Tag: jockeys

In which season did Tony McCoy ride most winners?

Undoubtedly the greatest National Hunt jockey in history, Sir Anthony McCoy, a.k.a. Tony McCoy, requires little introduction. Born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1974, McCoy was Champion Conditional Jockey in 1995/96 and, thereafter, Champion Jockey every year for two decades until his retirement in April, 2015. All told, McCoy rode a record 4,348 winners over obstacles, an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that he stands 5’10” tall and, throughout his career, required a punishing regime to maintain his weight at around 10st 3lb. In 2016, McCoy was knighted for services to horse racing, making him just the second jockey in history, after Sir Gordon Richards in 1953, to be awarded a knighthood.

Indeed, in 2001/02, en route to his seventh Jump Jockeys’ Championship, McCoy rode 289 winners, thereby breaking the British record for the most winners in a single season, 269, set by Sir Gordon Richards in 1947. In August 2002, McCoy also succeeded Richard Dunwoody as the most prolific jockey in British National Hunt history, when Mighty Montefalco, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, landed odds of 8/13 at Uttoxeter to bring up winner number 1,700. After winning the Jump Jockeys’ Championship again in 2002/03, with 258 winners McCoy set his sights on riding 300 winners in 2003/04; he suffered a major setback when breaking his arm in a fall at Worcester in June, with just 36 winners on the board, but still managed 209 winners in the season as a whole.

What happens if a jockey is unseated at, or on the way to, the start?

Under current British Horseracing Authority (BHA) rules, if a jockey is unseated, for whatever reason, before the start of a race, they may remount, provided that the course doctor and veterinary surgeon say that it is safe to do so. However, since November 2, 2009, once the field is ‘under starter’s orders’, if a jockey parts company with their horse they cannot remount to complete the race and, without exception, will be disqualified if they do. Not only that, but a jockey is also not allowed to ride their horse back to the unsaddling enclosure unless horse and jockey have, once again, been cleared by racecourse medical staff.

Of course, the rule change on remounting introduced the possibility of no finishers and, therefore, no result in a race and that is exactly what happened in a novices’ chase at Towcester on March 17, 2011. Two of the four runners fell and unseated rider, independently, at the sixth fence and one of the remaining two tried to refuse and fell at the final fence, badly hampering the other and causing him to unseat his rider. The race was voided, along with all bets upon it, and all stakes contributed by owners prior to the race were returned.

What are Alex Greaves’ claims to fame?

Retired lady jockey Alex Greaves was married to the late David ‘Dandy’ Nicholls, a renowned racehorse trainer, but has several claims to fame in her own right. Dubbed the ‘Queen of the Sands’ by the racing press after a raft of early successes on the all-weather tracks, which were newly laid in the late Eighties, Greaves proved anything but a ‘one-trick pony’.

In 1991, Greaves became the first female apprentice – and still one of only a handful – to achieve 95 winners and thereby ride out her apprentice claim. In 1996, as a full-fledged professional, she became the first female jockey to ride in the Derby, albeit finishing last of the twenty runners on rank outsider Portuguese Lil, trained by her husband. In 1997, she also became the first female jockey to ride a Group One winner in Britain; in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York, she delivered Ya Malak, again trained by her husband, to dead-heat with Coastal Bluff, whose bit had broken with a furlong to run. On her retirement from race riding, in March 2005, Alex Greaves had ridden a total of 287 winners.

Did John Francome ever win the Grand National?

In his 16-year riding career, John Francome was British Champion Jump Jockey seven times, including the title he shared with Peter Scudamore in 1981/82, and notched up 1,138 winners. However, despite contesting the Grand National on ten occasions, he never won the celebrated steeplechase.

The young Francome made his debut in the National in 1972, aboard Cardinal Error, trained by his boss, Fred Winter. The eight-year-old had already won four steeplechases that year and was sent of 12/1 joint-second favourite at Aintree, but refused as early as the third fence. In 1976, Francome famously turned down the ride on the eventual winner, Rag Trade – whom he had described as the ‘most horrible horse’ he had ridden after finishing tenth, and last, in 1975 – in favour of the lesser-fancied Golden Rapper, again trained by Winter. Golden Rapper led approaching Becher’s Brook on the second circuit, but took a terrible fall and Francome woke up in the Walton Centre in Fazakerley. Francome did manage to finish a close third, beaten just 1½ lengths, behind Rubstic and Zongalero in the 1979 renewal and a remote second, beaten 20 lengths, behind Ben Nevis on the same horse in 1980, but that was the close as he came to winning the National.

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