John Francome hangs up his microphone after 27 years

and leaves racing hungry for more

When the new Channel 4 Racing team assemble for the first time at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, the most gaping hole will not be the seat vacated by John McCririck but the one that John Francome quietly slipped out of the moment it was announced his present employer, Highflyer, had lost the contract.


By Marcus Armytage telegraph.co.uk 22 Dec 2012

After 27 years on our televisions Francome, 60, will cover his last King George VI Chase on Boxing Day and will hang up his microphone at Newbury on Saturday.

For the second time in his life Francome, the self-deprecating man with the Midas touch, the quick wit, the dash of devilment and no shortage of opinions, has quit something at which he has been a natural.

At Chepstow in April 1985 he took jump racing by surprise when he ‘retired’ after being briefly hung-up in the saddle. At that stage he had been the most successful jump jockey in history with 1,138 winners. In life, as in riding, timing is everything and again he has left racing wanting more.

“It doesn’t seem anything like 27 years,” he said reflecting on his role as a pundit. “I worked for a great team, the people behind the scenes like the electricians, riggers as much as anyone. I don’t care whether you’re a rocket scientist or a dustman as long as you’re good company, that’s the main thing.

“You might say I’ve got out on my own terms, others will say I jumped before I was pushed! It says a lot for how lucky I’ve been to go into two jobs, one with Fred Winter and his headlad, Brian Delaney, and the same with Andrew Franklin and John Fairley [Highflyer’s executive producers].

“I’ll miss giving my six pence worth on something interesting that’s happened. You can say what people at home what to know and I’ve always been a more than a little opinionated. I’ll miss our production meetings before racing most, you could make a comedy series about them, and for me it was just like travelling to the races when I was riding, it was an extension of being in the weighing room.”

Though he has not got anything specific to do in ‘retirement’ you can rest assured the grass will never grow under his feet. Current projects include building a new barn for his tenant, the trainer Clive Cox.

“I’ve got things to do and something will crop up,” he said and you know with Francome that something will.

Poet, a good flat horse he bought and had gelded because it was too much of a character to ever become a stallion, won first time out over hurdles at Newbury earlier in the week. He still rides out and schools horses, he has bought a JCB and he has taken over as president of the Injured Jockeys Fund from the late Lord Oaksey with whom he shared the small screen for a number of years.

“I never think I’m 60,” he admitted looking not a pound heavier than he was when he retired from the saddle. “I’m sure there’ll come a time when I can’t jump something or don’t want to but I schooled a couple of yaks this morning and loved it.”

He is not a man who would own a horse for the sake of it. “I took a chance on Poet,” he explained. “I’ve no desire to have it run in my colours. The only way we could get it near a pole to start with was corner it in the indoor school and put poles all around it, then he had to walk over them to get out. All the lads said he wouldn’t jump and yet at Newbury on Wednesday he jumped like a rabbit.”

Recalling his great friend Oaksey, he said: “We only had two things in common, a love of horses and a big head size. I forgot my helmet going racing one day and went round every jockey to see if I could get their’s to fit and was getting to the point that I wasn’t going to be able to ride when I tried on John’s. I rather fear his head had more in it than mine. His head was large for storing things, mine was large because I was too big for my boots.”

In his previous incarnation his King George victories came on Wayward Lad in 1983 and Burrough Hill Lad a year later. “Wayward Lad beat Fifty Dollars More, trained by Fred Winter. Though I was disappointed for Fred I’d been jocked off by the horse’s owner Sheikh Ali Abu Khamsin so it gave me great pleasure, a bit of icing on the cake to beat him.

“Burrough Hill Lad beat Combs Ditch a short-head and until the outcome of the photo was announced I have it in my mind that Jenny Pitman was ready to bollock me, though I don’t know why. Combs Ditch was a good horse on his day.”

If Francome’s departure from television is anything like the secretly organised drinks party earlier this month to celebrate his 60th – he said he would have “preferred to have sat down and watched Countryfile” – he will want to go without fanfare. If Newbury is abandoned it would probably suit him even better.