Liam Cooper

Few racecards surpass those of the Christmas meeting at Kempton Park and each year it evokes happy memories for North Cumbria farrier Liam Cooper, now a familiar face at many stables around the county.

It was at Kempton on Boxing Day, 2003, that Cooper crowned his eight seasons as a top jockey by winning the Grade One Christmas Hurdle on board Intersky Falcon, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, who had just moved from Skelton to Jackdaws Castle, near Cheltenham, writes Midge Todhunter.

Intersky Falcon was owned by a syndicate of professional footballers, including Newcastle’s Alan Shearer and Liverpool’s Terry McDermott. He won 12 races for his connections and Cooper was the jockey for eight of those victories, which included the 2002 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.

But shortly after that career-high at Kempton, Cooper sustained head injuries in a racecourse fall at Sandown and was subsequently advised by doctors to retire from the racing saddle.

Cooper, who rode 197 winners in all, said: “I’ve never broken a bone in my body, but delayed concussion from that Sandown fall left me with headaches for almost three months, so the doctors monitoring me advised me to call it a day. They were worried that further head injuries would have long term consequences, and I thought at 25 I was young enough to get out and do something else.

“Jackdaws is a first-class racehorse stable, and I was very tempted to stay. It has every facility and if you can’t train winners there, you’ll not train them anywhere. It’s set in a lovely part of the Cotswolds, it’s beautiful to see, and I’m sure horses think the same.

“I stayed on at Jackdaws for 12 months after retiring to plan what to do next. Jonjo made me some good offers to stay, including being his assistant trainer, but when I left school I wanted to be either a jockey or a farrier. I’d achieved the first and was still young enough to serve the four-year apprenticeship needed to become a farrier.”

Cooper was born at Cockermouth and is part of a Cumbrian racing dynasty. He is the nephew of former jockeys David and John Goulding, and his brother, Elliott, also a former jockey, trained at Whitehaven.

Injuries finish most jump jockeys’ careers, and Elliott took a bad fall at Cheltenham after which surgeons had to reconstruct his face.

Liam Cooper’s racing career began with 12 months at Kingsclere, Berkshire, with Flat trainer Ian Balding, after which he came back to Cumbria and joined O’Neill at Ivy House, near Skelton, where he began to get race rides. Cooper says he had five good years at Ivy House. His first winner came at Ayr, riding Globe Runner, a good handicap hurdler, which gave him a lot of confidence and experience. And he began to pick up outside rides and winners for Dianne Sayer, Evelyn Slack, and others.

Then multi-millionaire racehorse owner J. P. McManus bought Jackdaws Castle and installed O’Neill as resident trainer, and “the big move” came, with O’Neill advising Cooper that this would be a big opportunity for him as a jockey.

“I never rode the top horses until we had all moved to Jackdaws, and Intersky Falcon, which had begun as a three-year-old at Ivy House, was the best I ever rode a truly top-class hurdler.

“Intersky (Falcon) was so consistent. He was like a motorbike at bends, and when you twisted the throttle he picked up and flew. He was a machine. My brother Elliott looked after him when working for Jonjo at Jackdaws, and I rode him in his races, so when he retired the owners gave him to me and my brother. He was a horse that gave us so much, so he is now retired in a field at Brigham, near Cockermouth, where my mum looks after him, feeding him an apple every day.”

Aintree was a fruitful track for Cooper, where he rode the O’Neill-trained Clan Royal to victories over the big Grand National fences in the 2003 Topham Chase, and the Bechers Chase later that year. The following year Cooper rode Clan Royal to second place in the Aintree Grand National, behind Amberleigh House, trained by Ginger McCain.

“I loved riding over those big fences after you’ve jumped the first fence your adrenaline kicks in and you’re away. Jumping Bechers Brook second time in the 2004 Grand National on Clan Royal, I thought we’d have a good chance of winning. We’d beaten Amberleigh House a head in the 2003 Bechers Chase, but the National is another mile, and that extra distance told at the end of the race,” he said.

Back in Cumbria with his partner Gillian O’Neill (O’Neill’s daughter from his first marriage), Cooper found himself an apprenticeship with Roadhead-based farrier Robert Atkinson, who he describes as “a great fellow to work for, a pure gentleman, who taught me so much”.

He now runs his own farriery business which stretches from the Borders to Whitehaven and Appleby, and he seems happy enough with life.

“I’m now back working with racing people who gave me a good start when I began life as a jockey in Cumbria, and it’s nice to get back among them and their craic,” he said.

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