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Eric Eldin
(1932 - 2021)
Eric Eldin was born at Newland, near Selby, Yorkshire, on July 31, 1932, the son of an agricultural labourer. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to Newmarket trainer Ryan Jarvis, for whom, in 1966, he would ride Lombard to win the Ebor Handicap.
He finished unplaced on his first-ever mount in public at Newcastle in 1948. His first winner was Penfair in the Apprentice Plate at Leicester, May 2, 1950.
He won 11 races in 1951, spent the next six years in India, winning the local Derby on Rough Deal, and on his return in 1958 was able to hold his own against the top jockeys.
Eric achieved his first big race success in Britain on Panjandrum in the 1962 King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot. He scored his only placing in a British Classic when third on Solstice in the 1965 St Leger.
The best horse he ever rode was Lomond, on whom he won back-to-back renewals of Newmarket’s Princess of Wales’s Stakes in 1965 and 1966 and gamely defied top weight by a short head in the 1966 Ebor Handicap, in which Eric just got the better of a battle royal with Lester Piggott on Valoroso.
Also that year he rode Lucasland to win the most valuable sprint of the season, the Senior Service Gold Cup Handicap at York. They then landed the July Cup and Diadem Stakes and came second to champion sprinter Caterina in the Nunthorpe.
Lucasland was trained by Jack Waugh, for whom Eric rode as stable jockey. In addition to riding for Waugh and Ryan Jarvis, he also rode notable winners for Gavin Pritchard-Gordon (the Group 2 Grosser Hansa-Preis on Record Run at Hamburg), Jack Clayton and Harry Wragg, plus some of the early winners sent out by Waugh's successor at Heath House, Sir Mark Prescott.
The highest-profile winner of Eric’s career was the Ryan Jarvis-trained Front Row in the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 1968. Her first foal was Long Row, on whom he won the Horris Hill Stakes.
Eric enjoyed his best season numerically with 63 wins in 1972, including the St Simon Stakes on the talented but frustrating grey Knockroe.
Trained by Peter Nelson, Knockroe then consistently refused to exert himself. He also disliked the company of other horses, but Eric produced the most memorable ride of his career when persuading him to win the Weetabix Wildlife Handicap at Epsom in June 1973, bringing him to challenge on the wide outside in the straight and scoring easily under top weight, beating the record time for Epsom’s mile and a half set by Mahmoud in the 1936 Derby. Ironically, Lester Piggott had turned the ride down saying that he was fed up with the horse pulling himself up. Eric rode 60 winners that season.
Eric was stable jockey for three years to Doug Smith, riding Northern Gem to win the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in 1974 and finish second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas and the Champion Stakes. The pair’s other Pattern winners together included Derrylin (three times), Stubbs Gazette and Welsh Harmony.
He retired from the saddle at the end of 1979, bringing to an end a career that had lasted over 30 years, during which time he had ridden the winners of 879 races in Britain and more than 300 abroad, mostly in India but also in various countries in Europe and elsewhere.
He set up as a trainer at Loder Stables in Newmarket, from where he sent out Prowess Prince to win the 1981 Molecomb Stakes and Grand Unit to win the 1983 Bessborough Handicap. However, his seasonal scores gradually declined and, for financial reasons, he did not renew his licence after 1991.
He was an instructor at the apprentice school in Singapore for six years, and on his return to England became a tour guide in Newmarket, showing visitors round the town, the National Horseracing Museum, the gallops and the racecourse.
Eric and his wife Margaret – they married in 1958 – had two daughters, Lorraine and Michelle. Lorraine married jockey Allan Mackay, who rode some of his winners as a trainer, notably Grand Unit at Royal Ascot. Eric followed with pride the riding careers of his grandsons Jamie and Nicky Mackay.
Eric Eldin died at Newmarket on July 6, 2021, aged 88.
Classic winner:
Irish One Thousand Guineas: Front Row (1968)
Other big winners:
1962: King George V Handicap – Panjandrum
1965: Princess of Wales’s Stakes – Lomond
1966: Princess of Wales’s Stakes – Lomond
1966: Ebor Handicap – Lomond
1966: Senior Service Gold Cup Handicap – Lucasland
1966: July Cup – Lucasland
1966: Diadem Stakes – Lucasland
1967: Queen Elizabeth Cup – Sound Of Sleat
1968: News of the World Stakes – Principal Boy
1969: News of the World Stakes – Irish Mail II
1972: Fred Darling Stakes – Miss Paris
1972: Coronation Stakes (Sandown) – Stubb’s Gazette
1972: Horris Hill Stakes – Long Row
1972: St Simon Stakes – Knockroe
1973: Craven Stakes – My Drifter
1973: Thirsk Hunt Cup – Pontam
1973: Weetabix Wildlife Handicap – Knockroe
1973: Horris Hill Stakes – Welsh Harmony
1974: Fred Darling Stakes – Northern Gem
1974: Norfolk Stakes – Overtown
1975: Great St Wilfrid Handicap – Blue Star
1976: Lingfield Oaks Trial – Heaven Knows
1977: Lingfield Derby Trial – Caporello
1977: Horris Hill Stakes – Derrylin
1978: Ascot Two Thousand Guineas Trial – Derrylin
1978: Greenham Stakes – Derrylin
1979: Criterion Stakes – Alert
In Ireland
1974: Pretty Polly Stakes – Northern Gem
In Germany
1976: Grosser Hansa-Preis – Record Run
Jockeypedia is the home of some 4,000 British jockey biographies.
(1932 - 2021)
Eric Eldin was born at Newland, near Selby, Yorkshire, on July 31, 1932, the son of an agricultural labourer. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to Newmarket trainer Ryan Jarvis, for whom, in 1966, he would ride Lombard to win the Ebor Handicap.
He finished unplaced on his first-ever mount in public at Newcastle in 1948. His first winner was Penfair in the Apprentice Plate at Leicester, May 2, 1950.
He won 11 races in 1951, spent the next six years in India, winning the local Derby on Rough Deal, and on his return in 1958 was able to hold his own against the top jockeys.
Eric achieved his first big race success in Britain on Panjandrum in the 1962 King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot. He scored his only placing in a British Classic when third on Solstice in the 1965 St Leger.
The best horse he ever rode was Lomond, on whom he won back-to-back renewals of Newmarket’s Princess of Wales’s Stakes in 1965 and 1966 and gamely defied top weight by a short head in the 1966 Ebor Handicap, in which Eric just got the better of a battle royal with Lester Piggott on Valoroso.
Also that year he rode Lucasland to win the most valuable sprint of the season, the Senior Service Gold Cup Handicap at York. They then landed the July Cup and Diadem Stakes and came second to champion sprinter Caterina in the Nunthorpe.
Lucasland was trained by Jack Waugh, for whom Eric rode as stable jockey. In addition to riding for Waugh and Ryan Jarvis, he also rode notable winners for Gavin Pritchard-Gordon (the Group 2 Grosser Hansa-Preis on Record Run at Hamburg), Jack Clayton and Harry Wragg, plus some of the early winners sent out by Waugh's successor at Heath House, Sir Mark Prescott.
The highest-profile winner of Eric’s career was the Ryan Jarvis-trained Front Row in the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 1968. Her first foal was Long Row, on whom he won the Horris Hill Stakes.
Eric enjoyed his best season numerically with 63 wins in 1972, including the St Simon Stakes on the talented but frustrating grey Knockroe.
Trained by Peter Nelson, Knockroe then consistently refused to exert himself. He also disliked the company of other horses, but Eric produced the most memorable ride of his career when persuading him to win the Weetabix Wildlife Handicap at Epsom in June 1973, bringing him to challenge on the wide outside in the straight and scoring easily under top weight, beating the record time for Epsom’s mile and a half set by Mahmoud in the 1936 Derby. Ironically, Lester Piggott had turned the ride down saying that he was fed up with the horse pulling himself up. Eric rode 60 winners that season.
Eric was stable jockey for three years to Doug Smith, riding Northern Gem to win the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in 1974 and finish second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas and the Champion Stakes. The pair’s other Pattern winners together included Derrylin (three times), Stubbs Gazette and Welsh Harmony.
He retired from the saddle at the end of 1979, bringing to an end a career that had lasted over 30 years, during which time he had ridden the winners of 879 races in Britain and more than 300 abroad, mostly in India but also in various countries in Europe and elsewhere.
He set up as a trainer at Loder Stables in Newmarket, from where he sent out Prowess Prince to win the 1981 Molecomb Stakes and Grand Unit to win the 1983 Bessborough Handicap. However, his seasonal scores gradually declined and, for financial reasons, he did not renew his licence after 1991.
He was an instructor at the apprentice school in Singapore for six years, and on his return to England became a tour guide in Newmarket, showing visitors round the town, the National Horseracing Museum, the gallops and the racecourse.
Eric and his wife Margaret – they married in 1958 – had two daughters, Lorraine and Michelle. Lorraine married jockey Allan Mackay, who rode some of his winners as a trainer, notably Grand Unit at Royal Ascot. Eric followed with pride the riding careers of his grandsons Jamie and Nicky Mackay.
Eric Eldin died at Newmarket on July 6, 2021, aged 88.
Classic winner:
Irish One Thousand Guineas: Front Row (1968)
Other big winners:
1962: King George V Handicap – Panjandrum
1965: Princess of Wales’s Stakes – Lomond
1966: Princess of Wales’s Stakes – Lomond
1966: Ebor Handicap – Lomond
1966: Senior Service Gold Cup Handicap – Lucasland
1966: July Cup – Lucasland
1966: Diadem Stakes – Lucasland
1967: Queen Elizabeth Cup – Sound Of Sleat
1968: News of the World Stakes – Principal Boy
1969: News of the World Stakes – Irish Mail II
1972: Fred Darling Stakes – Miss Paris
1972: Coronation Stakes (Sandown) – Stubb’s Gazette
1972: Horris Hill Stakes – Long Row
1972: St Simon Stakes – Knockroe
1973: Craven Stakes – My Drifter
1973: Thirsk Hunt Cup – Pontam
1973: Weetabix Wildlife Handicap – Knockroe
1973: Horris Hill Stakes – Welsh Harmony
1974: Fred Darling Stakes – Northern Gem
1974: Norfolk Stakes – Overtown
1975: Great St Wilfrid Handicap – Blue Star
1976: Lingfield Oaks Trial – Heaven Knows
1977: Lingfield Derby Trial – Caporello
1977: Horris Hill Stakes – Derrylin
1978: Ascot Two Thousand Guineas Trial – Derrylin
1978: Greenham Stakes – Derrylin
1979: Criterion Stakes – Alert
In Ireland
1974: Pretty Polly Stakes – Northern Gem
In Germany
1976: Grosser Hansa-Preis – Record Run
Jockeypedia is the home of some 4,000 British jockey biographies.
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R.I.P.
I remember his epic Ebor win on Lomond well ( I was still young enough to be on a family holiday and listened to it on a beach in Wales through a tiny transistor ). I always associated him with Ryan Jarvis in the 60s and I didn't realise he went on as long as he did. |
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Was a very good jockey Eric, remember vividly his great ride on Knockroe at Epsom, 20/1 won easily, recall seeing him on Flog It a few years ago, seemed a modest, decent guy, RIP Eric.
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As mentioned, one of the best horses he rode was the filly Lucasland. She won a sprint handicap at the York May meeting in 1966 that was worth more than twice as much as the July Cup she won 2 months later. On the corresponding day a year earlier, she'd won the Sevenoaks Plate at Folkestone (ridden by Eldin), a 13-runner race for 3yo fillies who'd never been placed. She was the only notable produce of her sire Lucero, who was exported to Panama and died 2 years later, and her dam Lavant wasn't even allowed in the Stud Book at the time, as she was considered to be from a half-bred family, though largely due to the exploits of Lucasland, and her younger half-brother So Blessed, that got rectified in 1969.
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R.I.P. Eric and who could ever forget Knockroe.
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R.I.P EE, a decent if unspectacular rider, who if riding among today's jockeys would be challenging to be Champion.
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Sad news, but a good innings. I remember him at Pontefract, has many good winners. A talented jockey and fine man.
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