Paperboy who read his way to the racecourse

IT HAS been a long journey from his boyhood in Birmingham where Jim Lewis once delivered newspapers to becoming the owner of valuable racehorses and a man of some wealth.

As he earned his pocket money young Lewis would often keep customers waiting for their delivery as he thumbed through the sports racing section before pushing the papers through the letterboxes.

These days Lewis is a very contented man. He met his wife, Valerie, 50 years ago this month.

The pair used to sneak into the city's old Bromford Bridge racecourse, where Lewis made promises that showed his ambition.

"I was 16 and Valerie was 14," he recalled. "We stood on the hill overlooking Bromford Bridge and I said, 'One day, we'll have a house, we'll have a Jaguar car, and I'll buy you a racehorse.' "I thought, 'You smooth old bugger!' But we finally made it."

So, if you're a militant owner, disgruntled at prize-money levels and considering strike action, don't ring Lewis to join the picket line. It's just not worth the cost of the call.

The 66-year-old owner of the Henrietta Knight-trained chasers Edredon Bleu and Best Mate, is having the time of his life these days. He doesn't even care if the prize purses are hardly worth banking.

"I think I would be a little ungrateful if I had a complaint right now, wouldn't you?" he says, with a wry smile.

Edredon Bleu, who won Cheltenham's Champion Chase last March under another inspired Tony McCoy ride, made a successful reappearance nine days ago in Huntingdon's Grade 2 Peterborough Chase - his third triumph in that race.

Now the eight-year-old is being aimed at the 50th running of the Grade 1 Pertemps King George VI Chase over three miles at Kempton Park on Boxing Day before returning to Cheltenham to defend his two- mile title.

Meanwhile, Best Mate, second in the Supreme Novices' at Cheltenham, has a record of two wins from two runs over fences, which he will seek to extend in the Grade 2 Henry VIII Novices' Chase at Sandown on Saturday, with a return to the National Hunt Festival for the Arkle Challenge Trophy his long-term objective.

And Lewis feels his horses couldn't be better prepared: "The owners who have horses at West Lockinge Farm in Oxfordshire are getting double the value for money.

"They have Henrietta Knight, who is absolutely brilliant at getting a horse right, and also Terry Biddlecombe, who was a three times champion jockey. He is an absolute master when it comes to getting a plan mapped out for a race."

Lewis has been able to afford being part of the sport of kings due to the importing of pine and upholstered furniture. He sold his remaining half-share in the business for an undisclosed sum last March, to become, as he puts it, "an apprentice pensioner".

"If you've got leather furniture or pine, there is a fair percentage chance that it's some of mine," he says. Lewis registered his racing colours - claret and blue stripes - copying the 1957 FA Cupwinning jersey of his much-loved Aston Villa - and owned his first horse, Pearl Prospect, in the mid-1980s.

His biggest success before Edredon Bleu was with Nakir in the Arkle Chase at the 1994 National Hunt Festival. The horse was ready for the occasion, even if his owner was still green.

"I have played football at a fairly high level and was in amateur cup finals, but when I walked through the gates my legs were like jelly that day," he says.

Victories for Edredon Bleu in the 1998 Grand Annual Chase and this year's Queen Mother Chase have helped Lewis acclimatise.

While Best Mate will appear on Saturday's Sandown card, Edredon Bleu is a likely absentee from the Tingle Creek Chase. But that doesn't mean Lewis lacks an interest - he will be shouting for Direct Route, his horse's short-head victim in the Queen Mother.

"The one we want to win is my old mate Direct Route. I went home from Cheltenham last March and there was a fax waiting on my machine. It was from Direct Route's trainer Howard Johnson's wife, Susan.

"It read: 'I hope that Direct Route absolutely screams the Tingle Creek.'" With a chaser who is top-class at two to two and a half miles, many owners would see no need to venture beyond that. But Lewis has high hopes of the gelding's chances at his first attempt over three miles in the King George.

"We had always hoped he would get further and, the older he has got, he has given an indication that he would get further," Lewis says.

Win, lose or draw at Kempton, Lewis says: "Mustn't grumble."

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