of west Wales through unorthodox methods, Sirrell's horse, Norton’s Coin, was gearing up to shock the racing world. Sirrell was a permit holder, which meant he could only train his own horses, so whilst professionals were training with 60 horses at a time, Sirrell had just three horses in his stable. We retell this true underdog story of the 100 to 1 shot that won the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup. With interviews from Sirrell and the Griffiths family, the winning jockey, Graham McCourt and renowned rider Richard Dunwoody.