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photo courtesy Joh Griffiths
National Hunt jockey George Mernagh was born at Castledockrell in County Wexford, on June 1, 1955. He studied at Rockwell Agricultural College in Cashel and graduated into racing via eventing and the point-to-point field. He rode for four year as an amateur and five as a professional, riding more than 70 winners. The first of those winners was Heather Can at Sligo on August 10, 1981.
George came to England at the start of 1984 to ride for Banbury trainer John Webber, following the departure of John’s son Paul Webber to trainer Henry Candy that had led to an opening for an amateur rider. George finished fifth on Knock Hill in that year’s Kim Muir Challenge Cup at Cheltenham.
George took the opportunity with both hands and turned professional the following season. He rode Knock Hill to victory at Newbury in November, cementing his place as Webber’s stable jockey.
Photo, right: George Mernagh winning on Knock Hill at Newbury in November 1984.
Knock Hill provided the highlights of George’s time with John Webber. They teamed up to win the four-mile chase at Cheltenham’s New Year meeting three times between 1986 and 1989, finishing second to Memberson on the other occasion. Knock Hill also provided George with his biggest victory when winning the 1988 Midlands Grand National. In addition to those triumphs, George and Knock Hill won the three-and-a-half-mile Flowers Original Handicap Chase on Cheltenham’s Mackeson Gold Cup card, plus the Long Haul Handicap Chase at Worcester.
Another of George’s favourites was the mare Auntie Dot. He won four chases on her during the 1987/88 campaign, including the Tattersalls Novices’ Handicap Chase Final at Liverpool’s Grand National meeting and the Ken Boulton Memorial Challenge Cup at Uttoxeter. He won three more chases on her the following season.
George won the Peterborough Chase on John Webber’s Townley Stone in November 1988. The following month he provided the shock of the season when winning the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown on 100/1 outsider The Dragon Master for owner-trainer Robert Waley-Cohen. He won on him again at Newbury later that month, and also at Towcester on Easter Monday 1989, the first leg of a double that day completed by Sunylin in the Alex Fatherstonhaugh Challenge Cup Chase.
Other John Webber-trained horses worthy of mention were Kelly’s Honour, on whom George won the Jerry M Handicap Chase at Lingfield in March 1988; Mweenish, on whom he won two novice hurdles and two novice chases; and Elfast, on whom he won three hurdle races.
He retired at the end of the 1988/89 season, having his last ride on John Webber’s chaser Boreen Geal (pulled up) at Stratford on the final day of the season, June 3, 1989. He then returned to the country of his birth to take up a position as a trainee bloodstock manager with Tattersalls in Ireland.
While he may have missed the riding, he certainly didn’t miss the constant wasting. He had a hard struggle to ride around the 10st 3lb mark. When he came back from Ireland each year for the start of a new season, his weight had ballooned to between 11st 5lb and 11st 7lb and he struggled hard to get down to his riding weight.
George worked for Tattersalls Ireland for 20 years. He was appointed to the board in 1999 before taking the reins from Liam Dunne as managing director in July 2007.
Sadly, he died from cancer on July 22, 2011, aged 56, having fought the illness for more than a year.
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