Tommy McGinley

Born on September 29, 1935, Tommy McGinley was apprenticed to Jeremy Tree. He had no success on the Flat but fared far better over jumps, despite making an inauspicious debut on Fair Rose, a faller in the Medburn Novices’ Hurdle (Division II) at Newcastle on November 23, 1957.

Tommy rode his first winner on Whittle Hill in the Cleveland Novices’ Hurdle (Division 1) at Catterick Bridge on November 28, 1959. He ended that season with 14 wins to his name. 

The frozen winter of 1962/63 wiped out all racing in Britain between December 22 and March 8, except for a lone meeting at Ayr on January 5 which somehow survived the elements. Tommy took maximum advantage of the opportunity by riding a treble, beginning with Evening Brae for Bobby Hall (losing his 3lb claim in the process) and completed by the Noel Robinson-trained pair Denicles and Cinzano.

Since the late fifties, Noel Robinson (born 1918) had been sending out runners from his stables at Haggerstone, Beal, in Berwick on Tweed. With Tommy as his retained jockey, they achieved their best win together came in the 1963 Mildmay Chase with Border Sparkle. 

Despite that Aintree success, Tommy found it difficult to get rides. Although Bobby Hall, who trained at Whitchester, Heddon-on-the-Wall, put him up on several occasions, wins were few and far between. He rode just eight in the 1963/64 season, the last of which was when Saxine won a match for the Dotland Handicap Chase at Hexham on May 18, 1964. He rode future Grand National winner Red Alligator throughout that season, being placed five times from ten starts. 

Having ridden 42 winners in the UK, Tommy packed his bags and emigrated to Australia. He returned to Britain on two months holiday in November 1966 and had his first rides back at Kelso on December 13, leading early before pulling up three out on Saxine, and finishing fifth on Flatbush.

In Australia, where his riding skills were more appreciated, Tommy became champion jockey. He was the regular rider of the ‘Black Kangaroo’ – as Crisp was nicknamed at the time – and rode him on ten occasions, winning on eight, including back-to-back renewals of the Hiskens Steeplechase (3700m) at Moonee Valley, a race considered the equivalent of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in 1969 and 1970. 

Before the 1969 Hiskens Steeplechase, Tommy had confidently told the press that Crisp was better than McEwan, the horse on which he had twice won the VCR Grand National Steeplechase (5000m), in 1966 and 1968. The reasoning behind that statement was that just a week before the Hiskens, Tommy had ridden Crisp in a race at Caulfield, winning by 30 lengths. 

Carrying 70 kgs, Crisp duly won the 1969 Hiskens by 20 lengths. He followed that up in 1970, carrying an unprecedented 76kgs to a 12-length victory. He then carried a staggering 77.5kgs to victory in the VRC Footscray Steeple.

By the end of the 1970 jumps season, Crisp had been weighted out of jumps racing in Australia and his connections decided to send him to the UK.

Before flying to Europe, Crisp and Tommy went to the US to contest the $100,000 Colonial Cup at Camden in South Carolina. They finished fifth, but that was understandable. Both horse and jockey had endured long delays in Atlanta. This, along with a limited time to prepare, took its toll on Crisp who was nowhere near peak fitness to contest the race.

Crisp’s owner, Sir Chester Manifold, had entrusted Crisp to top English trainer Fred Winter and Richard Pitman took over as Crisp’s rider. While Pitman was Winters’s stable jockey, replacing Tommy with Pitman was seen in some quarters as being inexplicable, for Tommy’s abilities were there for all to see.

Tommy was shattered when he lost the ride on Crisp. Winter knew that Tommy had already won over the Aintree fences, albeit the smaller Mildmay course versions, a fact which made his decision even harder to understand.

Then came the English Grand National of 1973. Winter insisted that Pitman rode Crisp, a decision which undoubtedly cost the horse – and Sir Chester Manifold – the race. Pitman, having enjoyed a dream ride for more than four miles, felt the horse losing his smooth action and decided to wake him up with the stick on the run-in. It was a novice’s mistake. As Pitman took his hands off the reins, Crisp immediately drifted further to the left, losing three lengths. The race was lost.

Tommy, known by Australians as the ‘Scottish cross-country jockey’, had plenty of confidence in his own ability and, without arrogance, conveyed that belief in his ability when talking with the owners and trainers he rode for.

He naturally enough considered Crisp to be the best horse he ever rode during a distinguished career as a jockey.

Apart from his two wins on McEwan, Tommy also won the VCR Grand National Steeplechase on Royal Rennie (1965), Black Butt (1970) and Valgo  (1971).

Crisp last raced in November 1973. In retirement, he became a foxhunter. He collapsed and died in 1981 whilst out hunting and was buried at the entrance of his then-owner’s estate. A cherry tree, which blossoms every year around Grand National time, was planted over the grave.