'I thought of giving up. Then I had Salsabil, Dayjur and got another ten years'

This brilliant interview with legendary jockey Willie Carson was originally published in June 2020, some 30 years on from a remarkable summer. Carson turned 80 on Wednesday, and this interview has been made free to read for users of the new Racing Post app and billed as our Sunday Read. Members' Club Ultimate subscribers have access to fantastic interviews like this every week. Click here to sign up.

There were times last week when the famous royal blue and white silks of Hamdan Al Maktoum looked as though they had taken up near-permanent residency in the Ascot winner's enclosure.

The timing of the Shadwell empire's burst of form will no doubt have brought great satisfaction to Sheikh Hamdan, even as he was denied his usual royal meeting rituals in line with every other owner.

The rampant form of the team fell on the approach to the 30th anniversary of another remarkable purple patch, both for those silks and for Willie Carson, the man indelibly associated with wearing them for many years.

Carson enjoyed almost everything the sport had to offer during a career in the saddle which spanned five decades, while his popularity with the public was sealed by his talent as a rider and his irrepressible personality.

But even by the standards of a man who rode four Derby winners among a total of 17 British Classic successes, as well as a career haul of winners surpassed by only three other jockeys, the high summer of 1990 was something else.

Zeroing in on one weekend as June turned to July that year, Carson achieved the near-impossible feat of riding a six-timer at Newcastle on Northumberland Plate Saturday before flying to Ireland the following day to steer Salsabil to success in the Derby, the first filly to beat the colts in the Curragh Classic in 90 years.

With the irresistible rise of York's Ebor meeting and the move from turf to Tapeta at Gosforth Park, it is easy to overlook the role the Northumberland Plate plays in the region's racing hierarchy.

"For me it's second only to the St Leger in the north, it's a big thing the Northumberland Plate," says Carson, who at the age of 77 is showing few signs of slowing down.

Thirty years ago he arrived at Newcastle in flying form, having ridden five winners between the cards at Newmarket and Goodwood the day before.

Not that he had expected that Saturday to be quite so special, as Liverpool footballer and fellow Question of Sport regular Emlyn Hughes found out to his cost.

Willie Carson pictured at John Dunlop's memorial service in September 2018Credit: Edward Whitaker

Carson recalls: "I got pulled out of the weighing room by Emlyn before racing started. He said 'come on Willie, give me your tips'.

"I told him I'd win the last and that if he got in trouble that would be the one. But I told him I didn't really know about the others. He cursed me afterwards!"

The Carson laugh is still in rude health and over the next hour it is a frequent feature as he peppers the weights and measures of that extraordinary season with side stories and anecdotes.

Al Maheb was the centrepiece of the day when scoring in the Plate for Sheikh Hamdan and the late Alec Stewart, although by then the chance of going through the card had already bitten the dust.

"The big story of the day was the one that got beat," says Carson. "He was a horse I often rode called Parliament Piece. It was his first run off a break and the trainer Richard Whitaker said to me: 'Look after him because I don't think I've got him 100 per cent. So give him a run up and it'll put him right for next time.'

"If I had known I was gonna ride six winners, that would have won as well."

By that stage he already had a double on the day, initiated by Arousal, a filly Carson has less than fond memories of in at least one respect.

Willie Carson kicked off his Newcastle six-timer aboard Arousal for Lord Weinstock and Sir Michael SobellCredit: Racing Post

"First time out at Kempton she didn't get to run because just before I went to get on her in the paddock she kicked me," he says. "She caught my breeches and I had to walk back into the weighing room in just my underpants."

After five winners on Friday and six on Saturday, Carson must have felt he was walking on air. Even as he was flying across the Irish Sea for his Classic date with Salsabil, the business of finding more success continued back home.

Carson says: "Mike Cattermole was my agent and he got me five rides at Wolverhampton on the Monday evening after the Derby in Ireland. I've had a hell of a week and I'm really buzzing and I thought 'why do I have to go to Wolverhampton and ride this lot?'

"I bollocked Mike for booking the rides but I never turned one down so we went up there and I rode four winners. I think I had to apologise."

Salsabil makes history at the Curragh

Carson is one of only four jockeys in Britain to ride a six-timer through the course of the 20th century, entering the record books alongside Sir Gordon Richards at Chepstow in 1933 and Alec Russell at Bogside in 1957, while of course predating Frankie Dettori's Magnificent Seven at Ascot in 1996.

Yet the task that faced him the following day at the Curragh had even greater rarity value, as the John Dunlop-trained Salsabil attempted to become the first filly to win the Irish Derby since Gallinaria in 1900.

It was not only the history books that had to be overcome, given that Salsabil would face the Epsom first and second Quest For Fame and Blue Stag, as well as Belmez and Deploy, both of whom were looking to enhance tall reputations having missed the Derby.

Salsabil and Willie Carson hold off Heart Of Joy and Walter Swinburn to land the 1990 1,000 Guineas at NewmarketCredit: Mark Cranham

Not that Sheikh Hamdan and Dunlop were sending just any filly into the fight, even if they were not in total accord over what her next race should be following her completion of the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks double.

"I wasn't party to the discussion but I think there might have been a slight disagreement about her next race," says Carson. "I think the owner really pushed for the Irish Derby, it was his idea.

"I think the trainer would have gone down the more traditional route. It was the owner's idea and I'm glad he was right."

A five-length winner of the Oaks, Salsabil had looked a strong stayer at Epsom, much to the surprise of some who had pointed to the speed she showed in winning the Fred Darling by six lengths and then outpointing Heart Of Joy in a classy finish to the Guineas.

He says: "We didn't realise at the time quite what a great stallion Sadler's Wells would turn out to be and she was from only his second crop.

"But I don't remember having too many doubts going into the Oaks about her stamina. The only doubt was whether there was something else in there that might be better. I wouldn't say I was confident but I knew they all had me to beat."

Carson's trip to the Curragh proved fruitful even before Salsabil was saddled, as stablemate Time Gentleman prevailed in the Railway Stakes.

In the end Salsabil proved to be little more than a steering job, winning by a deceptively easy three-quarters of a length in a race which would prove to be career-ending for Deploy.

"It was unbelievable how easy she won that Derby – I thought I was riding in a selling race," says Carson.

"I was beginning to think there was something going on, that I was blessed. I went to Ireland and won on her and won the Railway Stakes too. I just never got beat."

'Such a thrill' to ride Dayjur

If Salsabil put the Classic bow on Carson and Sheikh Hamdan's season, then the rocket ship that was Dayjur left just as many indelible memories.

For many he is quite simply the best sprinter to race in Britain in the last half-century, with his three-year-old season performances at Ascot, York, Haydock and Longchamp leaving scorched turf in his wake. Even his heartbreaking defeat on the Belmont dirt has added to the legend, with almost certain Breeders' Cup glory gone in the blink of an eye as Dayjur hurdled the shadow of the giant grandstand.

"Tuesdays and Saturdays were my work mornings at Dick Hern's and I always knew I'd get put on Dayjur," he recalls. "And it was such a thrill to ride this horse – just to sit on him and feel the power when you thought about changing gear."

For Carson, had it not been for Nashwan, perhaps neither he nor Hern would have still been around to enjoy such a thrilling summer in 1990.

Willie Carson and Dick Hern first teamed up in 1977 and won three Derbies togetherCredit: Racing Post

He explains: "Dick Hern's lease wasn't going to be renewed at West Ilsley and we were halfway through the season. Dick wasn't sure what he was going to do, he didn't know if he would be training anymore. I thought I might be at the end of the road and wondered whether I should retire with Dick when he got kicked out. It was going through my head, thoughts of giving up.

"I wasn't getting a tremendous amount of outside rides, but things started to really pick up with Sheikh Hamdan and one day I was riding work at Newbury racecourse on Nashwan.

"Angus Gold [Sheikh Hamdan's racing manager] was there and so I said to him, 'We've got a bit of a problem going on with Dick, we don't know what's going to happen there. Why don't you ask your boss if he'll retain me?'

"He'd never had his own jockey before but he said yes and the following year [1990], that's what happened."

The most elegant part of the solution was that Hern moved too, travelling 15 miles across Berkshire to Sheikh Hamdan's Kingswood House Stables on the edge of Lambourn.

When asked how important that association was, Carson says: "Crikey, it gave me almost another ten years riding."

Top team: Willie Carson talking to owner Hamdan Al MaktoumCredit: Racing Post

Hern and Carson took some time to work out what to do with Dayjur, a near-black colt by Danzig who had only two starts as a juvenile and whose Guineas campaign came to an abrupt end when the petrol ran out in the European Free Handicap on his first start at three.

After a confidence-booster over six furlongs at Nottingham, Dayjur went to Newbury, where he went down by a head to the Jack Berry-trained Tod depite having what Carson felt was "three stone in hand at the furlong pole".

He says: "I got called into the office by Dick and he said, 'What happened there?' I explained that the horse had just emptied on me but Dick knew he'd been showing so much speed at home.

"Newbury definitely looked like jockey error and Dick took him down to five furlongs for the Temple and he just said: 'Let him go, make the running'. That's when we found out the way to ride him."

Next was the King's Stand, which had been downgraded to a Group 2 in 1988. Runner-up Ron's Victory put six lengths on the rest of the field in the style of a top-class sprinter, but the only trouble for jockey Tony Cruz was that Carson and Dayjur – whom Hern had wanted to scratch when rain arrived that morning – were another two and a half lengths clear of them.

"That's the difference between Battaash now and Dayjur then," says Carson. "Battaash is one-dimensional whereas Dayjur could run five or six furlongs and he did it round a turn on dirt at Belmont too."

To this point, the joy of hearing about how good Dayjur was has tempered any enthusiasm for asking about the Breeders' Cup. But Carson knows what's coming and elects to get it over and done with, unbidden.

"Then there is the story about the shadow," he says, perhaps a touch warily. "At the time you don't realise but, watching back, he popped the path at Sandown a furlong from home. It's still there today, the track is just a little darker where people cross to go to the railway station. He hopped over that.

"And he jumped a shadow at Longchamp when they looked at the reruns of the Abbaye."

Carson rode an impressive 13 Group 1 winners in the calendar year of 1990 and has few regrets that his year of living fast did not include either a win in the Arc or at the Breeders' Cup, a pair of rare omissions on his remarkable record.

Indeed, as the names are reeled off, the breeder in him takes particular pleasure in recalling the Prix de Diane success of Rafha and the Yorkshire Oaks triumph of Hellenic – "two blue hen broodmares, right there".

Carson says Salsabil is "undoubtedly among the best three horses I ever rode", while he describes the run of wins around Plate weekend as another highlight.

"You do get a few little golden veins of form every now and then, but that's the one I always remember," He says. "I did win on horses that, when I walked into the paddock, I didn't think they would."

Dayjur and Willie Carson on their way to winning the 1990 Prix de l'Abbaye at LongchampCredit: Edward Whitaker

But ask him to pick out one memory, one sensation from that golden summer, and the answer comes quick as a flash.

"Dayjur at York was the day," he says. "It was like the race was over in three seconds. The ground was on the fast side, he hit the gates and I was away. When I gave him the office it was like sitting on Concorde when you go through the sound barrier, that little 'oomph'. Not many horses are able to give a jockey that feeling, that surge."

It is easy to imagine the photographs – perhaps even bronzes or oil paintings – of Dayjur and Salsabil adorning the Carson residence at Minster Stud near Cirencester. But his wins on Newcastle's biggest day also remain dear to him.

Carson says: "I've actually got a Northumberland Plate on my dining room table. Amateur was the first big winner I rode for the old Lord Derby, back in 1968. He walked up to my front door with the owner's prize and he said: 'That's the first trophy you won for me, it's yours'."

It is a fine image on which to end the interview, but before Carson has time to bid farewell the punchline follows, uttered out of earshot by his wife Elaine.

"Now I'm being told it's in the loft because it's silver and it has to get cleaned!"

One last laugh for good measure.

Arc day ended at the Ritz

Salsabil only scrambled home in the Prix Vermeille and was a well-beaten tenth behind Saumarez when sent off the 6-4 favourite for the Arc by an army of British punters at Longchamp on the first Sunday in October, 1990.

"I remember that day so well," says Carson. "I had quite a few nice rides and I told everyone I would get three Group 1 winners. Elaine was on the side of the stand where you come in off the track and after I won the Boussac on Shadayid, I put one finger up. Then Dayjur won the Abbaye and I put two fingers up for her. I was all ready to put three fingers up for Salsabil and it just didn't happen. I couldn't believe she had run that badly.

"I was in a mood and Angus could see I was down in the dumps after riding two Group 1 winners. I walked out of the track with my head between my knees. He said: 'Right, we can't have this,' and took me off to the Ritz in Paris in an effort to cheer me up."

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