Michael Teelin, a champion apprentice in Ireland, died following a fall in a race at Leopardstown in November 1971.
He was apprenticed to Clem Magnier and first sprang to prominence in October 1968 when winning the Maher Nursery at Phoenix Park on Singapation and the Irish Cesarewitch on 100-1 outsider Arctic Serenade.
He registered his sole success in Britain on May 24, 1969 when invited over by Malton trainer Bill Elsey to ride the three-year-old filly Tatjana in the valuable Cecil Frail Handicap at Haydock. She was set to carry 7st 7lb but Michael’s 7lb claim brought it down to just 7st. That made a significant difference to the result of the race because Tatjana scraped home by a short head from dead-heaters Rossendale and Half Hooked in a three-way photo.
Among the most consistent horses he rode was the Magnier-trained Dictora, on whom he won the Three Rock Handicap at Leopardstown and the Phoenix Beer Handicap in 1969, and, in 1970, the Enniskillen Memorial Handicap at the Curragh, the Monkstown Handicap at Phoenix Park, and the Waterford Glass Handicap at Galway.
On September 9, 1970, Michael rode Tomboy II to dead-heat for the Stand Apprentices’ Handicap at the Curragh. The apprentice with whom he dead-heated was Jonjo O’Neill, who was registering the first success of his career on the Michael Connolly-trained Lana. From thereon, the destinies of those two young men would take very different turns.
Michael began the 1971 season claiming 5lb and rode Sir Hugh Nugent’s Luckally to win the St Bruno Handicap at Leopardstown in May. Returning to Leopardstown in July, he landed the Glenview Stakes on Clem Magnier’s two-year-old filly Hobby. At the Curragh in September he guided the 10-year-old mare Bonne to a popular six-length victory in the Leinster Handicap, by which time his claim had been reduced to 3lb. On October 18, he steered home another of Magnier’s two-year-old fillies, Pinsdavuggie, in a one-mile maiden at Galway. That would be the last winner he ever rode.
On the final day of the 1971 Flat season, November 13, Michael partnered 25-1 outsider French Tune in the Leopardstown November Handicap. His mount slipped up and Michael suffered fatal injuries. He was just 20 years old.
Nobody can say for sure how well he would have fared once he completed his apprenticeship and was obliged to take on senior jockeys without the benefit of his claim. However, he was certainly going in the right direction and his death was a tragic loss to the racing world as well as to his family and friends.