Starkey, Greville

The following season, with 45 winners, he became champion apprentice: among the good races he won that year were Kempton's Jubilee Handicap on Orinthia and the Zetland Gold Cup on Sunrise.

Other important races that he won for Thompson Jones (when no longer an apprentice) included the Ribblesdale Stakes on Fleet Lahine and the 1971 Gordon Stakes at Goodwood on Athens Wood.

In 1961, Greville rode as first jockey to John Oxley. Several good races came their way including the 1964 Epsom Oaks with Homeward Bound. Because of the heavy going which few runners could act on, the race was run at a crawl.

Greville also won the 1968 Lincoln on Frankincense, the Dante Stakes on Merchant Venturer (on which he also came second in the 1963 Epsom Derby), the 1963 Coronation Stakes on Fiji and the 1966 Great Voligeur Stakes on Hermes.

In 1966, riding for trainer Freddy Maxwell, he won the Ascot Gold Cup on Fighting Charlie.

In 1970, Greville moved on to become stable jockey to the blossoming Henry Cecil, and, that year, won the Goodwood Cup on Parthenon and a second long-distance race, the Goodwood Stakes, on Pride of Alcide. He followed that by winning the 1972 Queen's Vase on Falkland.

Then for reasons best known to himself, he quit Cecil's in 1974 and began riding as a freelance.

His biggest win the following year came in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: riding the outsider 119/1 Star Appeal, Greville came home first ahead of Dahlia, Allez France and several other top class runners. So certain was Greville that Star Appeal had no chance of winning that, before the race, he had a slap-up meal in a Paris restaurant. 

In 1974, Greville married Christine Simpson. She gave him two daughters.

In 1975, Greville became first jockey to Sussex trainer Guy Harwood's Pulborough Stable.

He also became involved with Michael Stoute winning the 1977  Flying Childers Stakes on Music Maestro and the 1976 Cambridgeshire in Intermission.

Yet for all his undoubted success, Greville remains best remembered for the race he didn't win: the 1986 Derby.

Riding the red hot favourite, Dancing Brave - on which he had already won the Two Thousand Guineas - Greville came with devastating run in the last few hundred yards, only to be beaten half-a-length by the Aga Khan's Sharistani.

It was agreed, almost to a man, that Greville had ridden a spectacularly bad race, misjudging the winning post and coming too late.

This ride was to haunt him for the rest of his days. Eventually he refused to talk about it.

He was replaced in the Arc by Pat Eddery who also came with an unbelievable late run on Dancing Brave but had timed it to a nicety and won.

He rode London Gazette in the 1964 Champion Hurdle and, in 1965, rode Welshman to win the last ever race at Birmingham where he'd had his first ride in public on Nomecette (last) on October 31, 1955.

After 34 years in the saddle, Greville retired in 1989: his last win was on Michael Stoute's Rock Hopper on November 4 that year.

His best season, numerically, came in 1987 when he won 107 races.

On the racecourse he came across as a humourless and somewhat charmless individual: he had an uncompromising and whimsical attitude towards owners which deterred many from over-engaging him.

However, most trainers agreed that he was the best analyst of horses that he had ridden, and of the races that he rode in.

He was also popular with his fellow jockeys in the weighing room where he uncovered a surprising, if warped, sense of humour.

Young Walter Swinburn once called at Greviile's home for tea and asked to sample some pate. His host disappeared into the kitchen and returned with two 'slices'. Walter ate them and said how delicious they had been. It was then that Greville revealed that the young jockey had just eaten dog food.

The two men seldom spoke afterwards.

Greville was a brilliant mimic and could take off most trainers. He could also replicate the bark of a Jack Russell terrier. On one occasion, the departure of a jet was delayed while a steward and passengers sought in vain for a non-existent dog.

Greville was in the habit of driving a pony and trap over Worlington golf course, ignoring the protests of its members.

He retired to the White House Stud, Near Kennett, Newmarket, where he took horses at livery.

When illness gripped him, he became reclusive, refusing to see his friends.

Greville Starkey died of cancer on 14 April, 2010. 

He and Christine had separated some 15 years earlier since when his partner had been Julie Elliott.