Sir Henry Richard Amherst Cecil was a British flat racing horse trainer. Cecil was very successful, becoming Champion Trainer ten times and training 25 domestic Classic winners. These comprised four winners of the Derby, eight winners of the Oaks, six winners of the 1,000 Guineas, three of the 2,000 Guineas and four winners of the St Leger Stakes. His 1000 Guineas and Oaks successes made him particularly renowned for his success with fillies. He was noted for his mastery at Royal Ascot, where he trained 75 winners.
Affirmed was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the eleventh winner of the American Triple Crown. Affirmed was well known for his famous rivalry with Alydar, whom he met ten times, including Alydar coming second in each of the three 1978 Triple Crown races. After Affirmed won the Triple Crown, there was a 37-year wait until American Pharoah swept the series in 2015.
Johnny Murtagh is an Irish flat racing trainer and former jockey from Bohermeen, near Navan, Kells, County Meath. As a jockey he won many of the major flat races in Europe, including all the Irish Classics, all the Group 1 Races at Royal Ascot, The Derby, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and Europe's biggest race the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He was also Irish flat racing Champion Jockey five times. As a trainer, based at stables near Kildare, he has saddled a winner at Royal Ascot and an Irish Classic winner.
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.
Slip Anchor (1982–2011) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1985 Epsom Derby by seven lengths. After showing some promise as a two-year-old, he showed substantial improvement in the spring of 1985, winning the Derby Trial at Lingfield Park Racecourse by ten lengths before recording a rare start-to-finish win in the Derby. He was rated the best racehorse in Europe in 1985. His subsequent career was disrupted by injury, and he finished second in his other three races before being retired to stud. He had some success as a breeding stallion and died in 2011.
Michael Earl Smith is an American jockey who has been one of the leading riders in U.S. Thoroughbred racing since the early 1990s, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003, and has won the most Breeders' Cup races of any jockey with 27 Breeders' Cup wins. Smith is also the third leading jockey of all time in earnings with over $336 million. In 2018, Smith rode Justify to the Triple Crown, becoming the oldest jockey to win the title at age 52.
Patrick James John Eddery 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.
William Fisher Hunter Carson, OBE is a retired jockey in thoroughbred horse racing.
Cash Asmussen is an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. Born Brian Keith Asmussen, in 1977 he legally changed his name to "Cash".
Calvin H. Borel is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing and rode the victorious mount in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, the 2009 Kentucky Derby and the 2010 Kentucky Derby. His 2009 Derby win with Mine That Bird was the third biggest upset in Derby history,, and Borel's winning margin of 6+3⁄4 lengths was the greatest in Derby history since Assault won by 8 lengths in 1946. On May 1, 2009, Borel won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Rachel Alexandra, only the second time since 1993 that a jockey has won the Oaks-Derby combo, and just the seventh time overall a jockey has accomplished this feat in the same year. On May 16, 2009, Borel won the 2009 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico with thoroughbred filly Rachel Alexandra. In doing so, Borel became the first jockey to win the first two jewels of the Triple Crown on different mounts. Borel's nickname is "Bo'rail'" due to his penchant for riding close to the rail to save ground.
Philip Peter Robinson is a former English flat racing jockey.
Oh So Sharp (1982–2001) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the English Fillies' Triple Crown in 1985. In a racing career which lasted from August 1984 until September 1985, she won seven of her nine races, starting favourite on each occasion and never at odds of more than 2/1. She was one of the leading two-year-old fillies of 1984 when she was unbeaten in three races, including the Fillies' Mile. In the following year Oh So Sharp won the 1000 Guineas in record time and then took the Oaks by six lengths before being narrowly beaten in her next two starts in major weight-for-age races. The filly completed the Triple Crown in the St Leger Stakes. She was retired at the end of the season and became a successful broodmare. Oh So Sharp died in 2001 at the age of nineteen.
Darrel G. McHargue is a retired American Champion jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. One of five children from a family not connected to horse racing, he was first introduced to riding as a teenage boy when he rode a neighbor's Quarter Horse. He was 17 years old when he made his professional debut in 1972 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The following year he was the leading rider at Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland.
Greville Michael Wilson Starkey was an English jockey who rode almost 2,000 winners during a 33-year career on the flat.
Minster Son was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career which lasted from late summer 1987 until September 1988, he ran eight times and won five races. He recorded his most important success when winning the Classic St. Leger Stakes as a three-year-old in 1988, ridden by his breeder, Willie Carson. In the same year in which he also won the Newmarket Stakes, the Predominate Stakes and the Gordon Stakes. He was retired to stud following his St Leger victory.
The 1985 Epsom Derby was the 206th annual running of the Derby horse race. It took place at Epsom Downs Racecourse on 5 June 1985.
Diminuendo was an American-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare best known for winning two classic races, the Epsom Oaks and the Irish Oaks in 1988. She was one of the best two-year-old fillies of 1987, when she won all four of her races including the Cherry Hinton Stakes and Fillies' Mile. In 1988 she was beaten in her first two races, but won her next four, taking the Musidora Stakes, Epsom Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks. She finished second when favourite for the St. Leger Stakes and ended her racing career by finishing unplaced in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but was rated the best three-year-old filly of the season in Europe. She was then retired to stud, where she had some success as a broodmare.
Ernest Johnson is an Epsom Derby winning British flat racing jockey.
Lanfranco was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. As a two-year-old in 1984 he showed great promise by winning three of his four races including the William Hill Futurity. In the following year he was overshadowed by his stable companions Slip Anchor and Oh So Sharp but recorded further victories in the Predominate Stakes and the King Edward VII Stakes. He contested all three legs of the British Triple Crown, finishing seventh in the 2000 Guineas, fifth in The Derby and third in the St Leger. He was retired from racing after sustaining the last of a series of injuries after winning five of his ten races. He stood as a breeding stallion in New Zealand but had little success.
Michael Beary was an Irish flat racing jockey, who won four British Classics and eight Irish Classics in a career that spanned from the 1910s to the 1950s. He was Irish Champion Jockey in 1920. The Racing Post ranked him the 13th greatest jockey of the 20th Century.
