Steve Mullington (@mulldog) remembers the late Greville Starkey and the impact he had on young horse racing fans...
I’ll be brutally honest with you; I’ve never met a human “hero” in person.
In fact, the majority of my heroes down the decades have been equine ones and I’ve seen most of my favourites up close and personal, either on a racecourse or at their stables.
However, for the purposes of a nostalgia piece like this I’ve been racking my brain to think back upon a handful of people or horses that I would have loved to have seen/met when they were in their heyday.
One of the names that have intrigued me the most over the years is...
Greville Starkey
I saw the po-faced Greville Starkey returning to the winners enclosure at Haydock Park as very young boy and it was a mental image that has been stuck in my mind ever since.
I mean, how could a middle-aged man who has just experienced the euphoria of riding a racehorse to victory look so down in the dumps as he returns to weigh in?
When many years later I read Starkey’s back-story, it made perfect sense to me as to why he wasn’t much of a smiler in the latter part of his career.
Greville Starkey (1939 – 2010) was quite possibly the most talented jockey in the past half century never to become champion jockey.
Sir Michael Stoute says Greville Starkey was a brilliant jockey and horseman plus a joy to work with. Sadly, the first thing many recall about him was his defeat on Dancing Brave in the 1986 Derby, won by the Stoute-trained Shahrastani.#RacingGreats @RishiPersad1 pic.twitter.com/7TRUYf79VO
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) June 1, 2022
The trainers he rode for regarded him as one of the best analysts of their horses, and of all the races that he rode in.
Starkey reached the highest echelons of the sport during his 33-year career in which he rode 1,989 winners, all of them long before the days of online horse racing betting. He was champion apprentice in 1957 and retired from race riding in 1989.
His impressive CV included the Derby and Oaks (English and Irish); the 2,000 Guineas; the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes; the Champion Stakes; the Ascot Gold Cup and the 1975 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on the German-trained Star Appeal.
He was also involved in one of the strangest incidents on a racecourse in modern times. At Royal Ascot 1988 he was bizarrely unseated from Ile de Chypre (a 4/1 shot in the betting) when the horse suddenly swerved across the course.
The reason it happened is still unknown, but one of the theories put forward was that the horse was zapped by a stun-gun.
After his defeat on Dancing Brave in the 1986 Derby, Starkey was replaced as his jockey in the subsequent big races. It was a massive blow to his pride and he never did quite get over it, hence the stern face and lack of emotion on the racecourse.
In actual fact Starkey was quite a joker and that facade of his on the track was merely a smokescreen. He was actually a party-loving, practical joker and a great animal noise (he did a mean Jack Russell dog) and people impersonator.
Starkey, who lived in Kennett, died in 2010 at the age of 70 after an eight-year battle with cancer.
Mourners at his funeral included former weighing-room colleagues Lester Piggott, Willie Carson, Ray Cochrane, George Duffield and John Reid; such was the high esteem that he was held in. Starkey's long-time employer Guy Harwood also attended.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 22nd July 2022
