From Limerick, Ireland, Ron Barry was a professional, jump jockey with a career spanning 1960 to 1980s, mainly riding in Great Britain.
He won the Whitbread Gold Cup three times in 1971, 1973, and 1974. In 1969, he won the Scottish Grand National, the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup, and the Mackeson Gold Cup. He set a record of 125 race wins, was British jump racing Champion Jockey in the 1973 and 1974 seasons, and was stable jockey to Gordon W. Richards.
In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: hurdles and steeplechases. Alongside these there are "bumpers", which are National Hunt flat races. In a hurdles race, the horses jump over obstacles called hurdles; in a steeplechase the horses jump over a variety of obstacles that can include plain fences, water jump or an open ditch. In the UK, the biggest National Hunt events of the year are generally considered to be the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Lester Keith Piggott was an English professional jockey and trainer. With 4,493 career flat racing wins in Britain, including a record 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 called "The Long Fellow", he was known for his competitive personality, restricting his weight and, on occasion, not sparing the whip, such as in the 1972 Derby. Piggott was convicted of tax fraud in 1987 and sentenced to three years in prison. He served just over one year.
Sir Anthony Peter McCoy, commonly known as AP McCoy or Tony McCoy, is a Northern Irish former National Hunt horse racing jockey. Based in Ireland and Britain, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners, and was Champion Jockey a record 20 consecutive times, every year that he was a professional.
Christopher John McCarron is a retired American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey. He mounted his first horse ever at 16.5 years old and was racing professionally by 18. At only 19 years old Chris McCarron wove a spell that brought his mounts to the winner's circle 547 times in 1974, breaking all records for most races won in a year. The previous record was set by Sandy Hawley in 1973 with 515 wins in a year.
Rupert "Ruby" Walsh is an Irish former jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen. Widely regarded as one of the greatest National Hunt jockeys of all time, Walsh is the third most prolific winner in British and Irish jump racing history behind only Sir Anthony McCoy and Richard Johnson.
Barry Geraghty is a retired Irish jockey. He is the second most successful jockey of all time at the Cheltenham Festival.
John Francome is a retired seven-time British Champion jump jockey. He was previously a racing trainer and broadcaster with Channel 4, and is an author.
The Bet365 Gold Cup is a Grade 3 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Sandown Park over a distance of about 3 miles and 5 furlongs, and during its running there are twenty-four fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late April.
Roberto was an American-bred, Irish-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. In a career that lasted from 1971 until July 1973, he ran fourteen times and won seven races. He was the best Irish two-year-old of 1971, when his victories included the National Stakes. As a three-year-old, he won the Derby before recording a famous victory over Brigadier Gerard in the inaugural running of the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup. This is regarded by many experts to have been one of the greatest ever performances on a European racecourse. He won the Coronation Cup as a four-year-old before being retired to stud. Roberto had fragile knees and required a left-handed track to perform to his best; he never won going right-handed. He was described by Lester Piggott as " a champion when things were in his favour". Roberto also proved to be a highly successful and influential stallion.
Peter Michael Scudamore MBE, often known as 'Scu', is a former jockey and trainer in National Hunt racing. He was an eight-time Champion Jockey, riding 1,678 winning horses in his career. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to National Hunt Racing in the 1990 Birthday Honours.
Barry Hills is a retired British thoroughbred horse trainer. He lives in Lambourn, England.
Frederick Thomas Winter, was a British National Hunt racing racehorse jockey and trainer. He was British jump racing Champion Jockey four times and British jump racing Champion Trainer eight times. He is the only person to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Grand National as both jockey and trainer. Winter won the Grand National four times, as a jockey in 1957 (Sundew) and 1962 (Kilmore), and as a trainer in 1965 and 1966 (Anglo).
Richard Thomas Pitman is a retired British jump jockey who rode 427 winners in his career, including Lanzarote in the 1974 Champion Hurdle. He won the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park Racecourse twice, the Whitbread Gold Cup once and the Hennessy Gold Cup once.
Timothy James Murphy, known as Timmy Murphy, is a retired Irish jockey who competed mostly in National Hunt racing. A multiple Grade 1-winning rider, he is best known for his victory on Comply or Die in the 2008 Grand National. He overcame problems with alcohol, which had led to a prison sentence after a drunken incident on a plane in 2002, to resume a successful career and win the 2005 jump jockey of the year Lester Award. He won the Irish Grand National on Davids Lad in 2001, and the Scottish Grand National on Merigo in 2010 and 2012. He had eight winners at the Cheltenham Festival, the first in 1997 and the last in 2009. He recorded his 1000th win in Britain in 2010. Following an injury in a fall in 2010 he was unable to regain his licence to ride over jumps and switched codes, riding on the flat from 2015 until 2018, when he retired from race riding.
Davy Russell is an Irish retired National Hunt jockey. He was Irish jump racing Champion Jockey three times, and won the Grand National (twice), the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.
Tommy Carberry was an Irish jockey who rode mostly in National Hunt races. He was Irish jump racing Champion Jockey four times. He is best known for winning the 1975 Grand National on L'Escargot. He rode a total of 16 Cheltenham Festival winners, including L'Escargot in the 1970 and 1971 Gold Cup and Ten Up in the 1975 Gold Cup. After retiring from race riding in 1982 he became a trainer and in 1999 saddled the winner of the Grand National, Bobbyjo.
Sam Twiston-Davies is a British National Hunt racing jockey. He was the retained jockey of ten-times British jump racing Champion Trainer Paul Nicholls. He won the 2015 Queen Mother Champion Chase on Dodging Bullets. His father is trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies.
Ragstone (1970–1978) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. A specialist stayer, he was unplaced in his only run as a two-year-old but won all four of his races in 1973. When moved up in class as a four-year-old he won the Aston Park Stakes and the Henry II Stakes before taking Britain's premier long-distance race, the Ascot Gold Cup. After seven successive wins he was beaten in his next race and retired to stud. He showed some promise as a breeding stallion before dying at the age of eight.
James Kenneth Murray Oliver OBE was a Scottish racehorse trainer, breeder and jockey. In a career spanning over fifty years he trained over 1,000 winners.
Ron Hutchinson is a retired Australian jockey, who won over 1000 races in Europe. In a 37-year racing career, he was successful across three continents.
Owen, Garry (2003) Where are they now?; Ron Barry. Scottish Daily Record. Retrieved 2011-03-02.