Michael Roberts (born 17 May 1954) [1] is a South African jockey currently a trainer in South Africa. He lives with his wife Verna and two daughters, Melanie and Carolyn. Roberts has had a successful career, winning many English and South African races multiple times. He was British flat racing Champion Jockey in 1992. His most famous equine partner was the double Eclipse Stakes winner, Mtoto.
Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport in Great Britain, and one of the longest established, with a history dating back many centuries. According to a report by the British Horseracing Authority it generates £3.39 billion total direct and indirect expenditure in the British economy, of which £1.05 Billion is from core racing industry expenditure and the major horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival are important dates in the British and international sporting and society calendar.
Sir Gordon Richards was an English jockey. He was the British flat racing Champion Jockey 26 times and is often considered the world's greatest jockey ever. He remains the only flat jockey to have been knighted.
Lester Keith Piggott is a retired English professional jockey. With 4,493 career wins, including nine Epsom Derby victories, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest flat racing jockeys of all time and the originator of a much imitated style. Popularly known as "The Long Fellow" he was known for his competitive personality, keeping himself thirty pounds under his natural weight, and on occasion not sparing the whip on horses such as Roberto in the 1972 Derby. Piggott regarded Sir Ivor as the easiest to ride of the great winners.
Steve Cauthen is a retired American jockey.
Patrick James John Eddery was an Irish flat racing jockey and horse 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.
Francis Buckle (1766–1832), also known as Frank Buckle and known to the British horse racing public as "The Governor", was an English jockey, who has been described as "the jockey non-pareil" of the opening quarter of the 19th century, and the man who "brought respectability to race-riding". He won at least 27 British Classic Races during his career, a record which would not be beaten for over 150 years.
Jamie Spencer is an Irish flat racing jockey currently riding in the UK. He has been champion jockey in both Ireland and Britain and has won seven classics, five in Ireland and two in England. Spencer is an advocate for the art of holding up horses late into the races, and then making use of their natural dash of speed.
The Champion Owner of flat racing in Great Britain is the owner whose horses have won the most prize money during a season. The list below shows the Champion Owner for each year since 1894. Prior to 2015 the period for deciding the championship started on the day following the end of the turf Flat season and finished on the final day of the turf Flat season in the following year - for example, the 2013-14 championship ran from 10 November 2013 to 8 November 2014. From 2015 the championship is decided by prize money won from the Guineas festival in May to British Champions Day in October.
Richard Michael Hannon, known as Richard Hannon Sr. to distinguish him from his son, is a former British horse trainer. He was British flat racing Champion Trainer four times, achieved more than a century of victories in a season 20 times, a double century five times, and turned out 32 Royal Ascot winners. He operated out of Herridge Racing Stables, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, with a smaller yard at Everleigh on the edge of Salisbury Plain. He retired after winning a final trainers' championship at the end of 2013, when the training operation was taken over by his son, Richard Hannon, Jr.
Geoff Lewis is a Welsh retired jockey who was born in Talgarth, Breconshire.
Ernest "Ernie" Piggott (1878–1967) born Nantwich, Cheshire, England was a leading British jump racing jockey, whose family has become one of the leading dynasties in British horseracing. He was three times Champion Jockey and three times Grand National winner. His son, (Ernest) Keith Piggott (1904–1993), was also a leading jump jockey and National-winning trainer, while his grandson is the 11-times British flat racing Champion Jockey, Lester Piggott.
Silvestre de Sousa is a Brazilian flat racing jockey based in Britain. He was champion jockey of Britain in 2015, with 132 winners, and again in 2017 and 2018.
Paul Hanagan is a leading British flat horse racing jockey. Hanagan has twice been crowned champion jockey on the flat in Britain, riding 165 winners in 2011 to defend his title, having won his first title with 191 winners in 2010.
Tom Cannon Sr. was a British flat racing jockey and trainer. He won 13 British classics as a jockey, becoming champion in 1872. As a trainer, he trained classic winners, as well as winners over jumps, including the 1888 Grand National. He was the father of four jockey sons, including the six-times champion, Morny Cannon, and the great-grandfather of eleven-times champion, Lester Piggott.
Frederick Sidney Fox (1888–1945), referred to in his retirement as "The Mayor of Wantage" was a British horse racing jockey. He was a British Classic winner in his early twenties, but it was not until the last quarter of his thirty-year career that he had his greatest successes. He became the British flat racing Champion Jockey in 1930, making him one of only three jockeys to interrupt Gordon Richards' three decade run as champion and won two Derbies on Cameronian in 1931 and Bahram in 1935. He narrowly missed out on the British Triple Crown. He was ranked the 20th best jockey of the 20th century by Britain's industry paper, the Racing Post.
Francis Leonard Wootton, known as "Frank" or "Frankie", and sometimes referred to as "The Wonderboy", was an Australian horse racing jockey who had great success as a teenager in the Edwardian era when he was British champion for four successive years.
Henry "Harry" Constable was a British flat racing jockey of the Victorian era. He was the Champion Jockey of 1873 with 110 winners, denying the famous Fred Archer his first Jockeys' Championship by 3 wins. He also won the 1878 Derby on Sefton. His fame was short-lived though, and he died at a young age in 1881 aged 26. He was the favourite jockey of Lord Rosebery.
Edward Hide was a multiple classic winning British jockey. He was, for a time at his peak, the sixth most successful jockey in British racing history and remains the ninth most successful jockey over 30 years after his retirement.
Sleeping Partner was a British-bred thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. She showed modest form as a juvenile in 1968 but developed into a top class performer in the following year, winning the Lingfield Oaks Trial, Epsom Oaks and Ribblesdale Stakes. She did not win again and was retired from racing in 1970. She produced no known foals.
Oisin Murphy is an Irish jockey based in the United Kingdom who competes in flat racing. He has won a British Classic and a number of Group 1 races. He was British Champion Jockey in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Mr Michael Roberts, flat racing jockey; Champion Jockey 1992, 59