MARTEDÌ 13 DICEMBRE 2016. Ci ha lasciato Walter #Swinburn, il fantino di #Shergar. Vincitore di 3 Derby ed un Arc, si è spento all’età di 55 anni
He was happiest on a horse and few belonged there more
Walter Swinburn’s biggest challenge was not with an unruly two-year-olds or getting boxed in at the crucial stage of a major race. Swinburn, like many of his contemporaries, struggled with his weight and battled bulimia and alcohol abuse.
One man troubled by similar problems as Swinburn was Steve Cauthen. Like the rider nicknamed The Choirboy who won the Derby as a 19-year-old on Shergar, Cauthen struck gold early, becoming the youngest jockey to win the US Triple Crown thanks to the superb Affirmed.
“We both started young and had pretty early success – I won the Triple Crown when I was 18 and he won the Derby when he was 19, but I don’t think that was the issue,” he said.
“I think our biggest problem was having pretty serious weight issues and that was kind of what drove us both out of the saddle. I’m sure there are pluses and minuses to having early success, but we rode for as long and as well as we could.
“We were both fairly tall for jockeys and it was difficult. We both also had serious falls. I had a couple and he had his in Hong Kong and it takes its toll in the long run. I came back and rode for five years and won a championship after my fall and he came back and won on Pilsudski after his, but the wasting and grind of it all is tough.”
Swinburn and Cauthen, each with a meteoric rise to prominence behind them, grew close pitting their wits against Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery after the American had moved to Britain.
Speaking to the Racing Post from the States yesterday, Cauthen went on to describe how Swinburn had become almost like a brother to him.
“It was a great relationship and I got to know his family very well –they are great people and being so far away from my family it was nice to get a feel of that,” he added.
“We were from similar backgrounds and his dad was a jockey and his family all good horsemen, while my father was a blacksmith who did a bit of everything in racing and my mom was born into a family that owned racehorses, so in many way were from similar situations.”
That generosity was repaid when Swinburn took time out across the Atlantic shortly after Pilsudski’s 1996 Breeders’ Cup Turf Triumph.
“He was trying to figure out how much longer he’d put himself through trying to ride and deciding his next step,” Cauthen reflected.
“The press were trying to do their job and get the story and the only way you can get away from it is by getting away from it, so he came for a visit and we played a lot of golf. It was good and hopefully it was good for him. We were buddies.”
Cauthen rates Swinburn alongside some of the greats of the sport and he had an edge on almost all of his weighing room colleagues in terms of talent. He faced an uneven battle with the scales, but very few have belonged more on a racehorse.
Dettori: he was a joy to watch, be around and learn from
Frankie Dettori, the man who succeeded Walter Swinburn as Flat racing’s most stylish operator, yesterday paid a touching tribute to his former colleague, who died at the age of 55 on Monday morning.
Swinburn, who suffered from epilepsy, was one of the finest riders of his generation and his CV is crammed with victories in many of the sport’s greatest races.
He won eight British Classics and memorably steered Shergar to his brilliant win in the 1981 Derby when the jockey was just 19.
By the time Dettori entered the weighing room in the late 1980s, Swinburn was established as one of its senior members and he was fondly recalled on Tuesday by his old sparring partner.
Dettori said: “Walter was in my corner. I got changed next to him almost every day and as a young lad growing up he was a jockey I looked up to because he was an unbelievable rider. He was a joy to watch, be around and learn from. It was a sad day when I heard the news. He was only 55 and I’m still in a bit of shock as it’s so young.”
Outlining the part Swinburn played in helping shape his successful career, the 45-year-old added: “Absolutely I took things from him, of course. And I was blessed he was in my corner so I watched him like a hawk every day, trying to pick up his best attributes. He definitely played a big part in my career.
“He was a very natural talent and got inside horses’s mind to get them to do what he wanted them to do; relax, run for him. He was a great horseman. For me as a young, up-and-coming jockey he was someone I was very lucky to have on my side, so I could try to pick up as much as I could from this great talent.
“When you’re with someone – and I was very lucky I had Walter, Ray Cochrane and Pat Eddery to look up to – for six to eight hours a day you pick up things even if you don’t actually talk to them or ask; you’re like a sponge and try to be like them.
“When I rode the seven winners at Ascot he was with me all day, him and Pat, and he was the one pushing me to win the seventh, saying, ‘You can win this’. He was getting me revved up.
“I spent a lot of time with him and shared many journeys with him and he was always fun to be around. We had some great times, on and off the track.”
Many of Swinburn’s major triumphs came on horses owned by members of the Maktoum family, most notably brilliant miler Zilzal and Lammtarra, who won the Derby in 1995.
John Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed’s long-time bloodstock adviser and now chief executive of Godolphin, was close to Swinburn and said: “Walter was a very special friend and godfather to my daughter Georgina.
“James Fanshawe, Walter and I were all working at Sir Michael Stoute’s at the time and were an incredibly close team. Our thoughts are with Wally and Doreen and the Swinburn family.
“Walter was the ultimate horseman and rode many, many great victories for the Maktoum family and others and he’ll be greatly missed.”
Criquette Head-Maarek trained another of Swinburn’s best horses, 1,000 Guineas heroine Hatoof, who also struck in the Champion Stakes
“I’m very said,” she said. “He was someone I was very fond of and we had a lot of success together; he rode Hatoof in all of her big races. He was fantastic, one of the greatest jockeys I ever worked with. He was very talented and very good with two-year-olds – he was a real horseman. For me he was up there with the best.”
Those words were echoed by Aidan O’Brien, whose first Group 1 winner, Desert King in the National Stakes in 1996, was ridden by Swinburn.
O’Brien said: “We always considered Walter an incredibly special rider. He sat as light as a feather on a horse and his timing was always brilliant. When we could use him we did, and he was an absolute gentleman to deal with. He rode our first Group 1 winner 20 years ago and also rode our first Phoenix Stakes winner, Lavery, at Leopardstown in 1998.
“He was very thoughtful of others as his walk from Cork to Dublin in 1997 to raise funds for different charities showed. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family at this sad time.”
Dermot Weld, multiple champion trainer in Ireland, said: “Walter was not only a world-class jockey, he was an exceptionally nice person. I knew him since he was a child as his father Wally was my stable jockey in the 1970s and was twice champion jockey in Ireland.
“Walter didn’t ride for me very often but he did ride a couple of big-race winners for the yard, Vintage Crop in the 1992 Cesarewitch at Newmarket and Saving Mercy in the 1984 Lincoln.
“He was a very gifted athlete and those hands which he became famous for as a jockey were seen to very good effect when he was a schoolboy at Rockwell College where he made a name for himself as an excellent scrum-half on the college rugby team.
“His death at only 55 is tragic and my deepest sympathies go to his parents, Wally and Doreen, and his brother Michael.”
Friends and colleagues reflect on a sad loss
Mick Kinane
He was a hugely talented man with fantastic hands – lovely, quiet hands. Horses settled for him and he was a great talent. I think his ride on Lammtarra, a maiden winner in the Derby, was a phenomenal achievement as he managed an inexperienced horse around Epsom. That was one of his outstanding achievements and he definitely had ice in his veins on the big days – nothing seemed to bother him.
John Reid
He had an amazing career. The thing with Walter he was so talented it almost looked like he didn’t have to put any effort into it. I envied him as a rider because he was a beautiful horsemen with a relaxed style. You can learn to ride but there are some things that can’t be learned and Walter was one of those guys who had that magic touch about him. That’s why Michael Stoute loved him. No matter how badly he behaved – and sometimes he did – he was so talented that all the trainers wanted him to ride for them. On the big day there was nobody better – he was very cool, calm and collected and got the best out of a horse. He was a good fellow and a nice guy.
Sir Anthony McCoy
Very sad to hear about the death of Walter Swinburn. Brilliantly stylish and a genius in the saddle. A jockey that God hath retained. RIP
Steve Drowne
Shocking and sobering news of Walter Swinbur,n the owner of talent that most jockeys can only dream of. RIP Wally
Dale Gibson
Sad news to hear Walter Swinburn has passed away – a natural talent, incredible balance, hands, judgement of pace and a joy to watch.
Jonjo O’Neill
Very sad to hear the news of Walter Swinburn’s passing. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.
David Pipe
Shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Walter Swinburn. RIP.
Five other teenagers to hit the heights in the saddle
Walter Swinburn, who has died at 55, will be forever remembered as the 19-year-old who guided the mighty Shergar to victory in the 1981 Derby. We look back at other riders who shot to prominence in similar circumstances while still in their teenage years.
Fred Archer
Although Archer was 20 when he won the first of five Derbys in 1877, by then he had already ridden winners of the 1,000 Guineas, 2,000 Guineas and Oaks while his first major success had been in the Cesarewitch when he was only 15. He would win 21 Classics and was champion jockey 13 times in a row, starting at the age of 17, before he took his own life at 29.
Lester Piggott
The man widely regarded as the greatest of them all incredibly started winning races before even reaching his teens, but his true breakthrough came in 1954 when, at the age of 18, he steered 33-1 shot Never Say Die to success in the Derby for trainer Joe Lawson. Piggott was pushing 60 by the time he retired from the saddle in 1995.
Steve Cauthen
Cauthen became the youngest rider to win the US Triple Crown in 1978 on Affirmed, the pair teaming up to win the Kentucky Derby just five days after the jockey’s 18th birthday. Cauthen famously struggled to make the low weights required in the States, so later came to ride in Britain for Henry Cecil, where one of the many British jockeys he is said to have inspired was a young Walter Swinburn.
Joseph O’Brien
There was nearly a Triple Crown-winning teenager in Britain in 2012, when Camelot, ridden by 19-year-old Joseph O’Brien, won the 2,000 Guineas and Derby in emphatic style. The pair went off 2-5 for the St Leger, but were beaten by Encke, one of the horses who would later be implicated in the doping scandal that brought down trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni. O’Brien would ride a second Derby winner, Australia, at the ripe old age of 21 and, still only 23, is already a Group 1-winning trainer on the Flat.
Mickael Barzalona
The image of the then 19-year-old Barzalona standing bolt upright in the irons on Pour Moi as the pair crossed the line all of a head in front of Treasure Beach in the 2011 Derby has come to be one of the defining pictures of youthful exuberance in sport. Although that win came for Coolmore, Barzalona has spent most of his time since riding for Godolphin and, after a hit-and-miss spell in Britain, is now their principal jockey in France. He has picked up a generous handful of Group 1 successes since, but to now he is still defined by that stunning breakthrough triumph.
fonte : RacingPost
DOMENICA 11 DICEMBRE 2016. San Rossore: Opinion Maker sovrasta Amore Hass nel Criterium. Podio tutto Botti con Gran Pierino..
