Edward ‘Ned’ Buckley was born in Ireland on November 10, 1962. Having a mechanic for a father and a school teacher for a mother was not exactly a racing background, but young Ned learned to ride on his friends’ ponies.
He went into racing straight from school, aged 15, starting with the renowned Jim Bolger. He stayed for three years, during which time he had about 30 rides but no winners. From there he joined Arthur Moore and rode his first winner for him on The Ellier in a two-and-a-half-mile maiden hurdle at Navan. The stable had four runners in the race and The Ellier was the outsider of them at 33/1, but he won by eight lengths.
Ned only stayed with Arthur Moore for about a year and then joined Padge Berry. He spent six months there before meeting Terry Casey and moved to the Curragh to work for him. He had a dozen winners and rode at every track in Ireland except for the annual beach meeting at Laytown.
When Terry pulled up stumps towards the end of 1985 and went to train for John Upson at the Northamptonshire village of Adstone, he invited Ned to join him. Ned did so and continued the pair’s successful association. Ned rode three winners from 24 mounts during the closing months of that 1985/86 season. Among their winners the following seasons was Sweet Storm (right) in a novices’ hurdle at Huntingdon on January 29, 1987. His SP was 33/1 but he paid a whopping 740/1 on the Tote.
Ned also secured a first retainer with Hartlebury trainer Michael Oliver and rode a few winners for him during that 1986/87 campaign. He rode Uncle Max for him in the Topham Trophy over the Grand National fences, completing the course in eighth place.
He made a good start to the 1987/88 season with three wins on Michael Oliver’s chaser Juvenile Prince before arriving at Stratford on September 5 to ride a horse called Grey General. The horse forgot to take off at the fence in front of the stands, crashed through it and fell, resulting in a broken collarbone for Ned. He was only out of action for three weeks but missed three winners during that time. He finished the season with seven winners from 97 mounts.
He lost the right to claim an allowance when reaching the age of 25 in November 1987. He was only two short of losing it through the required number of winners and would have done so had it not been for the broken collarbone incurred at Stratford.
Rising weight eventually curtailed Ned’s career as a jockey in 1991. He trained for a short while, based at Portway Racing Stables, where Ian Williams now trains. He then joined Martin Pipe and went on to become a key member of the Pond House team.
