John Francome

Samstag, 13. Dezember 1952

John Francome MBE (13 December 1952) is a former National Hunt Champion Jockey, television pundit and author. Born in Swindon, Wiltshire, the son of a railway fireman, his family had no connection with the horse racing world. At sixteen years old he became apprentice to Lambourn trainer Fred Winter and so began his career as a jockey. He rode a total of 1,138 winners, his last being in April 1985. During the course of his career he was Champion Jockey seven times, between 1976 and 1985. Francome is the third most successful National Hunt jump jockey of all time after Tony McCoy (20 championships) and Peter Scudamore (8 championships). He is dubbed the best jockey never to have won the Grand National.