Tony Murray

Tony Murray (18 February 1950 – 6 January 1992) was a Classic-winning jockey, who rode over 1,000 winners in an 18-year career during which he was based in England, Ireland and France.

Anthony Patrick Murray was born in Wantage, Berkshire on 18 February 1950 to jump jockey Paddy Murray. In his school holidays, he used to ride for trainer Captain Tim Forster. After leaving school, he was apprenticed to trainer Frenchie Nicholson, a friend of his father's and his first winner was Guardian Oak at Windsor on 23 May 1966. He rode 14 winners in his first season, rising to 37, 31, 44, 69, 112 and 122 in the following six seasons.

In July 1968, he suffered a near-fatal fall riding Windy Breeze at Windsor. He went over the rails – he believed he was put over them deliberately – and broke his jaw in 48 places "like a shattered teacup". He was in hospital for seven weeks. He returned to riding at Lingfield on 25 September and three days afterwards won the Royal Lodge Stakes at Ascot.

He rode for Doug Smith for a short while, before moving on to ride for Ryan Price. For Price, he won the 1972 Oaks on Ginevra, a filly whose temperament had led fellow jockey Lester Piggott to comment that she would one day kill someone. The following year, he would strike up a partnership with Sandford Lad who became European Champion sprinter after wins in the Nunthorpe Stakes and Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp. He himself believed the horse would have been even better over further.

He went unbeaten throughout the 1973 season on Giacometti, a horse that is one of only five to have been placed in three Triple Crown races since the Second World War, although he lost the ride in the last of these to Piggott. In 1975, he won his second and final English classic, the St Leger, on Bruni.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.