Fact File
Name: Richard Dunwoody.
Born: January 18th, 1964, in Belfast.
Occupation: Champion jockey - rider of Desert Orchid and the Grand National winners West Tip and Miinnehoma.
Why in the news: Retired on Tuesday as most successful jump jockey ever.
Statistics are hardly a definitive measure of sporting greatness. Christy Ring, after all, doesn't hold the record number of All-Ireland medals. Tony Cascarino has more Irish soccer caps than Liam Brady. Statistics do however back up the belief that this week witnessed the retirement of a true sporting great.
On Tuesday, Belfast-born jockey Richard Dunwoody gave up the fight against a long-term neck injury aggravated in a fall last August. It wasn't his wish but medical advice taken in Britain, Ireland and the US was unanimous in telling him that one more fall could seriously injure him.
The 35-year-old retires as British jump racing's top rider with 1,699 victories including two Grand Nationals, a Cheltenham Gold Cup and a Champion Hurdle. The names of some of the great horses he rode are like an equine Who's Who of the last 15 years: Desert Orchid, Florida Pearl, West Tip, One Man. In Dunwoody's case, the figures don't lie.
"The most complete National Hunt jockey I've ever seen," is the verdict of RTE's racing pundit Ted Walsh. "I'm 50, been on the scene a long time, and the two great racing heroes of my time have been Arkle and Dunwoody. There were no weaknesses in the man."
Weakness has never been a word associated with Dunwoody. In a sport where it's a case of when and not if you get injured, and a jockey on average falls once in every 30 rides, the nearest anybody can remember of Dunwoody admitting to pain are some scattered remarks of: "I feel a bit sore."
Such iron will allied to outstanding horsemanship and consummate style gave Dunwoody's riding an almost perfect blend of John Francome-style panache and Peter Scudamore-type doggedness. Significantly, Francome and Scudamore are the riders filling the minor placings in the all-time winner list.
Dunwoody was also champion jockey in the years 19931995 but his nickname of "The Prince" belied the effort that went into becoming champion. During the 1993-94 season, he engaged in a prolonged battle with Adrian Maguire that saw both riders chase winners throughout Britain.
At the height of it all, Dunwoody's almost obsessive will to win resulted in him barging Maguire through the wing of a fence as they battled to the line. He received a lengthy ban for the manoeuvre but still won the championship. It was a costly victory.
His marriage to Carol couldn't survive the strain and shortly afterwards he admitted that the pressures involved in the title struggle had almost resulted in a nervous breakdown. For Dunwoody it was a huge admission. Naturally articulate but reserved, it was a sign of a more mature and less obsessive person rediscovering his love of the sport.
He gave up on the championship, concentrated on riding quality rather than quantity and never rode better than in recent years, especially on his more frequent visits home to Ireland. Just as committed to winning but more relaxed, Dunwoody seemed happier than he had been for years. It makes his enforced retirement seem all the more sad.
Home for Dunwoody until the age of seven had been Comber, Co Down, when his father, George, moved the family to Newmarket in England to manage a stud farm. The youngster had already decided what he wanted to do when he grew up.
Back in Ireland his first pony had run away with him and then thrown him. George Dunwoody remembers rushing to his son, expecting tears, but being met with a grin and: "I want to be a jockey."
A bright student, Dunwoody considered veterinary college but instead opted to become an amateur jockey. His impact was immediate. Game Trust was his first winner on May 4th, 1983, and as an amateur he once rode four winners in a day at Hereford.
Dunwoody's transition to the professional ranks was seamless, and winning the Grand National on West Tip in 1986 propelled him to the top and jobs as first rider to trainers David Nicholson and Martin Pipe. His professionalism has always been taken for granted and his impact has been immense.
"I'd say 95 per cent of young riders now view Richard as their hero and regularly watch videos of him to improve their style," says Dunwoody's fellow Gold Cup winning rider, Conor O'Dwyer.
On the track it has always been every man for himself. "If there was a semblance of a chance of Richard making the first half dozen, you didn't mess with him," O'Dwyer laughs. Ted Walsh agrees.
"The three most important things in a jockey are courage, a good racing brain and commitment. He had all of those and the jockeys of the next generation are fortunate to have such a great role model. But he wasn't squeaky clean. He had that edge that all sportspeople must have, like when he put Maguire through the wing. He wouldn't go out of his way to teach someone a lesson but he was hardy," Walsh says.
So hardy that Dunwoody's wish was to continue riding until he was 40. However, Willie Mullins, who trains the Gold Cup favourite Florida Pearl, believes Dunwoody will in time discover he is finishing at the right time.
"He has nothing to prove to anyone. He might have won another Gold Cup or Champion Hurdle but so what? Everything has been said about him already. Only one thing could have happened and that was that he would eventually take an even worse fall."
Dunwoody will now focus that famous competitive zeal on building up his London-based sports promotion company. He can focus on a hopeful future, content that his glittering past does him nothing but credit.
