Who was David Nicholson?

David ‘The Duke’ Nicholson, born on March 19, 1939, was the son of champion jockey Herbert ‘Frenchie’ Nicholson and, although he was never champion jockey himself, rode 583 winners, including Mill House in the 1967 Whitbread Gold Cup, now the Bet365 Gold Cup. Nicholson was known for his forthright attitude, bordering on arrogance, which led to him being nicknamed ‘The Duke’ from an early age, when apprenticed to his father.

Following his retirement from the saddle in April, 1974, Nicholson went on to become an even better trainer than he had been a jockey. All told, in a 31-year career, he saddled a total of 1,499 winners and won the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship twice, in 1993/94 and 1994/95, making him the only trainer other than Martin Pipe to win the trainers’ title between 1988/89 and 2004/05. Notable winners included Charter Party in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1988 and Viking Flagship in back-to-back renewals of the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1994 and 1995.

Nicholson, who died of a heart attack on August 27, 2006, is commemorated by the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle – known, for sponsorship purposes, as the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle and formerly as the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle – at the Cheltenham Festival, which was inaugurated in 2008 and is, nowadays, a Grade One contest.

Has a jockey ever won BBC Sports Personality of the Year?

Taking place every December, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award highlights those at the height of sporting achievement that year. All sports are eligible though the recipient has to be either British or for their sport to be mostly played in this country. A short list of contenders is drawn up and the general public vote for the eventual winner. A who’s who of sports greats have won the competition – which first took place in 1954 – over the years. Stirling Moss, Henry Cooper, Lennox Lewis, Andy Murrow, the list goes on. In 2019 cricketer Ben Stokes took the prize.

So how has the sport of horse racing fared over this period of time? Well, if we extend the classification to horse / equine sports in general, in the early years of BBC Sports Personality, Show Jumping did especially well. In the very first year it was held, Showjumper Pat Smythe came third and in 1960, Welshman David Broome, another Showjumper won the award.

Horse racing waited the longest time to receive Sports Personality recognition. It wasn’t until 1996 that jockey Frankie Dettori came third in the competition (due to his astonishing achievement of riding all seven winners at Ascot – now known as Frankie’s Magnificent Seven). In 2002 fellow jockey Tony Mccoy joined Frankie by grabbing third spot that year. In 2010, off the back of winning the Grand National riding Don’t Push It, he then went two steps better and became the first and only jockey to have won the Sports Personality of the Year award. In 2013 he against featured, this time placing third again.

With such a stellar career it’s no surprise Tony McCoy received recognition on a national level by sports and especially horse racing fans. The Irishman rode over 4000 winners over the course of his career and he was the British jump racing Champion Jockey a staggering 20 years in a row. Grand National aside, he’s also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, King George VI Chase, Queen Mother Champion Chase and countless other high profile races. In 2016 Mccoy was knighted, making him Sir Anthony Peter McCoy.

In 2021, jockey Rachael Blackmore became the first woman to ever win the Aintree Grand National on Minella Times (shamefully it wasn’t until the late 70s that the first female jockey even took part in the Grand National) . This was fresh from winning the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Rachael does most of her racing in Ireland and looks a certainty to win the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year (the Irish version of Sports Personality). Unfortunately it appears that Rachael Blackmore is ineligible for consideration for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2021 accolade. Current favourite for that accolade is Dina Asher-Smith.

 

 

Who is the most successful female jockey in Britain?

In short, the most successful female jockey in Britain is Hayley Turner OBE who, at the last count, had ridden 834 winners. Turner rode her first winner on Generate, trained by Mark Polglase, in an apprentice handicap at Pontefract on June 4, 2000. Five years later, at the age of 22, Turner became the first female Champion Apprentice, albeit jointly with Saleem Golam; her grand total of 60 winners was more than enough to see her past the 95 required to ride out her claim.

Thereafter, Turner has recorded several notable ‘firsts’ in her long, illustrious career. In 2008, she became the first female jockey to ride a hundred winners in a season. Three years later, she became the first female jockey to ride a Group One winner, when partnering Dream Ahead, trained by David Simcock, to victory in the Darley July Cup at Newmarket in July, 2011. Turner retired from riding at the end of the 2015 season but, shortly after being awarded an OBE for services to horse racing in June, 2016, briefly returned to the saddle to ride for the ‘Girls’ team in the Shergar Cup at Ascot.

Thereafter, Turner pursued an abortive career as a television presenter before returning to riding, full-time, in 2018, at the age of 35. In 2019, she became just the second female jockey, and the first for 32 years, to win a race at Royal Ascot.

On 10th April 2021, Rachael Blackmore won the Aintree Grand National on Minella Times; the first female jockey to ever do so. This was off the back of a Champions Hurdle win at the Cheltenham Festival (also becoming the first woman to win the Ruby Trophy for leading Cheltenham jockey in the process). As such Rachael Blackmore certainly has a claim to be called the most successful female jockey in Britain.

Grand National Offer – Win Your Money Back At The Steak Shop!

Here at The Steak Shop we pride ourselves on providing restaurant quality steaks and meats delivered directly to your door.

We supply thousands of customers from across the UK with some of the most sought after and specialty meats sourced from all corners of the globe but we also like to give something back and have a little bit of fun at the same time.

How does winning a voucher worth the full amount of your order sound?

That’s right, if you take part in our Grand National promo you could win a voucher for the total amount of your order so if you order £100 worth of steak and win, you’ll receive a £100 voucher back.There is no limit to this promo, if you’re supremely confident in your horse picking ability and order £5000 worth of steak and win then we’ll get a £5000 voucher back out to you.It really couldn’t be simpler!

Even if your horse doesn’t win outright, if your pick places 2nd – 4th in the race, you’ll still get a voucher worth 33% of your order so the odds really are in your favour.

How To Enter

1. Head to www.thesteakshop.co.uk and build your dream basket of steak and meat products.

2. Pick a horse to win (or place) and enter its name into the coupon text field e.g REDRUM

3. Watch the race with fingers crossed

4. If you’re a winner (or a placer) we’ll be in touch to get your voucher back out to you

Rules

1. Orders must be placed and received by 10th of April 2021

2. You must enter your horses name with no spaces into the promo code field within the basket

So if you fancy yourself as a bit of a horse whisperer and want the chance of getting your hands on some restaurant quality meat that you simply will not find anywhere else, especially not in supermarkets, then you really can’t afford to hang around.

Get over to www.thesteakshop.co.uk and place your order now

1 2 3 … 79