Newmarket shocked by death of work-rider and former amateur jockey Dallon Holmes

Newmarket is mourning the death of work-rider and former amateur jockey Dallon Holmes, who was found dead at his home in the south of the town on Sunday morning aged 25.

Holmes was working for Michael Bell and had ridden work for the Fitzroy House trainer as recently as Saturday morning.

Holmes, whose younger brother George also works for Bell, had been with the Derby-winning trainer for the past two years. Before that he had worked for Newmarket trainers David Simcock and Sean Woods.

Bell said: “It’s come as a horrible shock. Apparently, Dallon was found at home by his girlfriend on Sunday morning and it’s a terrible shame. What a waste as he was a lovely lad and all at the yard are having to come to terms with a loss, not least his brother George who is only 18 and who we are looking after the best we can. I think Dallon was from a big family, who are all devastated, as you can imagine.”

He added: “He was a good rider and only rode work for me on Saturday after which it was his weekend off. It was coming up to the anniversary of his father dying prematurely from cancer a couple of years ago.”

Holmes, whose family are from Burton upon Trent, started out in racing with Simcock. He joined John Jenkins, for whom he rode as an amateur jockey in 2019, before returning to Simcock.

Simcock said: “Dallon was a very pleasant young lad who was always on time and really enjoyed his horses and worked hard. He didn’t ride for us professionally but they have a stable lads’ race at Newbury in which he took part. He went from us to John Jenkins then back to us before he joined Michael Bell.”

He added: “It’s so sad to hear about these things and I send condolences to his family.”

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