A Co. Tipperary native, Jamie Spencer is the son of Champion Hurdle-winning trainer George Spencer, but has the distinction of having been Champion Flat Jockey on both sides of the Irish Sea. Champion Apprentice in his native Ireland in 1999, he graduated to the senior jockeys’ title in 2004, having ridden 93 winners that season, during a brief spell as stable jockey to the all-conquering Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle Racing Stables.
However, after just one turbulent year at Ballydoyle, Spencer resigned his position as retained jockey and moved, instead, to Britain. The relocation certainly did his career no harm because, in 2005 as a whole, he rode 180 winners, including Goodricke in the Sprint Cup at Haydock Park and David Junior in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, to become British Champion Jockey for the first time. He did so again in 2007, albeit on that occasion sharing the title with Seb Sanders, with 190 winners apiece.
The last time Spencer rode over a hundred winners in a season was back in 2013 but, on August 12, 2017, he nonetheless reached the milestone of 2,000 British winners when partnering Stake Acclaim to a last-gasp success in the Shergar Cup Dash at Ascot. All told, he has ridden a total of 32 Group 1 winners worldwide.
