Gerry Gracey

National Hunt jockey George Gerard (Gerry) Gracey was born in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, on November 4, 1953. He initially became apprenticed to trainer Lou Gilmore at Ardglass and had his first ride in public when aged 15 on Value’s Little Chap in the 1m 4f Celbridge Stakes at Nass on April 26, 1969, finishing eighth of eleven.

He then joined Jeremy Maxwell’s stable and it was for Maxwell that he rode his first winner, Park Avenue in the 1m 5f Mourne Handicap at Downpatrick on September 5, 1970. Park Avenue won by a neck, ironically beating none other than Value’s Little Chap, who had been Gerry’s first ride the previous year. 

In 1972 Gerry broadened his horizons and crossed the Irish Sea, first joining Sussex trainer Auriol Sinclair at Lewes, He won the stable lads’ boxing championship title for his weight division. He then teamed up with Dennis Rayson at Newmarket, before having a spell as a work rider for Guy Harwood at Pulborough.

Over the next decade, Gerry rode plenty of good, indifferent and downright bad horses as stable jockey for National Hunt trainers George Ripley and Albert Davison, earning a reputation around the southern jumping circuits as a tough man to beat in a finish. Among the horses to get him going while still claiming 7lb was Davison’s selling hurdler Red Ambion.  

He achieved his biggest success at Warwick on Saturday, January 24, 1981, when winning the Brooke Bond Oxo National on Colonel Christy. By then he was riding as stable jockey for Hugh O’Neill, who trained at Coldharbour, Dorking. 

It was also at Warwick, on May 15, 1982, that he rode one of his very best races on the O’Neill-trained Zelda’s Fancy, kicking on a long way from home and keeping his mount going to such effect that he never looked like being caught. 

Zelda’s Fancy was also Gerry’s last winner, landing a two-mile handicap chase at Newton Abbot on September 1, 1982. On the last day of that month he had a first fence fall from O’Neill’s chaser Administrator at Ludlow. The ground was firm that day and Gerry was knocked unconscious. It was the first time he’s suffered a concussion. The head injury gave him recurring problems with double vision and headaches. He was eventually advised by the Jockey Club’s doctor that he should not ride again. He was thus forced to retire, aged 29, having ridden around 100 winners. 

Gerry was by then engaged to Albert Davison’s daughter Zoe and initially hoped to start up a livery stable in the Caterham area. However, after a few months of thinking about the future, he joined John Jenkins as head lad at Cisswood Stables, Lower Beeding, near Horsham, but left after Jenkins moved to Epsom. 

Having gained experience there, he decided to apply for his own training licence when offered the lease of Jill and David Ford’s 23-box Holmbury Farm Stables at Holmbury St Mary, between Dorking and Cranleigh, a place that was once used by the Guinness family as a coaching and hunting yard. It had also been used as a stud – the 1951 Grand National winner Nickel Coin was bred there. 

However, that arrangement only lasted one season, after which Gerry moved to John Jenkins’ former base at Cisswood Stables – where Gary Moore now trains – at the invitation of Mike Kelly, who held the lease. A disagreement following the introduction of a new business partner caused Gerry to move his training operation to Albert Davison’s former premises at Tillingdown Farm, Caterham. He trained there for a couple of seasons and then moved once more, this time to Lakeside Farm, Fifield, near Windsor. 

In 1991 he received a phone call from art dealer Eddie Kearns, who owned some good horses including Orbis, who had won that year’s Red Mills Trial Chase and Dawn Run Novice Chase and gone close in the ‘Arkle’ at Cheltenham. Kearns invited Gerry to be his private trainer, based in Waterford, a position he willingly accepted.  

A conflict of interest a couple of years later led Gerry to move on and buy a stud farm and then train as a chiropractor, working on horses’ backs. He eventually returned to Britain and became assistant trainer to Val Ward, and then joined Hughie Morrison at East Ilsley as his assistant trainer. During Gerry’s time there, Morrison sent out Frenchman’s Creek to win the William Hill Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, Alcazar to win the Prix Royal Oak (French St Leger), and landed a brace of July Cup winners in Pastoral Pursuits and Sakhee’s Secret. 

Gerry’s marriage to Zoe had ended in divorce. Their daughter, Gemelle-Gracey Davison, rode both on the Flat and over jumps for her mother, gaining her first success on her sixth ride when winning at Salisbury in June 2004. 

Gerry met and married Sara Dodwell, who had run a saddlery business for some 30 years. Together they have expanded the business, based near the old Hawthorn Hill racecourse, to where it now includes pretty much everything to do with horse and rider. They employ ten staff and their clients cover all aspects of equine disciplines from racing to polo.