Jockey

Nowadays, Jason Maguire is enjoying a second career as racing manager for owners Paul and Clare Rooney, for whom he rode as first-choice jockey during his highly successful National Hunt career. His riding career was brought to a premature end by two bad falls.

 

On the first occasion, at Stratford, on the eve of the 2014 Cheltenham Festival, he was unseated at the second flight in a handicap hurdle and kicked in the abdomen by another horse, leaving him with a fractured sternum and internal bleeding, which resulted in having part of his liver removed while in an induced coma. He returned to race riding six months later, but another fall, at Musselburgh in February, 2015, required surgery on slipped discs in his back and led to another lengthy recovery period. Finally, in May, 2016, he bowed to the inevitable and called time on his riding career at the age of 36.

 

As a jockey, Jason Maguire will probably always be best remembered for winning the 2011 Grand National on Ballabriggs, trained by Donald McCain Jr., son of Donald “Ginger” McCain, who won the Aintree marathon three times with Red Rum in 1973, 1974 and 1977 and again with Amberleigh House. However, Maguire rode his first winner, Search For Peace, in a conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle at Cheltenham in September, 1999, and thereafter spent fruitful spells as stable jockey to Tom George and Donald McCain Jr..

 

All in all, he rode over 1,000 winners, including five at the Cheltenham Festival. His first Festival win came aboard the Polish-bred Galileo – not to be confused with the 2001 Derby winner of the same name – in the 2002 Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle. Maguire fondly recalled the victory, saying, “I was obviously shocked that he won it, but you never forget your first Festival winner, it was what I had been dreaming of doing since I was a kid.”

At the time of writing, Davy Russell has just become Irish champion jump jockey for the third time, following back-to-back titles in 2011/12 and 2012/13. Reflecting on the year, Russell said, “It’s been a fantastic year. I suppose we started off there just to try to get the wheels back in motion and we had a very good summer and obviously Gordon [Elliott] has been such a huge help to me.”

 

Russell, 38, also hit the headlines recently when partnering Tiger Roll to a dramatic victory in the Grand National at Aintree. Having joined the leader, travelling strongly, at the third last fence, Tiger Roll was 6 lengths clear at the Elbow, halfway up the run-in, but Pleasant Company rallied bravely in the last half a furlong and Tiger Roll only just held on to win by a head, all out.

 

The Grand National victory, his first, was all the more poignant for the fact that, between 2007 and 2013, Russell was retained jockey for Michael O’Leary, owner of the Gigginstown House Stud and many top-class horses, including Tiger Roll, before losing his position to Bryan Cooper. Russell accepted his share of responsibility for the split, but admitted that subsequently he “had to start afresh”.

 

Originally from Youghal, County Cork, Russell rode his first winner, Right’N’Royal, for Michael J. O’Connor in a handicap hurdle at Gowran Park in May, 1999. He rode his first Grade 1 winner, The Railway Man, for Arthur Moore in the Dr. P.J. Moriarty Novice Chase at Leopardstown in February, 2006, and his first Cheltenham Festival winner, on Native Jack for Philip Rothwell in the Sporting Index Handicap Chase a month later.

 

All in all, Russell has ridden 22 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, including 2014 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Lord Windermere; in 2018, he rode four winners and became leading rider at the Festival for the first time.

 

 

Midway through 2016, Adam Kirby, the British jockey, was faced with a massive dilemma. His partner, Megan, was in the final stages of her labour and naturally, he wanted to be with her as she delivered their first child. The problem, of course, was that he also had another date that day, with his horse, Profitable. And the stakes were as high as they come. It was time for the Royal Ascot 2016, one of the finest races of that year – or any other year for that matter. The gamble came good though, with Kirby pulling ahead and finishing a neck up. He walked away with a cool £400,000. That can pay for a lot of nappies!

This is one of the stories that showcase Kirby’s relentless aggression to get to the top. He is the lanky lad of horse racing, and while we don’t know if height gives him an edge, then we certainly know that his sharp-as-a-razor brain does . And for someone thought to be just establishing himself, Kirby has made some tremendous inroads in the game, especially when you consider the races taking place inside of the UK. He has managed several high profile victories while riding some of the finest horses in Britain –  it doesn’t start and end with Profitable.

Notable victories

In September 2015, while racing with the horse Connecticut, he managed to grab the International Bosphorus Cup, much to the admiration of his peers. Bet365 Gordon Richards Stake came next, in April 2016, and the jockey managed another upset, again with the beloved Profitable, whose trainer was (and still is ) Clive Cox. In June of the same year, Kirby won the Prince of Wale’s Stakes (British Champions Series) (Group 1), and this time, he rode My Dream Boat.

For Tom Scudamore, jockeying comes as second nature. The Condicote, Gloucestershire native comes from generations of jockeys, and winning is without a doubt embedded in his DNA. He is son to Peter Scudamore, who is a legend in his own right, with 8 championships under his belt. It stretches back even further to Tom’s grandfather, who took part in 16 Grand Nationals, year after year, winning once, in 1957. The grandfather is famous for riding Linwell and Snakestone.

Early beginnings

Born in 1982, Scudamore was already riding horses at the age of two, showcasing that his pedigree was from the finest stock. Over a decade later, while at Cheltenham College, he embarked upon a part-time career in flat and steeplechase, and has never looked back since then. All through his career, Scudamore has always come across as a highly disciplined jockey, combining flashes of brilliance with mettle born out of years of practice and pushing limits. While he has had several injury setbacks, Scudamore is known as the kind of jockey who dusts his shoes and gets right back to the game.

Professional highlights

The first flat in a slew of grand victories for Tom Scudamore came in 1998, when he pulled up ahead on the homestretch astride Nordic Breeze in Warwick. Toward the end of the same year, the jockey grabbed his second popular trophy, this time a steeplechase victory while riding Young Thruster. In 2001, Scudamore became the Amateur Jockey Champion for Britain. In all these victories, he was considered an amateur until he won the Chepstow Racecourse toward the end of the year 2001. Since then, the jockey has won an avalanche of accolades, with the most popular ones being the Red Square Gold(astride Heltornic), VC Casino Gold Cup(astride Madison Du Berlais), Ladbroke Hurdle(astride Desert Air), as well as Eider Chase on the back of Nil Desperandum.

One of Tom’s most recent victories was the King George Chase, coming on the back of Thistlecrack towards the close of 2016, where he walked away with a cool £119,026 prize. His biggest payday was back in March 2016, when he took home £170,850 at Ryanair World Hurdle.