Flat jockey Gary Bartley was born on September 29, 1983. He had a long association with trainer Jim Goldie, who supplied him with a large percentage of his career wins.
Gary began race-riding as an apprentice in 2003 and enjoyed his best seasons between 2007 and 2010. Of his 18 winners in 2007, 15 were trained by Goldie. He registered a score of 19 for the 2009 turf season, nine of them for Goldie.
He began to struggle with his weight after 2010 and resorted to ‘flipping’, the habit of self-induced vomiting, to help lose weight. The lowest point came in 2013, when he gave up on racing and tried to find work elsewhere. Tempted back into action that autumn, he briefly moved into jump racing, yet still found himself putting up overweight.
Events took a happier turn in 2014 when he was one of 20 volunteers to sign up for a study of jockeys’ health at Liverpool John Moores University. A diet and an exercise regime were designed for him and he was stunned to find himself eating more and losing weight.
Jim Goldie continued to support him throughout his ordeal. Gary repaid that confidence by winning five races on Order Of Service, three in 2014 and two in July 2015.
It was presumably the continuing battle with the scales that persuaded him to call time on his career. He rode what proved to be his last winner on the Goldie-trained Funding Deficit in a six-furlong Redcar handicap on August 8, 2015. He had his final ride in Britain on Oriental Tiger, also trained by Goldie, at Ayr on October 8, 2015. Following that, he had one more mount, on Marhi at Sharjah, UAE on November 7, finishing eleventh.
He is married to the successful triple champion lady amateur rider Carol Bartley whose many successes include the Ascot Diamond Ladies Race at Ascot in 2002 and 2007 and the Ladies’ Derby at Newbury in 2007.
