Eddie Larkin

The son of labourer Patrick Larkin, Edward (Ted) Larkin was born in Bootle on December 14, 1931.

He spent six months with Major Fred Sneyd at Sparsholt before returning home to start a career as a wood moulder, but within a year he was back in racing, this time joining Captain Gerald Armstrong at Middleham at the age of 15, with whom he served a seven-year apprenticeship between 1947 and 1954.

He finished second on his first ride in public, aboard Porta Rosa in an apprentice race at Redcar on Whit Monday, May 26, 1947. He rode his first winner on Gerald Armstrong’s Princess Madcap in an apprentice race at Stockton on August 20, 1948.

Based in the north, Eddie – always known by his fellow riders as Ted – progressed to become one of the best northern jockeys of his day, enjoying his best season in 1957 with 73 wins, placing him joint-seventh in the jockeys’ championship. They included the Carlisle Bell on Norcresr and the Ayr Gold Cup on Jacintha. In December that year he won five Class One races on the card on the last day of the Singapore St Leger meeting at Bukit Timah.

His first winter in Singapore (then part of Malaya) prompted the following eulogy in the Bloodstock Breeders’ Review 1957: “The personality of the year is Eddie Larkin, who is perhaps the most popular rider seen in Malaya during the past 22 years . . . In addition to his obvious riding ability, Larkin’s success seems to come in no small degree from his ability to make people like him.”

In 1958 he won Newcastle’s Seaton Delaval Stakes on Lindsay, arguably the only champion he ever rode. She finished joint-top with Rosalba among the fillies in the Free Handicap. He married Dawn Mary Curran on September 8 that year. They had two sons, John Edward and Geoffrey Arthur.

He finished third on Running Blue in the 1960 1,000 Guineas, his only placed mount in an English Classic. Later that season he won the Gimcrack Stakes on Test Case and the Royal Lodge Stakes on Beta. The following year his victories included the Cherry Hinton Stakes at Newmarket’s July Meeting on Crepello’s Daughter. All four of those horses were trained by Jack Jarvis.  

He won back-to-back renewals of Redcar’s Andy Capp Handicap on Sword Dancer in 1966 and Pennant in 1967. He also won that year’s Thirsk Classic Trial on Pennant along with the Cumberland Plate on Lariak and the Lanark Silver Bell on Voldemo. 

He rode the two-year-old Red Rum once, when finishing seventh of eleven runners in the Vane Arms Plate at Teesside Park on June 19, 1967.

He rode regularly for top northern trainers including Dick Peacock and Sam Hall. His last winner was Thomas Edward, owned by Jack Hanson and trained by former jump jockey Mac Turner, in the Fern Hill stakes at Pontefract on 2 September, 1974, shortly before his career was ended by a broken leg.

Eddie rode a total of 632 winners, including five that eventually became Group races following the introduction of the Pattern in 1971. He had finished in the top ten of the jockeys’ championship four times.

Eddie Larkin died on January 11, 2025 aged 93.

His most notable wins were:

1957: Carlisle Bell – Norcrest 

1957: Ayr Gold Cup – Jacintha 

1958: Seaton Delaval Stakes – Lindsay 

1959: Liverpool Summer Cup - Philodendron

1960: Lingfield Oaks Trial – Running Blue 

1960: Gimcrack Stakes – Test Case 

1960: Royal Lodge Stakes – Beta 

1961: Cherry Hinton Stakes – Crepello’s Daughter 

1965: Lanark Silver Bell – Current Speech 

1966: Andy Capp Handicap – Sword Dancer

1967: Thirsk Classic Trial – Pennant 

1967: Andy Capp Handicap – Pennant   

1967: Cumberland Plate – Lariak 

1967: Lanark Silver Bell – Voldemo