Northern Irishman Peter Buchanan rode for trainer Howard Johnson before spending 13 years based in Scotland, the majority of them as stable jockey to Lucinda Russell. He enjoyed his greatest moments for her on Silver By Nature, on which he won successive renewals of Haydock Park’s Grand National Trial in 2010 and 2011. He rode Silver By Nature in the 2011 Grand National at Aintree, finishing twelfth.
He had already won that same Haydock race in 2005 – run that year as the Red Square Vodka Gold Cup – on Richard Ford’s Forest Gunner, though Peter’s favourite memory of that horse was winning the 2004 Grand Sefton Chase over the Grand National fences at Aintree.
Peter was seen at his strongest when riding Howard Johnson’s Companero to win the 2011 Eider Chase at Newcastle in bottomless ground.
He announced his retirement, aged 38, and had his last mounts at Perth on April 22, 2016, finishing third on The Cobbler Swayne and fourth on his final ride in the bumper on River Dun for trainer Stuart Crawford.
