Embedded Files
By Chris Pitt
Michael Joseph Murray, better known as Mick Murray, was born in Tipperary on June 19, 1920. His father had spent a lifetime breaking yearlings for Irish stables and dealing in thoroughbred stock and earned a reputation in Tipperary of having few equals and no superiors. When out hunting one day with the Kilkenny Hounds, Mick and his brother Bill were spotted by trainer P. J. Beary who was based at Tilshead, in Wiltshire at the time. Beary suggested to their father that they should join a racing stable as they were the right weight. “Better still, send them to me,” he said.
Mick made the journey to England in 1936 and soon found himself riding work alongside two of the greats, Brownie Carslake and Michael Beary. Mick rode winners on the Flat and over hurdles before returning to his homeland to ride for top Irish trainer Senator J. J. Parkinson. He came back to England in 1941 and headed north to ride for Towton, Yorkshire trainer Tommy Hall. Hall died in 1948 and was succeeded by his younger brother Charlie Hall. Mick continued to ride for Charlie and for his younger brother Sam Hall.
Arguably the best horse Mick rode was Charlie Hall’s Miraculous Atom, on whom he won Doncaster’s Rossington Main Hurdle on February 24, 1949. Miraculous Atom was far better known for his exploits on the Flat and this was the only occasion the horse was asked to go over hurdles. It was a measure of confidence in which Mick was held by the Halls that the ride was entrusted to him, and while the horse was far superior to his rivals that day, Miraculous Atom jumped well in Mick’s capable hands and those who had taken 6-4 about him were freed of any anxiety.
Miraculous Atom went on to win that year's Ebor Handicap and also the 1950 Yorkshire Cup when ridden by Billy Nevett and trained by Sam Hall at Middleham.
A bad fall from The Reel at Southwell on September 5, 1949 resulted in Mick suffering two broken collarbones and an arm broken in three places. After five months out of action, his first mount, a hurdler named Cherbourg, provided him with the perfect comeback when winning at Sedgefield on February 11, 1950. He won again on Cherbourg at Hexham in May, his only two winners that season.
Mick played a major role as a work rider and partnered most of Charlie Hall’s top jumpers, such as Culworth, Average and Magnetic Fin, on the gallops, as well as many of Sam Hall’s best handicappers.
Weighing 8st 2lb, he was able to combine riding on the Flat with over jumps, although he gave up the latter in 1952. He rode successfully on the Flat throughout the 1950s, his best total being 14 in 1955. He rode 13 winners in 1956, 1959 and 1960.
His career steadily waned in the early 1960s, notching just three winners in 1961, two in 1962, and just one, Gay Gordon in a two-year-old seller at Catterick on June 26, in 1963. That turned out to be his last winner and he relinquished his licence in 1965.
He made a brief comeback in 1968 and had a few rides, the last being on Maureen’s Star, unplaced in a 41-runner maiden at Redcar on October 5, 1968. He held a jockey’s licence for one more season in 1969 but does not appear to have had any rides that year.
Sadly, Mick Murray did not make old bones, dying in February 1977, aged 58.
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