The late Ridley Lamb was a former National Hunt jockey and trainer, best known for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup on The Thinker, trained by Arthur Stephenson, in 1987. Lamb retired, due to weight problems, the following November and turned to training at East Fleetham Farm in Seahouses, Northumberland, where his father, Reg, had previously held the licence. However, Lamb was tragically drowned, alongside friend and colleague Alan Merrigan, when the car in which he was travelling left the quayside in Seahouses in the early hours of July 25, 1994 and plunged into the sea. He was just 39 years old.
The youngest of nine children, Lamb rode his first winner, White Speck, trained by his father, at Catterick in 1971, at the age of just 15. As an amateur, he won what is now the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival on Quick Reply, trained by Harry Bell, in 1975. Having subsequently turned professional, he came within half a length of winning the Grand National on Sebastian V, also trained by Bell, in 1977; Sebastian V led over the final fence before finally succumbing to Lucius in a driving finish.
Lamb did, however, taste further success at the Cheltenham Festival, winning what is now the Paddy Power Plate on Brawny Scot, and what is now the Festival Trophy, on Fair View, both trained by George Fairbairn, in 1979. Eight years later, by which time he had enjoyed considerable success as stable jockey to Arthur Stephenson, Lamb enjoyed his finest hour aboard The Thinker in the 1987 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Heavy snowfall caused the start to be delayed by over an hour but, in what Sir Peter O’Sullevan called ‘quite a carnival atmosphere’, The Thinker survived a blunder at the third-last fence to be one of five horses in contention on the turn for home. Only third jumping the final fence, he was carried right by the front-running Cybrandian in the closing stages, but stayed on best of all to win by 1½ lengths. All told Ridley Lamb rode 547 winners and achieved his best seasonal, 85, in 1979/80, when he finished third behind Jonjo O’Neill in the jockeys’ championship.
