Gordon Richards

Sir Gordon Richards (5 May 1904 – 10 November 1986) was an English jockey who was the British flat racing Champion Jockey 26 times, and is often considered the world's greatest jockey. He remains the only flat jockey to have been knighted. Early life Gordon Richards was brought up in the Shropshire village of Donnington Wood (now part of Telford) where he was born at Ivy Row (now demolished), the third son of eight surviving children of coal miner Nathan and former dressmaker Elizabeth. His mother was the daughter of another miner, William Dean, who was also a lay preacher, and Richards was given a strict Methodist upbringing. The family later moved during his childhood to Wrockwardine Wood where they lived in a row of cottages called The Limes, Plough Road, built on land bought by his mother. His father reared several pit ponies at their home, and fostered the young Richards' love of equestrian sport. He rode the ponies bareback from an early age, then from the age of seven drove the pony and trap passenger service his family ran between Wrockwardine Wood and Oakengates station. It is said that this is when he developed his unique riding style, using a long rein and an upright stance. He had two brothers, Colin and Clifford, who shared this love of horses and also became jockeys: the latter was a Classic-winning jockey. Career Leaving school at the age of 13, he became a junior clerk in the warehouse of the nearby Lilleshall Company engineering works, sometimes riding a pony to work. He found work as a clerk monotonous and already held ambitions of a career with horses. He answered a newspaper advertisement to be an apprentice to Martin Hartigan, trainer at the Foxhill Stable near Swindon, Wiltshire, owned by Jimmy White, and on New Year's Day 1920 left home to move there.