A life defined by tragedy and triumph including five Derby wins in ten years

1 Riding winners was in Archer’s DNA: his father William Archer snr rode Little Charley to victory in the 1858 Grand National when Fred was a year old. His brothers William and Charles also went on to become jockeys, but William died from a fall in a hurdle race at Cheltenham.

2 Archer was known for his slender physique, and at 5ft 10in was a lot taller than most jockeys, meaning he had a much stricter diet. His natural weight was 11st, so to remain under 9st he rarely ate solid food. As time went on, this lack of nourishment meant he struggled to walk and run, so loss of weight through exercise became a tough task.

3 He was only 13 when he partnered his first winner under Jockey Club rules on a filly called Athol Daisy in a nursery at Chesterfield in 1870. It was the first of 2,747 winners he would ride, 21 of them in Classics.