Pat Eddery

Patrick James John Eddery (18 March 1952 – 10 November 2015) was an Irish flat racing jockey and trainer.

He rode three winners of the Derby and was Champion Jockey on eleven occasions.

He rode the winners of 4,632 British flat races, a figure exceeded only by Sir Gordon Richards.

Eddery was born in Newbridge, County Kildare, less than 2 miles from the Curragh Racecourse, and his birth was registered in Dublin.

He was the fifth child of Jimmy Eddery, a jockey who rode Panaslipper to win the Irish Derby in 1955, and Josephine (the daughter of jockey Jack Moylan).

His brother, Paul, also went on to become a jockey.

He attended the Patrician Brothers' Primary School in Newbridge and when the family later moved to Blackrock, the Oatlands Primary School in Stillorgan.

Since early childhood, Pat Eddery's most frequent dreams were to be the champion jockey and winning the Derby.

Eddery began his career as an apprentice jockey in Ireland with the stable of Seamus McGrath.

In 1967 he moved to England where he was apprenticed to Frenchie Nicholson and recorded his first success on Alvaro at Epsom Downs Racecourse on 24 April 1969 after riding more than one whole season without a single winner.

The same horse was to give Eddery 6 wins in succession during the 1969 season.

While still riding as an apprentice he won the Wokingham Handicap and the Timeform Gold Cup in 1969, the Northumberland Plate in 1970 and the Goodwood Stakes in 1971, a year in which he won the title of Champion Apprentice Jockey.

Before formally out of apprenticeship, Eddery won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1972 after the disqualification of Roc Roi.

Nicknamed Polyfilla in his early career, Pat was described as a seal in water on horseback in for a long swim.

Eddery rode for the Newmarket trainer Geoffrey Barling in 1972 before taking over as the stable jockey for Peter Walwyn later that year.

Apart from the later illustrious associations with Robert Sangster, Arab giant owners Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, Wafic Saïd and Maktoum al-Maktoum, he rode to winners in the then Colony of Hong Kong on the first ever race horse to be owned by tycoon Li Ka Shing, called 'Golden Victory' and trained by English trainer John Brown to whom Eddery rode for many seasons in winter in Hong Kong since 10 November 1973.

In the following decade, Eddery became associated with the Irish Ballydoyle stable of Vincent O'Brien and gained further classic success on Kings Lake, Lomond, Golden Fleece, Assert and El Gran Senor.

Throughout his riding career he clinched 11 championship titles, two batches coming in four consecutive seasons (1974–1977; 1988–1991).

Eddery's first championship title in 1974 saw the youngest English flat racing champion emerging after World War II, a record not since broken by subsequent champions.

He was also first voted the Jockey of the Year in 1974 by the Horserace Writers' Association.

For Walwyn he won his first two classic races on Polygamy and Grundy and was Champion Jockey in four consecutive seasons from 1974 to 1977.

While under retainer with Walwyn, he clinched his first title at the record young age of 22.

In 1975 he rode Grundy to victory over Bustino for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot Racecourse in what became known as Britain's "Race of the Century".

Eddery was well known for riding champion horses like Sadler's Wells, Danehill (the grand sires on the sire and dam side of Frankel).

Eddery was also famed for riding for big owners as well as champion trainers.

But for his joining the Vincent O'Brien stable in autumn 1980 that took him out of all main Saturday meetings in England, he would certainly have recorded more champion titles, though he did become the Irish Champion in 1982.

He finished his retainer with Peter Walwyn in 1980 after two seasons of equine virus acutely affecting the Walwyn stables.

He then joined forces with the greatest racing conglomerate of that time – the Ballydoyle stables under Irish compatriot Vincent O'Brien.

When in the mid-1980s the Arab owners began to dominate the British racing scene, Eddery was retained globally by the owner of Juddmonte stables, Arab prince Khalid Abdullah, a position he held until 1994, after which he rode as freelance jockey until his retirement from the saddle at the end of 2003.

Eddery's riding style was not elegant by normal standards, owing to his habit of bouncing up and down in the saddle as he urged his mounts on at the final finishes, but was undeniably effective.

Frenchie Nicholson said that he regretted the fact that his protegee abandoned the "quiet, refined" style he had been taught but admitted that the young jockey stood out as being "in total harmony" with the horses he rode.

In 1986, on the choice of the horse's owner, he took over from Greville Starkey as the rider of Dancing Brave.

He partnered Dancing Brave to victory in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and became the worldwide retained jockey of the colt's owner, Khalid Abdullah.

While the press often reported the controversy between Eddery and Starkey, Eddery had been reticent and underplayed the apparent falling out.

Major winners in the Abdullah colours included Zafonic, Quest for Fame, Warning and Toulon.

He was Champion Jockey a further seven times in eleven years between 1986 and 1996.

Eddery also rode several major winners outside Europe including Jupiter Island in the 1986 Japan Cup and Pebbles in the 1985 Breeders' Cup Turf In North America he also won the Arlington Million on Tolomeo, the Canadian International Stakes on French Glory and the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Sheikh Albadou.

His epic battle for championship in 1987 with American Steve Cauthen was particularly intense, with Cauthen winning the title with 197 and Eddery coming close at 195, and but for an objection from the third horse after the last definitive race in which Eddery won against Cauthen making the Championship a tie, the title would have been a shared one.

In the year 1988, Eddery completed 183 winners from 480 odd rides – which was a great strike rate, and regained the title.

His last champion title in 1996 was his determination to regain what he had lost when the English racing season switched over in the early 1990s to multi-purpose track racing starting in November, a time when Eddery was customarily riding for other overseas retainers since the early 1970s.