The late Greville Starkey, who died of cancer, aged 70, on April 14, 2010, was described in his obituary as ‘possibly the most talented jockey in the past 50 years never to become champion jockey.’ It is also unfairly prejudicial that man who rode 1,989 winners, including five British Classic winners, on the Flat in a 33-year career should be best remembered for one losing ride, on Dancing Brave, in the 1986 Derby. Of course, Starkey was not entirely blameless, but the idiosyncrasies of Epsom also contributed to the 2/1 favourite lying too far out of his ground in a steadily-run race and he was still an ever-decreasing half a length behind the eventual winner, Shahrastani, ridden by Walter Swinburn.
Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire on December 21, 1939, Starkey became apprenticed to Harry Thompson Jones in Newmarket straight from school. He rode his first winner, Russian Gold, at Pontefract on 8 June, 1956 and the following season won the apprentices’ title. He subsequently became stable jockey to John Oxley, for whom he won the 1964 Oaks on Homeward Bound, and Henry Cecil, both in Newmarket, and finally to Guy Harwood, in Pulborough, West Sussex.
In 1978, having already won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Star Appeal, trained in Germany by Theo Grieper, three years earlier, Starkey enjoyed an annus mirabilis, during which he rode four Classic winners, on either side of the Irish Sea, and nine Group 1 winners in all. He won the Derby and the Irish Derby on Shirley Heights, trained by John Dunlop, and the Oaks and Irish Oaks on Fair Salinia, trained by Michael Stoute. Later in his career, Starkey also won the 2,000 Guineas twice, on To-Agori-Mou in 1981 and Dancing Brave in 1986, both for Guy Harwood. Another notable horse during his time at Coombelands was Kalaglow, on whom he won both the Eclipse Stakes and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1982.
