User:Peaky76/Michael Scudamore

Michael Scudamore senior (born 1932/33 ) is a former National Hunt jockey and trainer, who rode a winner in each of the sport's three biggest steeplechases - the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and King George VI Chase during his career.

Jockey
Scudamore experienced major success in the 1956 King George VI Chase on Peter Cazalet's Rose Park, a 100-6 shot who beat more fancied stable companion Devon Loch. The following year he went on to take the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Linwell. However, his biggest win as a jockey came in the 1959 Grand National when he rode the Willie Stephenson trained bay gelding Oxo to victory by one-and-a-half lengths from Wyndburgh. . Besides this success, Scudamore also holds the record for most consecutive rides in the Grand National, a sequence of 16, starting in 1951, when he fell at the first on a horse called Easter A Calling, and ending in 1966.

Retirement as a jockey was forced upon him aged 34 due to head injuries sustained in a fall at Wolverhampton. During his career he had won all the top jumps races bar the Champion Hurdle. His last win before officially retiring was on Gay Record at Wye in 1966, although he returned to win a celebrity race on the flat at Wincanton in 1998 while in his sixties.

Trainer
Scudamore took out a trainer's licence soon after his retirement and trained for nearly thirty years, until 1996. He then took to riding out several times a week for Nigel Twiston-Davies

In 2005, he took out his licence once again and trained at Eccleswall Court. During this time the yard had a few big wins including Heltornic at Wetherby and Haydock, and The Wicketkeeper winning a listed race at Ascot. . His grandson, Michael Jr, took over the trainers licence from in April 2008.

Family
Scudamore is also the head of one of the most notable dynasties in British horse racing.

His son Peter was eight-time champion jump jockey and his grandsons Tom and Michael Jr are both horsemen - Tom is a distinguished National Hunt jockey and Michael a trainer.

Scudamore's father was also an amateur rider in the 1940s.

Michael still helps out at the yard of Michael Jr, near Ross-on-Wye, in Herefordshire, although he stopped riding out in 2007.