Category: Jockeys

Has a female jockey ever won the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

Has a female jockey ever won the Cheltenham Gold Cup? The simple answer is no, not yet, but until recently female jockeys in the Cheltenham Gold Cup had been few and far between. In fact, the first female jockey to ride in the ‘Blue Riband’ event was the late Linda Griffiths, formerly Sheedy, who failed to complete the course on 500/1 rank outsider Foxbury in 1984. Remarkably, the second was not until 2017, when the now-retired Lizzie Kelly was unseated at the second fence by Tea For Two, although the partnership did return to Cheltenham to finish a distant seventh in 2018.

More recently, the redoubtable Rachael Blackmore has gone closest to becoming the first female jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. In 2020, she rode Monalee, trained by Henry De Bromhead, to finish fourth, beaten just 1¾ lengths, behind Al Boum Photo. In 2021, having already won the Champion Hurdle on Honeysuckle, for the same trainer, she rode A Plus Tard to finish second, beaten 1¼ lengths, behind stable companion Minella Indo in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. In that same race, Bryony Frost also rode Frodon to finish fifth, albeit 33¾ lengths behind the winner.

When did Lester Piggott ride his first Royal Ascot winner?

In a riding career spanning six decades, Lester Piggott rode 4,493 winners, including 30 English Classic winners and won the Flat Jockeys’ Championship eleven times, including eight years running between 1964 and 1971. Coincidentally, eleven was also the number of times Piggott won the highlight of Royal Ascot, the historic and coveted Gold Cup, including a notable hat-trick on Sagaro in 1975, 1976 and 1977.

Piggott not only remains the most successful jockey in the history of the Gold Cup but, by the proverbial ‘country mile’, the most successful jockey in the history of Royal Ascot. Of course, at various points during his career, Piggott enjoyed profitable associations with such luminaries of the training profession as Sir Noel Murless, Vincent O’Brien and Sir Henry Cecil. Nevertheless, his astonishing record of 116 winners, achieved long before the extension of Royal Ascot to five days in 2005, is unlikely to be beaten.

Piggott rode his first Royal Ascot winner, Malka’s Boy, trained by Walter Nightingall, in the Wokingham Stakes on June 20, 1952, as a 16-year-old, making all the running to win by 3 lengths. For the record, he rode his last Royal Ascot winner, College Chapel, trained by Vincent O’Brien, in the Cork and Orrery Stakes, now the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, on June 17, 1993, at the age of 58. The ‘Long Fella’ retired for the second, and final, time two years later.

Which jockey rode Big Buck’s in the Hennessy Gold Cup?

Owned by the late Andy Stewart and trained by Paul Nicholls, Big Buck’s is best known for winning the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival four years running, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, and is widely recognised as the greatest staying hurdler in history. Winner of the Grade 2 Prix Amadou at Auteil for his original trainer, Rene Lacomte, in May, 2007, Big Buck’s joined Nicholls the following November and was immediately sent over fences.

Big Buck’s opened his account over the larger obstacles at the first time of asking, with a narrow, but ready, win in a four-runner beginners’ chase at Newbury. Later in his novice season, he also won the Grade 2 Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree under Ruby Walsh. Big Buck’s reappeared in the Hennessy Gold Cup – now the Ladbrokes Trophy – at Newbury the following November, for which he was sent off 5/1 joint second favourite.

With Sam Thomas deputising for the injured Walsh, Big Buck’s was only 3 lengths behind eventual winner Madison Du Berlais, and staying on, when blundering badly and unseating his rider at the third-last fence. That mishap proved to be a blessing in disguise; put back over hurdles, Big Buck’s embarked on a winning streak that would last for 18 consecutive races and more than five years. His record stood until April, 2019, when beaten by the recently retired dual Champion Chase winner Altior.

How many times has Frankie Dettori won the Derby?

The short answer is that Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori has won the Derby twice, on Authorized in 2007 and Golden Horn in 2015. However, those facts alone do not tell the full story. The likeable Italian first rode in the Derby in 1992, finishing a remote sixteenth on Pollen Count, owned by Sheikh Mohammed and trained by John Gosden. Thereafter, though, he developed a Derby ‘hoodoo’, which he would not end until 15 years later. Indeed, Dettori had won all the other English Classic races at least twice apiece before winning the Derby for the first time in 2007.

When he did so, Dettori did so in style, storming clear in the closing stages to win, impressively, by 5 lengths. Backed as if defeat was out of the question, Authorized was sent off at odds of 5/4, thereby becoming the shortest-priced winner since Shergar in 1981. However, the race was not without anxiety for favourite backers, as Dettori sat well off the pace in the early stages. Trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam said afterwards, ‘Frankie was probably a bit further back than I wanted him to be, but Authorized has got so much class.’

Dettori would not win the Derby again until 2015, by which time he had lost his retainer with Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation and been banned for six months after testing positive for cocaine while riding in France. Nevertheless, he oozed confidence on 13/8 favourite Golden Horn, trained by John Gosden, sweeping past stable companion Jack Hobbs with a furlong to run to win, comfortably, by 3½ lengths.

 

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