On the 10 August, 1954, the English jockey, Sir Gordon Richards (1904-1986), retired with 4,870 wins to his credit. The only flat jockey to be knighted, Richards was the British flat racing Champion Jockey 26 times and is by many considered the world’s greatest ever jockey.

Born in Donnington Wood, Telford, in 1904, the son of a Shropshire coal miner who reared several pit ponies, which fostered young Gordon’s love of horses, who rode the ponies bareback from an early age, and from the age of seven, drove the family pony and trap passenger service. Gordon had two brothers, Colin and Clifford, who shared his love of horses and also became jockeys.

After leaving school aged 15 he became a stable boy at Fox Hollies Stable in Wiltshire, and it wasn’t long before his new employer gave him his first ride in a race at Lincoln. He won his first race at Leicester in 1921, and became Champion Jockey in 1925 when he notched up 118 wins.

In 1926 Gordon contracted tuberculosis and was out of racing for almost a year before getting back in the saddle and returned to winning ways. In the 1932 season, with 259 victories under his belt, he broke the record for the greatest number of wins in a year, a record he broke in 1947 riding 269 winners. Achievement followed achievement, and that year he won the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse aboard Tudor Minstrel by 8 lengths, the largest winning margin in the race since 1900.

In 1942 he won 4 of the 5 ‘Classics‘, but despite his huge success, one race eluded him, The Epsom Derby. In 1953 the Derby occurred on a week of great national, and personal celebration for Richards himself, for he became the first jockey to receive a knighthood.

This time Sir Gordon rode Pinza, a huge horse for a flat-thoroughbred at 16 hands high, and he rode a terrific race. Pinza was in second position through much of the one and half mile (2,414 m) course, competing against the Queen’s own horse Aureole. and sweeping past the Aga Khan III’s horse, Shikampur, into first place with just two furlongs (402 m) remaining. His long-awaited win was accompanied by thunderous cheers from the frenzied crowd. Winning The Derby was undoubtedly Sir Gordon’s crowning victory, and he was promptly summoned from the winners’ enclosure to be congratulated by the Queen.

Sir Gordon’s riding career ended in 1954 following a pelvis injury, but he continued to indulge his passion for racing, by becoming a horse trainer and advisor.

He died in 1986.

It was not until 2002 that his record number of victories in a season was exceeded, by jump jockey Tony McCoy, who was able to fly between tracks and compete in more races than Sir Gordon.

10 August, 2019