Flying jockey Freddie Keighley is set to return to Cheltenham Racecourse on Friday, just three weeks after he wowed racegoers with a win that will live long in the memory.

And the 17-year-old is hoping to be reunited with De Temps En Temps, the horse who gave him that moment he’ll treasure forever.

Trainer Martin Keighley, Freddie’s dad, has entered the six-year-old in both the Lycetts Insurance Brokers Hurdle race for Conditional Jockeys over two miles five furlongs and the Valda Energy Hurdle over two miles, on day one of the three-day November Meeting and will choose which race is most suitable nearer the time.  

Freddie, a conditional jockey with top trainer Paul Nicholls, would love to complete what would be a hugely impressive race double after last month’s victory in the novices’ hurdle over two-and-a-half miles.  

The win on the 22-1 outsider was his first at the home of National Hunt racing and Freddie said: “It was a dream come true.

“Although he was a big price I really believed he was the perfect horse round Cheltenham over that distance, as he’s got the speed for two miles but he can see out three miles.”

The one-time Cotswold School pupil was proved absolutely right, of course.

And the fact that the horse was trained by his dad, who is based at Condicote in the heart of the Cotswolds, made it just that bit more special, although Freddie added with a laugh: “I’ll take winning for any trainer!”

Freddie has had plenty of support from his parents, of course, and his mum Belinda was driving him to Sedgefield, where he had a ride, when he spoke to The Local Answer.  

Freddie, who went on to win on the Nicholls-trained Absolutely Doyen at the County Durham track, was always destined to follow his parents into the world of racing.

He was  just 11 days old when his mum took him to the Cheltenham Festival for the first time and he said: “Basically, I was born on a horse.

“I’ve always been around horses, I love horses and being a jockey is something I’ve always wanted to do.  

“I was a member of the Cotswold Vale Pony Club with pony club camp every year at Cheltenham Racecourse, then I was a part of the Shetland Pony Grand National, which taught me a lot and was brilliant fun and then I did some pony racing too. 

“I started riding out racehorses in the first part of lockdown and it went from there, I did my apprenticeship at mum and dad’s and went point-to-pointing where I had a couple of winners."

And he didn’t have to wait long for his first winner under Rules, steering home Prairie Diamond, who is trained by his dad, in a two-and-a-half mile handicap hurdle at Wincanton in November last year.

He was still an amateur back then and said: “I’d had about 15 rides and winning for the first time was something I’d always dreamed about, it was very, very good.”

At the time of writing he’d ridden 11 winners in his career, a number that is sure to increase dramatically now he is working for Nicholls.

The young Freddie did school work experience at Nicholls’ stables when he was 15, so moving to Ditcheat in Somerset in July wasn’t as big an upheaval as it may have been.

“He spoke to me at the Cheltenham Festival,” said Freddie. “He said he hadn’t got a 7lb claimer.

“I didn’t have to think about moving, I bit his hand off, I was never going to say no to a 14-times champion trainer. It’s a big step but I want to make a name for myself like all the other jockeys he’s had.”

Many of those jockeys make up a who’s who of National Hunt racing – Ruby Walsh, Sam Twiston-Davies and current stable jockey Harry Cobden – and Freddie added: “You never know when another opportunity like this will come around again.”

And he’s certainly going to make the most of the opportunity he’s been given.

Two days after his win at Cheltenham he was in the winner’s enclosure again, this time at Fontwell, and he said: “I'd obviously love to win any of the big races and the aim has to be to become champion jockey one day.

“I think if you go into sport – any sport – you’ve got to want to be the best. You’ve got to have drive, determination and a clear mindset.”

Freddie showed all of that in abundance at Cheltenham last month and he’s looking forward to riding many more winners around what is still his home course.

“Cheltenham is very good, the atmosphere is special,” he said. “As soon as you arrive at the course, it gives you goosebumps.”