Johnny McGinn

Article by Chris Pitt

Johnny McGinn rode around 30 winners as an apprentice during the early 1970s before

leaving these shores to ply his trade in Africa and the Near East with far greater success.

John Patrick McGinn was born in the village of Darfield, near Barnsley, on June 30, 1951. He was apprenticed to James Walsh, who trained at Ascot Cottage Stables, Winkfield, close to Ascot racecourse. Johnny's first winner was Warrington, trained by Norah Wilmot, in the Holyport Handicap at Windsor on 22 June 1970. It was a good effort; second was Ducan Keith, third Lester Piggott, fourth George Duffield and sixth Bill Williamson.

Another early winner was the three-year-old gelding named Cwmbran, also trained by Norah Wilmot ( July 21, 1970) at Alexandra Park, one of the last meetings to be held there before that course’s closure seven weeks later. Johnny weighed out at 6st 11lb that day, just one pound less than he carried when riding another for Miss Wilmot, on No Trespass at Warwick four days later.

Thereafter the winners started to flow, beginning with James Walsh’s Complacent in the Wheelers Little Oyster Apprentice Handicap at Salisbury on August 12. Warrington won again at Lingfield later that month, so did Complacent at both Goodwood and Ascot in September. By October, other trainers were using Johnny’s services when they needed a good 7lb claimer to take the weight off, such as Michael Pope, who put him up on Welsh Advocate to win a Windsor nursery, and Wetherby trainer Tommy Shedden, who brought him north to land a York handicap on Milton Abbey.

Having finished his inaugural season with a total of 11 winners, Johnny equalled that score the following year. Michael Pope’s The Buck got him off to a good start when winning at Warwick on Easter Monday and he soon found himself in demand from various trainers including Ken Cundell, Fiddler Goodwill and Les Hall, who all supplied him with winners during 1971. Another was Somerset handler Les Kennard, for whom Johnny won three times on the useful dual-purpose performer Cantlie, at Chepstow in June, Salisbury in July and Bath in August. Johnny’s winning tally dropped to nine in 1972 and he found himself struggling as time went on. By 1974, with only one winner – Albert Davison’s Minigold in a Windsor seller on May 20 – from just 30 rides by the middle of that year, he relinquished his licence and headed for pastures new.

He chose Kenya and it proved a good decision for he made an almost immediate impact, winning two of the country’s top races, the Champagne Stakes for two-year-olds and the Jockey Club Stakes within a short time of his arrival. He went on to be champion jockey in Nairobi four times and won ten classics, including four Derbies.

He later rode for several seasons in Saudi Arabia, was champion jockey there and won that country’s biggest race, the Crown Prince Cup, in the early 1990s before returning to Kenya. He left racing in 2006 following the death of his girlfriend but was persuaded to return to race riding two years later, basing himself in Abu Dhabi. There he rode for Al Asayl Stables, owned by HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi. In November 2008 he rode trainer Rod Simpson’s first winner since his arrival in Abu Dhabi when winning the final event of an all Arab racing card.

In January 2010, Johnny’s daughter Sarah made her debut as a professional jockey at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California.

Johnny has come a long way from his Yorkshire roots but his local paper, the Barnsley Independent, continues to monitor the progress of one of its most successful sporting sons.