Jonjo O'Neill

Jonjo O’Neill (born April 13 1952 in County Cork), is an Irish racehorse trainer and former National Hunt jockey.

O'Neill's boyhood ambition was to become a jockey and after leaving school he began an apprenticeship with Michael Connolly. In 1970 he rode his first winner when Lana dead heated at the Curragh. Three years later, Jonjo moved to England and from then on his career burgeoned. In 1977/78, he broke the record for most winners in a season. His tally of one hundred and forty nine beat the previous record (held by former champion and one of Jonjo’s closest friends, Ron Barry) by twenty four. In the 1979/1980 season, he claimed the Jockeys’ Championship for a second time.

Riding career

O'Neill was a hugely popular figure as a jockey. In a career spanning 16 years (between 1970 and 1986), he notched up 901 winners, and secured a reputation as one of the greatest jump jockeys of all time.

Over the course of his career, O'Neill sustained many injuries, some of them serious and ensuring lengthy spells on the sidelines. His great rival and friend, John Francome, once described O'Neill’s achievements in winning two Champion Jockeys’ titles whilst based in the far north of England as “the equivalent of winning five Olympic Gold Medals”.

During his career, O'Neill was associated with many fine horses, the best known being Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon and Dawn Run. In particular, he excelled on the last two-named. Dawn Run remains the only horse to win the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival, whilst Sea Pigeon won numerous good races on the Flat and over jumps, including the Champion Hurdle twice, the first occasion in 1980 when partnered by O'Neill.

Other fine horses that O'Neill rode include Royal Vulcan, Ekbalco, Little Owl, Peterhof and Alverton. Alverton gave O'Neill his first win in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March 1979. Sadly, a month later, he was still cantering when falling fatally in the Grand National.

O'Neill is widely remembered for riding Dawn Run, the only horse to win the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. He also had a wonderful partnership with Sea Pigeon, on whom he won the Champion Hurdle in 1980.

Training career

O'Neill began his career as a trainer in 1986, the same year he was also diagnosed with cancer. With trademark determination, he battled and overcame Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Based at Penrith for 15 years, he moved to Jackdaws Castle, near Cheltenham, in 2001.

He remains the only person to register a seasonal tally of 100 winners as both a jockey and trainer. Additionally, he is the only person to ride and train a winner on the Flat, and over fences and hurdles at Ascot.

Since moving to Jackdaws Castle in the summer of 2001, he’s saddled more than one thousand winners, in the process racking up a century or more on seven occasions.

Currently in his tenth season at this state-of-the-art complex, his previous nine campaigns yielded a total of 964 winners, among them fourteen Cheltenham Festival successes and, famously in April 2010, the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse with Don’t Push It.

Jackdaws Castle

Situated in the Cotswolds, Jackdaws Castle is owned by Irish-based jumping enthusiast, JP McManus, who purchased then expanded the complex prior to O'Neill’s arrival. O'Neill rents the estate from JP and contrary to some opinion, is anything but a private trainer. All owners are welcome at Jackdaws, where the team already plays host to the many various types of ownership allowed by racing’s governing body, the BHA – from corporate to syndicates and partnerships. The facilities at Jackdaws are far removed from the small farm in Penrith where O'Neill began training after retiring as a jockey in 1986.

Almost as soon as he started his new career, O'Neill was diagnosed with cancer. So, that he sent out only three winners in a troubled first year was irrelevant – at the end of it he was still alive.

O'Neill trained three Cheltenham Festival winners whilst based in Penrith. However, since taking over at Jackdaws success at jumping’s showcase meeting has been prolific. All told, his Cheltenham Festival tally now stands at seventeen, among them Iris’s Gift (bonusprint.com Stayers’ Hurdle), Spectroscope (JCB Triumph Hurdle), Black Jack Ketchum (Brit Insurance Spa Novices' Hurdle) and the dual Festival winners Albertas Run (Royal & SunAlliance and Ryanair Chases) and Wichita Lineman (Ballymore Properties Novices’ Hurdle and William Hill Trophy).

Although O'Neill is best known for training top-class jumpers, he’s always happy to have a few horses in training on the Flat too. In fact, early on his career, he saddled a Royal Ascot winner, courtesy of Gipsy Fiddler, who won the Windsor Castle Stakes under Pat Eddery in 1990.

References

• BBC biography

External links

• Jonjo O'Neill Racing