In 2016, Seamus Buckley, a former National jockey whose career was ended by a serious injury, celebrated 50 years in racing. For almost half of that time he’s been at Goodwood, where he is the long-standing and greatly respected Clerk of the Course. In November 2016, his work was recognised with the Neil Wyatt Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Racecourse Association (RCA) Showcase Awards.
The Neil Wyatt Lifetime Achievement Award, named after the former Jockey Club Senior Inspector of Courses, is awarded by the RCA and Racecourse Groundstaff Awards judging panel to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the sport. The judges commended Seamus “on his contribution across a number of areas of the sport,” adding “Seamus is a true gentleman and a great example to anyone training to be a Clerk of the Course.”
A native of Two Mile House, County Kildare, Seamus Thomas Conleth Buckley was born on July 4, 1952, younger brother of Pat Buckley (born July 14, 1943), who went on to win the 1963 Grand National on 66/1 outsider Ayala, trained by Keith Piggott.
Seamus acquired his love for horses at Rathasker Stud Farm, outside Naas, where his father, formerly head man for Liam Brennan, was manager and all his life was surrounded by ponies; he was a keen show-jumper and three-day eventer as a boy.
It was brother Pat’s Grand National victory on Ayala which determined Seamus to leave Ireland when aged just 14 to take up an apprenticeship with Captain Neville Crump at Warwick House, Middleham, where Mark Johnston now trains.
Seamus made the perfect start to his riding career, winning on his first-ever ride in public, Carnivora, at Doncaster on November 3, 1969. He went on to ride nine more winners that season, including three on Crump’s trail-blazing chaser Rain Lover and victory in the valuable Wetherby Handicap Chase on Chesapeake Bay on Easter Monday 1970.
He won twice more on Rain Lover the following season, the second of those victories being in the £1,671 Northumbria Handicap Chase at Newcastle on November 28, 1970, making all and coming home unchallenged, 20 lengths clear of his nearest pursuer.
Seamus kicked off the following season with a comfortable success on that good staying handicap hurdler Whispering Grace at Carlisle on October 4, 1971, and finished by winning twice in May 1972 on Frank Dever’s handicap hurdler Sir Mago. Dever also trained a novice chaser named Colonel Clover, who won twice for Seamus at Southwell on August 29 and at Ludlow on September 14, 1972.
He had ridden 23 winners and looked all set for a promising career in the saddle, but on Saturday, October 21, 1972, at Doncaster, the course at which he had ridden his first winner almost claimed his life. Riding the hot favourite Whispering Grace in the Autumn Handicap Hurdle, they were at the head of affairs when falling at the sixth flight and most of the field went over the top of the jockey.
The fall left him with a skull fractured in four places and put him in a coma for 23 days. He recovered but the main difficulty was trouble with his balance and he lost all sense of hearing on his left side. A serious relapse resulted in another spell in hospital. The following summer Seamus went to the medical rehabilitation centre in Camden Town, London, which put him back on the right road.
Forced to retire from the saddle, aged 20, he embarked on a new career, joining the groundstaff at Catterick as a
trainee racecourse manager, learning about things he’d never thought about before, such as grass fertilisation, building hurdles and fences, drainage, maintenance and a thousand and one other things required to keep a racecourse and its turf in good condition and ready for its next meeting.
After four years at Catterick, Seamus was appointed head groundsman at Wolverhampton’s Dunstall Park. That paved the way another five years later for a move to Epsom as estate manager. There he prepared the course for 13 Derbies. He was at Epsom for Lester Piggott’s last Derby win on Teenoso in 1983 and for the following year’s renewal, in which Secreto beat El Gran Senor.
In 1995 Seamus switched from one top racecourse to another, becoming clerk of the course at Goodwood, where he has been ever since.
