Category: Jockeys

The late Michael Seely, Chief Racing Correspondent at ‘The Times’, once wrote,

‘Watching John Francome in action is the most aesthetically pleasing sight in steeplechasing.’ Unfortunately, Francome was also dubbed ‘the best jockey in history never to have won the Grand National’; he famously turned down the ride on the 1976 winner, Rag Trade, having ridden the same horse into tenth, and last, place behind L’Escargot the previous year.

Nevertheless, at the time of his retirement, on April 9, 1985, Francome had ridden 1,138 winners, beating the previous record for the number of career wins by a National Hunt jockey, 1,035, set by the late Stan Mellor in 1972. He won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship seven times between 1976 and 1985, including the title he shared, magnanimously, with Peter Scudamore in 1981/82.

Francome became conditional jockey to Fred Winter at Uplands in Lambourn, Berkshire straight from school and rode his first winner, Multigrey, at Worcester on December 2, 1970. He rode his last winner, Gambler’s Cup, at Huntingdon on April 8, 1985, but in between times, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, on Midnight Court in 1978, the King George VI Chase, on Wayward Lad in 1982 and Burrough Hill Lad in 1984, and the Hennessy Gold Cup – now the Ladbrokes Trophy – twice, on Brown Chamberlin in 1983 and Burrough Hill Lad in 1984.

Champion jockey in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Oisin Murphy has nonetheless fallen foul of racing authorities, at home and abroad, on several occasions throughout his career. In June, 2019, Murphy was stood down for the day after providing a breath sample containing alcohol above the threshold level for race riding at Salisbury. In November, 2020, he was banned for three months by the French racing authority, French Galop, after providing a urine sample that tested positive for metabolites of cocaine at Chantilly in July that year. While for some of us being hedonistic involves something like playing the online blackjack in the hope of a winning streak, Oisin was clearly keen on a bit more action!

In December, 2021, Murphy handed in his jockey’s licence, pending disciplinary action for breaching Covid-19 protocols in 2020 and two more failed tests for alcohol, one at Chester in May, 2021 and the other at Newmarket in October, 2021. Appearing before the independent disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) in February, 2022, Murphy admitted all five charges against him, including ‘acting in a manner which is prejudicial to the proper integrity, conduct or good reputation of the sport’. He received three 11-month suspensions, albeit to run concurrently, plus an additional 100 days for alcohol breaches, backdated to the day on which he relinquished his licence. Thus, Murphy, 26, effectively received a 14-month ban and is ineligible to reapply for his jockey’s licence until mid-February, 2023. He was also fined just over £31,000. A hefty sum for most, for instance as a win on online casino sites. Playing those would’ve been a wiser decision in terms of getting a thrill (and hopefully a win!) fthan the paths he chose.

Reflecting on his behaviour, Murphy said, ‘I couldn’t undo the lies and deceit. Now that I’m sober I’m a different person and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made those errors sober, but I can’t go back in time and I’m afraid they were grave issues.’

Not to be confused with the Canadian ice hockey player of the same name, James Forman ‘Tod’ Sloan was an American jockey whose celebrity was such that he inspired the title character in the Broadway musical ‘Little Johnny Jones’ by George M. Cohan. The real-life ‘Yankee Doodle’ did, indeed, come to London, or at least to Britain, where he popularised theso-called ‘American seat’ or ‘monkey crouch’ style of riding, which would eventually be adopted worldwide. It was a different time, with no best usa online casino fast payout sites, or Internet at all of course. A glimpse into the past!

In a bright, but brief, riding career in Britain, Sloan won the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Sibola, owned by Lord William Beresford and trained by Texan John Huggins, in 1899 and the Gold Cup at Ascot on Merman, owned by celebrated society beauty Lily Langtry and trained by Jack Robinson, in 1900. He might also have won the Derby, had his mount Holocauste not broken down with a shattered pastern a quarter of a mile from home, when in the lead. However, contemporary reports suggests that the eventual winner, Flying Fox, who went on to win the Triple Crown, had already taken his measure.

In 1901, under suspicion for betting on races in which he had ridden, Sloan was informed by the Jockey Club that his licence would not be renewed. A reciprocal arrangement with the American Jockey Club meant that the official suspension also applied in his native land, so his riding career was effectively over. Nevertheless, Sloan was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955. In todays online world where we can be sat in the UK while playing new online casinos australia, it’s fascinating to learn that even in days gone by some industrious types were rerally well travelled (in the physical rather than virtual sense!).

A graduate of the National Horseracing College in Doncaster, David Allan began his riding career as apprentice to Lancashire trainer Alan Berry in 1999 and rode his first winner, Peter’s Imp, trained by Berry, at Warwick on July 22, 2000. He subsequently joined North Yorkshire trainer Tim Easterby, riding out his claim on Piccled, trained by Eric Alston, at York on June 11, 2004, and becoming stable jockey at Easterby’s Habton Grange Stables in Malton the following year.

Allan has since become one of the most respected jockeys in the North of England. His career total of over 1,300 winners incorporates over 50 winners in all bar three of his 17 seasons as a fully-fledged professional. His CV includes a total of 35 Listed and Pattern races wins, the most recent of which was the Group 3 William Hill Ireland Renaissance Stakes at the Curragh, on Art Power, on September 25, 2021. Indeed, in 2021, so far, Allan has ridden 75 winners, so is on schedule for his most successful season ever, numerically.

For the last decade or so, Allan has spent mid-November to mid-March riding in India, with no little success. In fact, victory on Mauritania in the Bangalore 2,000 Guineas in January, 2018, took his career tally to 23 Indian Classic winners, breaking the previous record set by Sandy Barclay and making him the most successful foreign jockey in the history of Indian racing.