Jonjo O'Neill: the legendary jockey and trainer who beat the odds time and time again

Introducing our cast of legendary Cheltenham characters. A new instalment will be published twice a week leading up to this year's Cheltenham Festival. Today – Jonjo O'Neill.

What made him great

Few jockeys conquer the Cheltenham Festival as Jonjo O'Neill did in his riding career, winning the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle twice each on the biggest stage of all.

To follow that by training a stream of winners at the meeting, and landing another Gold Cup, is almost unheard of.

Yet this is not just a story of numbers and names of big races won. O'Neill was associated with two of the most charismatic horses ever to turn up at Cheltenham in Dawn Run and Sea Pigeon.

And success was never guaranteed. His is a tale of personal and professional setbacks overcome, each blow shrugged off with a disarming smile that meant even those he beat could not help but enjoy his victories.

Jonjo O'Neill: associated with two of the most charismatic horses ever to turn up at Cheltenham in Dawn Run and Sea PigeonCredit: Edward Whitaker

The early years

Having ridden his first winner in his native Ireland at the age of 18, O'Neill teamed up with Gordon Richards to make Greystoke in Cumbria a jumping powerhouse. He was twice champion jockey and rode an astonishing 149 winners in 1977-78, smashing the previous record.

But Cheltenham success was elusive and going into the 1979 meeting he had ridden just one festival winner, which made landing a Gold Cup run in a snowstorm on Alverton for Peter Easterby all the sweeter.

He returned 12 months later to score a hugely popular success in the Champion Hurdle on stablemate Sea Pigeon, a high-class horse who needed waiting with until the last possible moment and had been beaten in all three previous attempts at the race.

But it was typical of O'Neill's ill-fortune with injuries that he should miss the champion's successful defence in 1981 as he smashed his right leg in a fall at Bangor and was out of action for 14 months.

Teaming up with a legend

Stars though Alverton and Sea Pigeon were, it is his exploits on Dawn Run that ensure O'Neill will always have a place in the Cheltenham history books.

The pair proved unstoppable in 1983-84, culminating in a memorable success in the Champion Hurdle.

After the hugely popular mare had gamely held off Cima by three-quarters of a length, she was mobbed in the winner's enclosure and owner Charmian Hill was carried shoulder high by wellwishers.

Jonjo O'Neill and Dawn Run return to chaotic scenes in the winner's enclosure after the 1986 Gold CupCredit: Getty Images

Typically, another injury then cost O'Neill the ride on Dawn Run as she was switched to fences – until he got the call once more after Tony Mullins was unseated from her six out at Cheltenham in January 1986.

Teaming up for the first time on course since the Champion, mistakes five out and four out in the Gold Cup looked to be taking their toll on the mare as she came under pressure after the next.

But she battled back astonishingly, closing a two-length gap halfway up the run-in to catch Wayward Lad close home and complete a unique double of Cheltenham triumphs – and spark celebrations that made those of two years earlier look tame by comparison.

Sadly, there was a tragic postscript as Dawn Run was killed in a fall in the French Champion Hurdle three months later.

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Training days

O'Neill retired from race-riding at the end of that season and set up as a trainer in Penrith, although his new career was overshadowed by the start of a long – and ultimately successful – battle with lymphatic cancer.

Illness did not stop him making a success of his new venture and he scored popular wins at the festival in his early years with Danny Connors and Front Line.

But it was after he moved to the state-of-the-art yard at Jackdaws Castle, following its purchase by owner JP McManus, that O'Neill really made his mark with a string of winners at nearby Cheltenham.

Albertas Run's back-to-back Ryanair Chases and Wichita Lineman's remarkable last-to-first William Hill Handicap Chase victory are among the highlights of his 26 festival winners up to 2023.

Tony McCoy and Synchronised return to the winner's enclosure after winning the 2012 Cheltenham Gold CupCredit: Edward Whitaker

More gold

Only five men have landed the most prestigious prize in jump racing as both a jockey and a trainer and O'Neill joined that exclusive club in 2012.

The diminutive Synchronised did not look the stuff Gold Cup winners are made of and after his first win over fences at Market Rasen jockey AP McCoy admitted: "He hadn't schooled well at home. This was a good track to start him off as he isn't very big or very scopey – I'm pleased we got him round and got him to win."

But the gutsy stayer showed a tremendous will to win when battling to successes in the Midlands Grand National and Welsh Grand National.

And he justified his trainer's decision to up him in class in his third season over fences, landing the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown before winning the Gold Cup itself by two and a quarter lengths going away, allowing O'Neill to emulate Fred Winter, Pat Taaffe and company.

Tragically, Synchronised met a similar fate to Dawn Run as he suffered a fatal injury after a fall in the Grand National the following month. McCoy later nominated him as the favourite horse he had ridden.

Read these next:

Martin Pipe: the unconventional genius who became a hero to a generation of festival punters 

Willie Mullins: the festival's leading trainer, the £50m fall and his big hopes this year 

'That's what McCoy is all about' - the punters' pal and a Cheltenham legend 

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