Murphy Earns Third Jockeys’ Title

The British jockeys' championship came right down to the wire in a tight race between Oisin Murphy and William Buick in recent weeks, but despite Buick's victory aboard Creative Force on Champions Day, Murphy prevailed by two victories to earn his third consecutive champion jockey title.

“I'm over the moon and thrilled to get it across the line,” Murphy said. “Thank you to my family and everyone–I've got a massive support group. The last week I've had a lot of people on my side. Frankie Dettori has been there every day making sure my spirits are up and I was riding off instinct as normal which is key. You need to make every ride count and I was running out of opportunities. I held it together thankfully in the end.”

It has not been a straightforward few weeks for Murphy, who suffered a face injury in a nasty paddock incident at Salisbury and later failed a breathalyser test at Newmarket after reports of an altercation in a local pub the night prior. Murphy addressed the latter, saying, “I think everyone knows that I am human and quite honest. But I need to do better and I don't want any issues surrounding my career. Let's just focus on riding winners and hopefully winning another jockeys' championship. I'm 26-years-old so I think I will keep trying for a few more years. Horses are my life and I'm never happier than when I'm on the back of a horse. I've bought my showjumpers and they keep me busy too. Sheikh Fahad and Qatar Racing have a few horses to go to America for the Breeders' Cup. There are lots of international races in Hong Kong and Japan coming up so I will be busy.

“William was getting a lot more support than I was in the last couple of weeks and the likes of Ed Walker, Hughie Morrison, Andrew Balding and Saeed bin Suroor have been amazing, so thanks to them.”

Murphy is retained rider to Qatar Racing, and Sheikh Fahad spoke out in support of the jockey on Racing TV, saying, “Oisin has really felt it this time, there's no question about it. He felt it at the end of last season as well when he was over at the Breeders' Cup and William was eating into his lead in dramatic fashion. It's been a really high pressure and tense end to the season. Thank God it ends today and not at Doncaster in a few weeks' time as that would drag it out even more.

“Oisin is a young man. We've known him since he was 17 and he's still growing and developing as a man. Clearly there are things that have happened in recent times that he has regrets about and will work hard to put right. I have no doubt that when the pressure of Champions Day is out of the way and he can breathe and regroup, that there will be changes made to his lifestyle and he's going to look very hard at that.

“Nobody can have any idea what it's like being in this cauldron unless they've actually been there themselves. I spoke to Kevin Darley the other day and he said when he sat down at the end of his championship-winning season, he literally lost two days of his life he was so exhausted. He couldn't even remember what happened in that time. William is going to be exhausted as well. Oisin is exhausted and puts himself under huge pressure.

“We all make mistakes. It's been difficult and obviously it's disappointing for everybody that the stories in the press have detracted from what is an absolutely unbelievable achievement–to win three championships on the bounce from such an early start. We're incredibly proud of him. He's very much part of our family and whatever help Oisin needs he'll get.”

Marco Ghiani was named champion apprentice jockey after accumulating 51 winners this year.

“It's really nice to be crowned champion apprentice,” Ghiani said. “It's a dream come true and I'm really thankful to all the people that have helped me along this journey. I'll be smiling forever now.”

The 22-year-old Ghiani, whose highlight this season came when steering the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Real World to a victory in Royal Ascot's Royal Hunt Cup, said he doesn't come from a racing family but decided he wanted to be a jockey at age 15.

“My family have a restaurant,” he explained. “None of them have been with horses, apart from my grandfather's grandfather. We found out last week that he used to ride horses.

“I started working in the restaurant when I was about 10 years old. When I was 15 I didn't want to go to school any more, so my father put me in the restaurant to teach me how to make pizzas. I thought the pizzas were too hot, so my father wanted me to do something else and made me leave.”

Ghiani, who enrolled in the British Racing School and joined Luca Cumani's yard at age 16, said he “just wants to ride as many winners as I can.”

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Champion Jockey Oisin Murphy Taken Off Mounts After Failing Breath Test

Reigning champion British jockey Oisin Murphy was taken off his mounts Friday at Newmarket when he failed a breath test for alcohol, reports The Guardian.

He has been referred to the British Horseracing Authority's disciplinary panel, but a hearing will not be held until after the season concludes on Oct. 16 at Ascot.

Murphy, currently leading the jockey standings, already served a three-month suspension this year after testing positive for cocaine in July of 2020. It is the second breath test Murphy has failed; the first came in 2019 at Salisbury.

Read more at The Guardian.

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Late Pat Eddery Inducted Into British Champions Series Hall Of Fame

Pat Eddery is the second jockey to be inducted into the Qipco British Champions Series Hall of Fame.

The legendary rider, who joins Lester Piggott, was champion jockey 11 times between 1974 and 1996 and he is the second-most winning rider in Britain with a tally of 4,633 winners.

He won the Derby with Grundy, Golden Fleece and Quest For Fame and added a further 11 British Classics to his haul. Eddery also played a leading role in the 1975 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, often described as the race of the century, when riding Grundy to beat Bustino.

Outside Britain he rode the great Dancing Brave to victory in the Arc in 1986 while partnering Breeders' Cup Turf winner Pebbles and Jupiter Island to victory in the Japan Cup.

Eddery died in November 2015 and his family will be presented with a medal to commemorate his inclusion to the Hall of Fame. The medal will also be on display at Ascot on Champions day in an exhibition on October 16.

His daughter, showjumper Natasha Eddery-Dunsdon, said: “He was, and always will be, one of the all-time greats. When I think about what he was like as a jockey, I think about his quiet concentration, his focus, the determination to win. That's what set him apart, his desire to win and to beat his comrades.

“Entering the Hall of Fame would have made him so proud. I only wish he were still here to experience this special moment. It's one myself and my family will cherish.”

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Joe Mercer Dies At 86

British racing has lost one of its greatest figures with the passing of former champion jockey Joe Mercer OBE at the age of 86.  

Joseph Mercer was one of two brothers, born in Bradford in Yorkshire, who lit up Britain's apprentice ranks in the decade after the Second World War. The elder brother Emmanuel 'Manny' Mercer served his apprenticeship in Newmarket with George Colling and created such a good impression (most obviously by riding the 100/1 winner of the 1947 Lincolnshire Handicap, Jockey Treble, aged only 17) that Major Fred Sneyd, who trained at Wantage in Oxfordshire and who had already produced the great jockeys (and brothers) Eph and Doug Smith, wrote to Mercer's father to ask, “Are there any more like him at home?”. Mr Mercer jumped at the chance to send his younger son south to be indentured to Major Sneyd.

Apprenticeships were hard work in those days, particularly under the stewardship of a martinet such as Major Sneyd, and Joe Mercer's apprenticeship featured unrelenting hard work with very little money to show for it. He started, aged 13, on half-a-crown (12.5p) a week and was still earning that sum when he rode his first winner, Eldoret, three years later at Bath in September 1950. He actually sometimes did not even earn that much as he was fined sixpence (2.5p) every time he fell off.

Mercer's wages had risen to 10 shillings (50p) a week by the end of his seven-year apprenticeship. What was most relevant, though, was that by then he was well on the way to a career such as money couldn't buy. As an apprentice he had ridden nearly 200 winners, had been champion apprentice twice (in 1952 and '53, in the latter year setting a record total of 61 wins) and had become a rare example of an apprentice to win a Classic, courtesy of the victory of Ambiguity (GB) (Big Game {GB}), owned by Lord Astor and trained by Bob Colling, in the Oaks in 1953. It would be another 29 years until another apprentice (Billy Newnes) won a British Classic, taking the Oaks in 1982 for his boss Henry Candy on Time Charter (Ire) (Saritamer).

Tragically, Manny Mercer's career was a great one (he rode two Classic winners and finished in the upper reaches of the jockeys' table throughout the 1950s) but not a long one: he died instantly from head injuries when his mount slipped on her way to the start before the Red Deer S. at Ascot in September 1959. He was aged only 29. Happily, his younger brother was able to carry the family's baton with the greatest distinction, remaining among the very top tier of British jockeys for 30 years.

Ambiguity had been trained at West Ilsley in Berkshire, whither Bob Colling had moved from Newmarket in 1949 to train for Lord Astor. Joe Mercer, although still apprenticed to Major Sneyd, was appointed the stable's jockey in 1953, a position which he held until 1976. By this time, Major Dick Hern had taken over as trainer (following Colling's retirement at the end of the 1962 season) and the property was now owned by Sir Michael Sobell and his son-in-law Arnold (later Lord) Weinstock. To widespread consternation, Sobell and Weinstock decided in the autumn of 1976 that it was time to replace Mercer with a younger man, appointing Willie Carson to the position.

At this point, Mercer was aged 42 and was widely regarded as the greatest jockey then riding in Great Britain who had never been champion. He had enjoyed Classic success in the Oaks, the St Leger (twice), the 2000 Guineas, the 1000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas, Irish Derby, Irish St Leger and, memorably, in the Prix de Diane in 1974 when he and HM The Queen's great filly Highclere (GB) (Queen's Hussar {GB}) had followed up their victory in the 1000 Guineas. Most notably, he had ridden the horse whom many regarded as the Horse of the Century: he had ridden the Dick Hern-trained 1971 2000 Guineas hero Brigadier Gerard (GB) (Queen's Hussar {GB}) in all his races.

Sobell and Weinstock may have felt at the time that Mercer's talents were past their best, but nobody else did. In particular, Henry Cecil clearly didn't, hiring Mercer as his stable jockey. Nor did former champion trainer Peter Walwyn, who signed up Mercer, by then in the second half of his 40s, during a remarkable jockeys' merry-go-round in the autumn of 1980, triggered by Lester Piggott's decision to sever his ties with Vincent O'Brien. Walwyn's jockey Pat Eddery went to O'Brien at Ballydoyle; Mercer (who had lost the support of some of Cecil's owners) went to Walwyn at Seven Barrows in Lambourn; and Piggott went to Cecil at Warren Place in Newmarket.

Mercer's relatively short period as stable jockey to Henry Cecil contained many of his finest hours. He was obviously never going to ride another horse as great as Brigadier Gerard, but for Cecil he rode one who could be mentioned in the same breath: the mighty Kris (GB) (Sharpen Up). He also enjoyed rode two more Classic triumphs, taking the 1000 Guineas in 1979 on One In A Million (Ire) (Rarity {GB}) and the St Leger in 1980 on Light Cavalry (GB), a son, fittingly, of Brigadier Gerard. He also rode such top older horses as the 1978 G1 Eclipse S. winner Gunner B (GB) (Royal Gunner) and the outstanding stayer Le Moss (Ire) (Le Levanstell {Ire}) on whom he won the G1 Gold Cup at Ascot in 1980. Mercer had previously won the Gold Cup in 1967 on the Derrick Candy-trained Parbury (GB) (Pardal {Fr}).

Even more notable than any individual winner whom Mercer rode for Cecil was the fact that he finally achieved the highest accolade of them all. In 1979 he enjoyed his greatest season, easily outstripping his previous best seasonal total (115 wins the previous year) when becoming champion jockey with 164 wins, 22 clear of runner-up Willie Carson. At 45, he was not the oldest champion jockey (both Sir Gordon Richards and Scobie Breasley had topped the table at a greater age) but was the oldest to secure the title for a first time.  It was widely regarded as a fitting honour for a jockey viewed as the most technically perfect (more so than Piggott) of his generation, a master tactician and the ultimate professional. At the end of the year came the icing on the cake: he was awarded an OBE.

Although spending his final five seasons riding for Peter Walwyn, Joe Mercer's greatest triumphs in that period came on outside rides. He won the St Leger for his old boss Dick Hern and former patron Jakie Astor in 1980. Shergar (Ire) (Great Nephew {GB}) was the hot favourite but Hern, undaunted, saddled two runners. Willie Carson elected to ride Lady Beaverbrook's Bustomi (GB) so Mercer was booked for Cut Above (GB) (High Top {GB}) and the pair landed a shock victory at 28/1. Bustomi, incidentally, was a son of Bustino (GB) (Busted {GB}) on whom Mercer had won the St Leger for Major Hern and Lady Beaverbrook in 1974 before riding the gallant horse into second place behind Grundy (GB) (Great Nephew {GB}) in the 'Race of the Century', the 1975 G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond S. at Ascot.

Mercer had previously won the 'King George', Britain's premier weight-for-age race, on Brigadier Gerard in 1972 and he won it again in 1983. Billy Newnes had been badly injured in a fall on Henry Candy's gallops near Wantage the previous week so the mount on the previous year's Oaks winner Time Charter became available. Mercer was booked by the trainer, for whose father he had ridden many winners during the 1960s, and the partnership landed a famous victory, beating a stellar field which included the recent Classic winners Sun Princess (Ire) (Sun Prince {Ire}) and Caerleon (Nijinsky {Can}).

Joe Mercer finally called time on his great career in the autumn of 1985 at the age of 51. Fittingly, he recorded his final big win on his final ride, guiding the John Dunlop-trained Bold Rex (Fr) (Rex Magna {Fr}) to victory in the November Handicap at Doncaster on the last day of the season. It was his 2,810th British triumph. The November Handicap is not the race which it was, but it has been won by some great horses over the years and has seen some very popular winners. Arguably none, however, has returned to as heartfelt a round of applause as that which greeted the (presumably bemused) Bold Rex.

After his retirement from the saddle, Joe Mercer, a man who commanded the respect of the entire racing community, continued to put his great racing brain to good use in his role as racing manager for Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum, a role which he held for 19 years until the latter's death in January 2006.

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