I was a legendary champion jockey but could’ve ended up in prison before becoming a TV star and bestselling author
A SEVEN-TIME champion jockey, author of 20-odd books and the award-winning star of a period of TV racing coverage many hail as the golden age.
A small lad from Swindon whose legendary career was almost over before it even began.
Few can match the impact on racing of the one and only John Francome.
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But ask him these days about his career, which included Gold Cup victory and a regular slot on the must-watch TV show on racing of its time, and he says he doesn’t miss it one bit.
Flanked by the late John McCririck and Emma Spencer on Channel 4’s The Morning Line, Francome was always forthright and punchy with his views in front of camera.
But he could have left the show much sooner had it not been for his good friend and former racing supremo Andrew Franklin.
When he got cut from the production, Francome exited too.
He recalled: “I was very lucky in broadcasting with Highflyer at Channel 4.
“Everyone who worked for Highflyer, from the boss John Fairley, whose success with Highfield Princess has been so great to follow, to Andrew Franklin, my fellow presenters and all the unsung support team.
“Every one of them was a quality person you would be happy to spend time with away from racing, and I’m still in touch with a lot of them.
“I did it for 27 years and I loved it, but when I watch them now standing out in the cold at Wincanton, I don’t miss it at all.
“There’s only so many times you can say ‘that’s a nice horse’.
“I would have packed up much sooner were it not for Andrew. He was short changed. He should have been given the chance to produce Royal Ascot and the Grand National.”
Francome was asked to stay on when the new production company moved in, but he said no.
A big loss for the team, especially as Francome was awarded ‘Best Sports Pundit’ from the Royal Television Society in 2004.
Summing up his decision, Francome said in his own inimitable style: “There are some people you have to interview who I couldn’t give a damn if they dropped down dead.”
Francome was equally as head-strong when trying to make a name for himself at Fred Winter’s yard more than 50 years ago.
It was 1970 and Francome wasn’t finding success as quickly as he wanted. He wanted out. Right there and then.
Remembering those days, Francome told the Racing Post: “I wasn’t going anywhere. I was fed up with working and there being no future to it.
“I phoned my mum and dad up and said, ‘I’ll be home at the weekend, I’ve had enough of it’. They said, ‘Fine’.
“I went down to tell Fred and he wasn’t there.”
That all changed when Francome – who’s recently been raising money for another former jockey struck down with motor neurone disease – sat on a horse called Osbaldeston.
By all accounts a nutter, Osbaldeston was almost unraceable – but he and Francome hit it off.
He was entered in a race at Worcester a week after Francome first rode work on him, won, and reignited his rider’s desire for success.
What followed could hardly have been predicted.
In the decade from 1975 on, there was really only one name worth following.
In that time Francome won seven champion jump jockey crowns, which included a 1978 Gold Cup victory on Midnight Court.
There was the 1981 Stayers’ Hurdle success on Derring Rose – the same year he claimed the Champion Hurdle on the legendary Sea Pigeon, named ‘Britain’s best-known horse after Arkle and Red Rum’.
While in 1982 came King George success on Wayward Lad – the same year Francome stopped riding mid-way through the season so he could share the jump jockey crown with an injured Peter Scudamore.
An amazing act of sportsmanship Scudamore called ‘of the greatest sporting gestures of all time’.
Francome won the big Boxing Day feature again two years later on Burrough Hill Lad, the same year he broke Stan Mellor’s then-record of 1,035 wins.
When Francome retired in 1985 – with 1,138 wins to his name – he did so as the most successful National Hunt jockey in British history – and took a next step few could have predicted.
Despite confessing he ‘just wasn’t a gifted writer’, Francome went onto pen some 27 books in a similar style to that of the legendary Dick Francis.
Francome, now 71, took to the after-dinner speaking circuit too and was president of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund.
An amazing career but one that all comes back to Osbaldeston.
Speaking of their bond, Francome said: “There’s absolutely no doubt that, if it hadn’t been for him, I’d be cleaning cars or in prison or doing something completely different.
“Without him, I would have just packed up. He was the one that got me going.”
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