Jockey

If you were to reel off a list of racing greats, it certainly wouldn’t be long before the name Richard Dunwoody passed your lips. Born in January 1964 in Northern Island, Dunwoody came from a family where there was already a firm racing interest (his father had himself been a succcessful jockey and trainer). This family link is quite typical with many noteable names in racing, it certainly helps to have racing pedigree.

 

With some jockeys there is the grind and toil of getting to the top, but Dunwoody impressed from the off, and accumulated some of the most sought after titles in racing. It’s no surprise then that he was Champion Jockey not once, not twice, but three times over the course of his glittering career (and jump jockey of the year five times). He worked with other racing greats, such as when he steered the legendary Desert Orchid to multiple victories, and won Grand Nationals on West Tip and Miinnehoma.

 

Richard Dunwoody will certainly go down as one of the greats, and unlike some of his peers he’s utilised that fact to good effect by continuing to put himself in the public arena. This has resulted in a brief Stint on Stricly Come Dancing and a revealing autobiography. Aside from that, the ever active Dunwoody is a motivational speaker, has walked 2000 miles across Japan for charity (as you do!), hiked to the South Pole, and has marched 1000 mile in 1000 hours.

 

His next challenge involves running the Norh Korean Pyongyang marathon, with money raised going to the Injured Jockeys’ Fund and the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton “I’ve never been to North Korea before and I want to see what it’s like,” said an understaed Dunwoody.

 

It would appear that the man is very much alien to the idea of procrastination!

Paul Carberry is the son of Tommy Carberry, who won the 1975 Grand National on L’Escargot, and did, in fact, emulate his father by winning the 1999 renewal of the world famous steeplechase on Bobbyjo. Carberry Jnr. was forced to retire from race riding in August, 2016, after failing to recover sufficiently from a fractured femur sustained in a fall at Listowel the previous September. He said at the time, “I saw my surgeon today and he advised me to stop. My leg’s not strong enough. I feel gutted.”

 

However, in a 26-year career, Paul Carberry rode over 1,500 winners on both sides of the Irish Sea, including 14 at the Cheltenham Festival. His first Festival success came aboard Rhythm Section in the Guinness Festival Bumper – now the Weatherbys Champion Bumper – in 1993, while he was still claiming a 5lb allowance, although arguably his biggest win was on Looks Like Trouble, who won the 1999 Royal and SunAlliance Chase by a distance. Looks Like Trouble, of course, returned to Prestbury Park to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, under Richard Johnson, the following year.

 

For all his success, Carberry is probably equally well remembered for failing to win the 2005 Champion Hurdle on the talented, but enigmatic, Harchibald. Under a typically patient ride, Harchibald was still hard on the bridle halfway up the run-in at Cheltenham, but, as soon as Carberry applied any pressure, emptied to nothing and was beaten a neck by Hardy Eustace. Carberry later reflected, “Halfway up the run-in I still felt I had the better of Hardy Eustace but I didn’t dare go for my horse. I knew that, if I went to the front, he would stop.” Perhaps unfairly, Carberry was considered reckless to have delayed his challenge until the last second.

 

On and off the racecourse, Carberry was never far from controversy. In 2005, he was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, later reduced to community service, for setting fire to a newspaper on an international flight and, in 2009, served a 30-day ban after failing a breath test before racing.

A name that most with a keen interest in horse racing will surely recognise is Peter Scudamore. With tremendously successful careers as both a jockey and trainer, Scudamore is well versed in all aspects of racing, and there’s little he hasn’t achieved in the sport over the years.

 

It all started way back in June1958 when Scudamore was born to Father Michael and his wife Mary. Many will of course know Michael Scudamore as a very successful jockey in his own right. It’s often the case of ‘like Father, like Son’ in horse racing, and by fact that his Father had previously rode the winner in the Grand National (in 1959 on Oxo) the future looked bright from day one, and young Peter had a ready made role model to aspire to emulate.

 

And a success he certainly did make of himself. You name it he achieved it in his decade and a half career as a jockey. Eight time Champion Jockey, 1,678 career wins (221 in just one season – a record), and an MBE honour to top it all off. Wins too at the Cheltenham Festival (Champions Hurdle x 2, Queen Mother Champion Chase and others), the list of accolades goes on and on. Working alongside the likes of trainer Martin Pipe for an extended period of time certainly did him no harm either, as it provided yet another master of the sport to look up to and learn from.

 

Scudamore is still involved in racing to this date, in the capacity of a pundit, a horse racing columnist for the Daily Mail and with his own son’s promising career in the sport. He’ll no doubt be hoping to provide the same kind of inspirational spark to his son, that his Father passed on to him decades earlier.

Michael J. Kinane, usually known as “Mick”, will probably always be remembered as the jockey of Sea The Stars, who won six Group One races, including the 2,000 Guineas, the Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in the final season of his 34-year riding career. Announcing his retirement in December, 2009, Kinane said, “At 50 I still feel fit and sharp enough to do any horse justice but, after the season I have just had in partnership with Sea The Stars, I have the privilege of being able to end my career as a jockey on an incredible high and that’s what I want to do.”

 

 

Kinane served his apprenticeship with Liam Browne and made his racecourse debut, as a 15-year-old, in Leopardstown in March, 1975. His first ride in public, Muscari, was a winner and trainer Larry Greene later recalled, “It was the first time Mick ever rode a horse in a race. Even at that age, he rode like a fully fledged adult jockey.” Kinane became Irish Champion Apprentice in 1978 and Irish Champion Jockey for the first time in 1984. All in all, he became Irish Champion Jockey 13 times and rode 1,500 winners all over the world.

 

His major successes included the 2,000 Guineas, the Derby three times and the Melbourne Cup. He said of the latter victory, on Vintage Crop for Dermot Weld in 1993, “Before Sea The Stars, Vintage Crop left the biggest impression on me, when we became the first Europeans to win the Melbourne Cup.” The same year, Kinane won his first Derby, on Commander In Chief for Henry Cecil and, famously, turned down the opportunity to replace Steve Cauthen as retained jockey to Sheikh Mohammed.

 

When Kinane did end his 14-year association with Dermot Weld, he joined Aidan O’Brien as stable jockey at Ballydoyle and, between 1999 and 2003, enjoyed the most productive spell of his career. In 2001, alone, Kinane rode 17 winners at the highest level, including the Derby, the Oaks and the St. Leger, all for Aidan O’Brien.