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photo courtesy of Chris Pitt
Desmond Cullen was born in Dublin on October 8, 1940. He started work in 1954 as a messenger boy, delivering carbon ribbons for typewriters.It was through that job that he met Mr MaCarthy, who was a friend of licensed Irish Flat trainer Kevin Kerr whose stables were at Clonee, County Meath.
McCarthy introduced him to Kerr who took Des on as an apprentice. Stable hand Mick Tully was appointed to teach the fledgling jockey how to ride.
Meanwhile, Des's Mum was busy, writing to three trainers in Newmarket and, in June 1956, Des - in company with his brother, Peter - travelled to England where they became apprenticed to Captain Boy-Rochfort at Freemason Lodge. There they lived and worked for the next six months.
Then a friend got him a job at Willie Stephenson's yard at Royston, Hertfordshire. He moved there in December, 1956, and had his first ride for the stable at Lincoln on March 25, 1957, riding Anthony The First.
In his time at Stephenson's, he rode Oxo out every day for six weeks prior to that horse's win in the 1959 Grand National.
Other good horses he exercised were Richmond Stakes winner Red God and the ill-fated Alcide.
Des, then aged 18, enjoyed his first win for the stable on Tudor Flash at Newmarket in the five furlong Caxton Handicap in 1958.
Aged 21, he completed his apprenticeship in 1961, the year he won the
Northumberland Plate on Utrillo for Bill O'Gorman.In those days a bottom weight might carry seven stone or even less when ridden by himself or other apprentices like Mick Greening, Ray Reader or Tommy Carter, and Des found himself extremely busy.
Then, in 1971, the minimum weight was raised from seven stone to seven stone seven pounds. It was the beginning of the end for Des and several other leading lightweights.
Paradoxically, this was the year in which Des enjoyed his greatest win, on King Midas in the Cambridgeshire fo Derrick Candy. This was also the year in which Des rode his greatest number of winners, 45.
King Midas, who ran for the executors of the late Major H. P. Holt, who had died on June 1, had always been regarded as an ideal Cambridgeshire type by its trainer, who had backed him at 40-1 when the weights were published.
Candy had engaged Des to ride King Midas fully a month earlier.
Des was somewhat fortunate with the draw which, that year, appeared to destroy the chances of about a third of the field. From stall 15, Des, wisely deciding to stay on the stands side, took up the running on the grey two furlongs out.
The better fancied horses including Calpernius, Arthur, Caius, Ouda, Rugged & Hitesca were all drawn high and might as well have stayed at home.
Des rode the winners of several major handicaps including the Extel
(Exchange/Telegraph) Stakes (twice), Stewards' Cup (Sky Diver, photo right), 1973 Royal Hunt Cup (Camouflage), 1974 Ayr Gold Cup (Somersway) plus, of course, the 1971 Cambridgeshire (King Midas) which Des said was the best horse he ever sat on.
He had a lucky escape on August 23, 1976, when Wenallt Red Knight, a horse he was riding at Windsor, set off in front but, on reaching the junction of the course two furlongs later, crashed through the rails into the stream
Des said at the time: 'I thought I was a goner. I can't swim and went down three or four times, my feet sticking in the mud. Then a man jumped in and rescued me.'
That man was Roy Clark a member of the ground staff. It took a further fifteen minutes before Wenallt Red Knight scrambled free.
Cullen, just 4 feet 9 inches in height, was only 37 when he was forced to quit on medical advice in 1977 after being injured in a fall from a two-year-old while exercising which brought on his tenth bout of concussion.
Des retired to Berkshire where he became a keen gardener.
He kept himself in shape saying, 'you can't let yourself get too flabby.'
By 2002, suffering brain damage, he was one of a number of injured ex-jockeys who gathered each year for a holiday in Tenerife, courtesy of Jack Berry and the Injured Jockeys' Fund.
Des's companions that year included Shane Broderick, Sharron Murgatroyd and Ronnie Singer.
Just before Christmas Day 2013, Des - his heath declining - was moved from Basingstoke hospital. Suffering from a nasty flu virus, he was moved to Pemberley House Hospital, also in Basingstoke.
He has been battling prostate cancer for a number of years: he also had diabetes.
Des Cullen died at a nursing home in Basingstoke on September 14, 2014. He was 73.
At one time he lived at Vikings, Grange Close, Goring-on-Thames, Reading and on September 13, 1962, married Marilyn Faint. She gave him one daughter, Julia Elizabeth.
Des's height was 4ft 9ins.
Chicky Oaksey, wife of Lord Oaksey, said: "Des was a beautiful singer without music and had an infectious sense of fun."
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