Richard Dunwoody

Thomas Richard Dunwoody MBE (born 18 January 1964 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a retired British National Hunt jockey. He was a three-time British Champion Jockey. He was the only jockey of his generation to win the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle.[1]

Richard Dunwoody
OccupationJockey
Born (1964-01-18) 18 January 1964
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Career wins1,874
Major racing wins
Cheltenham Gold Cup (1988)
Champion Hurdle (1990)
King George VI Chase (1989, 1990, 1995, 1996)
Grand National (1986, 1994)
Racing awards
British jump racing Champion Jockey
(1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95)
Honours
Member of the Order of the British Empire
Significant horses
Charter Party, Desert Orchid, Kribensis, Miinnehoma, One Man, Remittance Man, West Tip

Racing career

Dunwoody's race victories include the King George VI Chase four times - twice on Desert Orchid in 1989 and 1990 and twice on One Man in 1995 and 1996. He also won the 1986 and 1994 Grand Nationals on West Tip and Miinnehoma respectively, the 1988 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Charter Party and the Champion Hurdle on Kribensis. He received the Lester Award for "Jump Jockey of the Year" on five occasions and after his retirement in 1999, held the record for most career winners until Tony McCoy passed his total of 1874 winners in 2002.

Charity work

On 18 January 2008, it was reported that Dunwoody and American explorer Doug Stoup had reached the South Pole following a 48-day trek raising money for charity. Their route followed one which had previously been attempted by Ernest Shackleton and was both the first successful completion of that route on foot as well the first successfully completed new route to the South Pole in ten years.

On 29 May 2009, Dunwoody started a 1000 Mile Challenge for charity and walked the same mile 1000 consecutive times in Newmarket for 1000 consecutive hours with the last mile up the home straight of Newmarket racecourse just before the Bunbury Cup on 10 July 2009.[2]

On 26 February 2017, Dunwoody embarked on a walk across Japan, covering a distance of 2,000 miles, to raise money for Sarcoma UK cancer charity. His trek, from Cape Sata on the southern tip of Kyushu to Cape Soya, the northernmost part of Hokkaido, took 101 days.[3]

Strictly Come Dancing

On 25 August 2009 it was announced that he would take part in Series 7 of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing partnering Lilia Kopylova. The couple were eliminated on the second week.

Personal life

Dunwoody was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1993 Birthday Honours for services to horse racing.[4]

Dunwoody's autobiography is called Obsessed and was published, after his retirement, in the year 2000. He published a second autobiography called Method in My Madness: 10 Years Out of the Saddle in 2009. He is a motivational speaker.[5] In January 2014, he hosted his debut photographic exhibition at St Martin-in-the-Fields featuring images taken in Pakistan, India, Guatemala and Egypt for the charity Brooke Hospital for Animals.[6] His daughter was born in 2015.

Cheltenham Festival winners (18)

Major wins

United Kingdom Great Britain

Republic of Ireland Ireland

References
  1. "Former jockey treks to South Pole". BBC. 19 January 2008.
  2. Richard Dunwoody 1000 Mile Challenge Archived 2009-05-04 at the Wayback Machine - Official website of the challenge
  3. "Dunwoody's 2,000 mile Japan Challenge". 3 February 2017.
  4. United Kingdom: "No. 53332". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 1993. p. 16.
  5. "Home". Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  6. "What's on?".
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