John Hughes buys Cheltenham pitch made famous by Freddie Williams

John Hughes has doubled his front-line presence in the Tattersalls betting jungle at the Cheltenham Festival after outbidding his rivals for the next door pitch, put up for auction by Julie Williams.

Williams, daughter of legendary layer Freddie Williams, was delighted her late father's number two Tattersalls pitch has gone to Hughes, who was equally pleased to make the winning bid at £165,000.

Hughes said on Monday: "It's sad to see Julie go, as we have worked alongside each other for ten years and got on well and I was worried who else might buy it.

"Freddie was the most famous bookmaker at Cheltenham for years and I remember going to the first auction [in 1998] with him when I bought the number one pitch and he bought his.

"It will be hard to fill Freddie's shoes as he fearlessly took on the punters but it was the obvious step to take as I always think good pitches are going to hold their value.

"That's why I bought the number one pitch at Epsom and Ascot last year."

Legendary bookmaker Freddie Williams: 'It will be hard to fill his shoes'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Williams also sold her Cheltenham 'off-meetings' number two pitch, which covers the fixtures outside of the four days of the festival and the November meeting, for £85,000 to John Hooper, who trades as Sid Hooper and recently bought the William Hill pitches.

It was a tense final seconds on Monday in the online auction run by the Administration of Gambling on Tracks Ltd (AGT), as Williams revealed: "I needed more nerves of steel than with Willie Mullins' hotpots. Literally 30 seconds before the end of the auction the bid was nowhere near the reserve - it was £112,000 before jumping the £53,000!

"I knew John was keen to get it and I'm delighted for him - I'll probably have to take him cups of tea when I'm down there."

While it is not a like-for-like sale with the racecourses now leasing tenure of the pitches, Hughes is right in his assessment that good pitches hold their value as 'Fearless' Freddie Williams bought the festival pitch for £90,000 in 1998.

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