Death of racing legend Lord Oaksey

Lord John Oaksey, the former amateur jump jockey, journalist, author, broadcaster and founder of the Injured Jockeys Fund passed away at his family home in Wiltshire yesterday following a lengthy period of ill health. He was 83

Oaksey’s greatest legacy is the Injured Jockeys Fund, which he helped to create following injuries incurred by Paddy Farrell in the 1964 Grand National.

As a rider himself, Oaksey — then known as John Lawrence — enjoyed many notable successes, particularly in 1958, during which he won the Imperial Cup on Flaming East, the Whitbread Gold Cup on Taxidermist and the inaugural Hennessy Gold Cup, then run at Cheltenham, on the same horse.

Oaksey also suffered an agonising defeat on Carrickbeg in the 1963 Grand National. He told the story of that defeat in his own words as a journalist, an art in which he excelled with his account of Fred Winter’s Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris triumph on Mandarin becoming as iconic as the victory itself.

Through his work for ITV and Channel 4, Oaksey endeared himself to television viewers. More recently, Oaksey had been cheered by the exploits of his homebred chaser Carruthers, who won last year’s Hennessy Gold Cup.