Jonjo
O’Neill is a double Jockey’s Champion and National Hunt racehorse
trainer.
One
of the most successful trainers in the UK and Ireland, he’s still
the only person to ride and train a winner on the flat and over
fences at Ascot and to have reached 100 wins in a season as a jockey
and a trainer.
Born
in County Cork, after leaving school he worked as an apprentice to
Michael Connolly. Winning over 900 races in his 16-year career, his
first came in 1970 with a dead heat on Lana at the Curragh.
Twice
named British Champion Jockey, in 1977/78 he broke the record for
most winners in a season with 149. He followed that with a with a win
in the first of two Cheltenham Gold Cup wins, first on Alverton in
1979. The second came in 1986 on the mare Dawn Run, who was the only
horse to have also win the Champion Hurdle.
Later
that year, after coming back from serious injuries and battling
cancer, O’Neill took out his trainers licence and began working at
Skelton Wood End, near Penrith. After 15 years he moved to the JP
McManus-owned Jackdaws Castle, Cheltenham. where he struck up a
partnership with legendary jockey A.P McCoy, who stormed to victory
on Don’t Push in the 2010 Grand National.
Some
of his biggest wins as a trainer include Synchronised in the
Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2012, Wichita Lineman in the William Hill
Trophy at Cheltenham in 2009 and 2014 Irish Grand National winner,
Shutthefrontdoor.