Maguire, Adrian

Omerta had provided Lorcan Wyer with a first riding success in England in 1986 when winning the National Hunt Chase at the festival. Could he do the same for the young jockey from the County Meath village of Kilmessan?

He could! Following a masterly ride from the young jockey, Omerta - who had been plagued with back problems and had not raced for over  a year - had the race sewn up at the last, leaving Golden Minstrel and Master Bob to fight out the places.

Omerta next ran in the Jameson Irish National on Easter Monday, April 2, four weeks away from Adrian's 20th birthday.

Days earlier, competing in the point-to-point field, the jockey had injured himself, and needed the clearance of a doctor before being allowed to renew his partnership with the Cheltenham winner.

Coming to the second last fence, less than four lengths covered the first six. Here, though, both Rawhide and Man O'Magic fell leaving the Charlie Swan-ridden Cahervillahow to provide the sternest challenge. Swan switched his mount to the far side and, momentarily, looked liked getting up, but Adrian, on the 6/1 favourite, refused to be headed.

Swan and Adrian flashed over the line together, and it took a protracted examination of the photo to confirm Omerta's victory.

Adrian said after: 'Everyone who has been associated with the horse advised me that getting the trip was no problem. That made up my mind to try to stretch the better class horses in the field and I had him with the leaders from the start.' 

His meteoric rise through the ranks was somewhat soured when, the next year, a discrepancy arose regarding his 3 lb allowance.

After an investigation into his riding record in which it was ascertained that Adrian was still claiming his allowance when no longer entitled, a statement explained: 'It is the responsibility of an individual claiming jockey to keep account of races won, and it appears that Adrian Maguire has incorrectly been claiming a 3lb allowance since he rode Norstock to victory at Fontwell on December 30, and therefore an objection has been lodged.'

Adrian said: 'As far as I'm concerned, I lost my claim when I won on Notary-Nowell on Saturday. There appears to have been a mix-up with the numbers. This is a big blow.'

Adrian had six winners and six places taken off him. Owner Geoffrey Hubbard later sued the Jockey Club for lost prize-money of just over £20,000. 

On November 5, 1992, Adrian joined Peter Scudamore in the lead for the jockey's championship (35 winners apiece), but not before he had picked up a four-day ban for misuse of the whip causing him to miss the Makeson Gold Cup. He received a second ban for his misuse of the whip in April 1993, and missed the Whitbread Gold Cup and Punchestown festival. He was banned again, this time for six days, after being found guilty of using the whip with unreasonable frequency on Ramstar at Warwick on January 15, 1994.

Riding a double at Plumpton on Monday, May 23, 1993, Adrian recorded the first century of his career. Later that year (Friday, November 19th) Adrian displayed rare brilliance at Ascot to land a four-timer from four rides.

This was the season in which Adrian came closest to becoming champion jockey. Riding 194 winners, he came second to Richard Dunwoody (197) but had the title been decided on win and place prize money, Adrian would have come out on top. Every bit as good as Dunwoody and probably a lot better, he was without question the best National Hunt jockey never to have been champion. (Dunwoody was icily focused and showed rare determination but Adrian, like A P McCoy, had that touch of genius).

He rode a 47-1 four-timer at Towcester in January, 1995 before going on to ride his hundredth winner of the season the following month. The previous year he rode his hundredth winner on December 27 (when Barton Bank won the King George at Kempton), but minor injuries, riding suspensions and bad weather prolonged his progress.

On Sunday morning, March 12, 1995, Adrian's beloved mother died in her sleep after suffering a heart attack at her home in Kilmessan. This was a second family tragedy. Adrian's brother, Vinny, one of ten children, had been killed in a hit-and-run accident just four years earlier, aged 17.

This had left both Adrian and his mother totally devasted: Vinny and Adrian had been mad on racing since the day they could walk and shared a favourite pony called Charlie. After the death of Vincent, Mrs Maguire never watched live televised races in which Adrian was riding. Instead she would video the races before telephoning Adrian in the evening to make sure he was safe and well. She would then watch the recordings.

Missing Cheltenham, Adrian attended his mother's funeral along with his father, Joe, his six brothers and two sisters.

Adrian's terrible season continued when, on April 17, he broke an arm at Hereford as Desert Fighter, the 5-2 on favourite, ran out at the last flight and unseated him. He did not return to racing until August 24.

He was back in hospital on November 17 (having been involved in a three-horse pile up at Ascot) having sustained injuries to his neck and back. He was forced off the course for a month before returning to score on Boss's Bank at Towcester on December 14.

However talented he was, Adrian was becoming known as an unlucky, injury-prone jockey. In January 1996, again riding Boss's Bank, he was involved in another pile-up, this time at Leicester and received a nasty kick in the head. He also suffered an injury to his knee. He was off for another six weeks, missing Cheltenham for the second successive year. Boss's Bank was killed.

Adrian's incredible run of bad luck continued the following year when, again at Leicester, he broke his arm after taking a heavy fall from Foxwoods Valley. For the third year running, he missed the Cheltenham festival.

He saw Doctor Michael Foy at Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon who gave Adrian the news he was hoping for: he didn't need an operation, it was just a question of time. He was back in the saddle by June 28.

Incredibly, he broke his arm again that December, which kept him out of the saddle for another eight weeks.

Having ridden his last winner at Cheltenhan in 1994 (Mysilvi in the Triumph Hurdle), he was praying to stay fit for the next one.

It seemed as if his injury curse was on hold as he lined up for the Grand Annual Chase on Zabadi. Minutes later, on the landing side of the second last fence, he lay crumpled and motionless as course attendants placed a screen around him.

Having ignored the fence on the first circuit, his mount Zabadi fell heavily, flinging Adrian into the ground. Thankfully, Zabadi missed the prostrate jockey by inches: the following horse, Sublime Fellow, tripping over Zabadi, did not.

He landed heavily on the jockey: Mick Fitzgerald, who had been riding Sublime Fellow, cradled his colleague as he drifted in and out of consciousness. 

He was rushed to Cheltenham General Hospital with head injuries, a fractured left collar-bone and a sore knee.

On December 29, 1998, Adrian stepped down as stable jockey to David Nicholson.

Nicholson felt that Adrian's many falls and injuries had affected his riding: Adrian would have none of it. 

He said: 'To me, the problem went deeper. He had some average horses in the yard that year and you don't win good races with average horses, especially if they're not fit. A lot of them were getting beaten, and the finger was being pointed at me.'

Richard Johnson stepped up to become the number 1 rider at Jackdaws Castle.

Adrian signed a retainer with the burgeoning northern stable of Ferdy Murphy who said 'I expect to have 70 or 80 jumpers here this season and Adrian will be retained. He's experienced and honest, and you can't beat that.'

On Thursday, November 29, 2001, Adrian - riding Fiori at muddy Carslisle - joined an exclusive racing club when becoming only the seventh jump jockey to ride 1,000 winners. 

This was one of the best moments of his racing life - the worst (injuries aside) had come at Kempton on Boxing Day, 1994, when he was deprived of a second successive King George as Barton Bank blundered badly at the last, unshipping the hapless rider.

The end of Adrian's riding career came unexpectedly one Saturday at Warwick. Riding Luzcadou in a long distance chase on March 9, 2002, he was pitched into the drying ground: initial fears that he had broken his arm soon gave way to the news that he had actually broken his neck. The fact that he would miss his fourth Cheltenham was the least of his worries.

That October, the game was up. Adrian Maguire, one of the most popular, gifted yet ill-fated jockeys ever, was told by the Jockey Club's chief medical officer Dr Michael Turner that under no circumstances would he be passed fit to ride again.

Adrian said: 'I never wanted this day to arrive but with the hazardous nature of jump racing, I have to accept that my career is over. The news has come as a shock - I desperately wanted to ride again. I have no immediate plans and will take all the time available to discuss things with my family.

Aged 31, and the rider of 1,024 winners, Adrian said: 'I want to be remembered as being a good jockey - not just an unlucky one.'

He was good all right. If only Lady Luck had smiled in his direction more often...

Adrian's big race winners included:

1992 Cheltenham Gold Cup (Cool Ground)

2001 King George Vl Chase (Florida Pearl)

1992 Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup (Sibton Abbey)

1998 Whitbread Gold Cup (Call It A Day)

1994 Queen Mother Champion Chase (Viking Flagship)

1995 Melling Chase (Viking Flagship)

1993 Tote Gold Trophy (King Credo)

1998 Scottish Grand National (Baronet)

2000 Scottish Grand National (Paris Pike)

He also won the Galway Plate twice, the Imperial Cup twice, The Bula Hurdle twice, the Scottish Champion Hurdle, the Greenalls Gold Cup, the Grand Annual Chase and the Cathcart Chase.

He rode over 200 winners in pony races from the age of nine and was a champion pony race rider at fifteen. He then became Ireland's champion point-to-point rider at nineteen and Britain's champion conditional jockey at twenty when he rode a record number of winners (71) in his first full season.