As 2024 strides into life, the racing New Year brings a healthy dose of optimism as we look forward to the good times ahead. The sport may have its issues, but plans are in place to bring racing firmly into the 21st century, and, as ever, the fixture list promises to provide a steady stream of highlights throughout the year.
Whilst early January is an excellent time to plan ahead for all within the industry and racing fans, this is also an ideal opportunity to pause and remember those who are sadly no longer here to enjoy it all with us. 2023 brought a share of big-name equine casualties, including the ill-fated Derby winner Desert Crown and Grand National hero One For Arthur, but losses also came in human form. Here, we look back at a selection of owners, trainers, and jockeys, who made their final exit in the year just gone but left behind enduring memories and an indelible mark on the sport.
Edward Hide – Died 7th February 2023, aged 86
Born in Shropshire on 12 April 1937, Edward George William Hide was a natural horseman from a very young age. So quick was he in developing his skills that by 13, he was making his racecourse debut as an apprentice jockey riding for his father Bill. Hide finished last in that first appearance, but his career soon began to head in a more positive direction, with a first win arriving in 1951.
By 1954 Hide was winning the Champion Apprentice title – a feat he would repeat in 1956 and 1957. A regular on the northern and Scottish racing scene, Hide was the top jockey in the north on 16 occasions but was no stranger to success on the biggest southern stages. Partnering Morston to victory in the 1973 Epsom Derby, Hide picked up six Classic wins, with the 2000 Guineas the only one of the five missing from his CV.
Riding his final winner on 22 May 1993, Hide’s career total of 2,953 domestic victories made him the sixth most successful British rider in history at the time of his retirement. Subsequently acting as Walter Swinburne’s agent and assistant to John Gosden, he will perhaps be best remembered for his irresistible partnership with sprinting superstar Lochnager, who he drove to victory in the Temple Stakes, King’s Stand Stakes, Nunthorpe Stakes and July Cup.
Jim Lewis – Died: 26th February 2023, aged 88
Later in February, the sport lost one of its most famous and flamboyant owners with the passing of Jim Lewis at the age of 88. Born in Birmingham in 1934, Lewis made his first fortune through the Silentnight bed manufacturing company before launching a successful pine furniture import business, which he sold in 2000. Away from his business, two of Lewis’s great loves were Aston Villa Football Club and horse racing.
Rarely – if ever – sighted at the racetrack without his signature Aston Villa scarf, all his horses ran in Claret and Blue striped silks, modelled on the strip of Villa’s 1957 FA Cup winning side. Commonly associated with trainers Henrietta Knight and Venetia Williams, and jockey Jim Culloty, Lewis enjoyed spectacular success during the 1990s. A first Cheltenham victory came courtesy of Nakir in the 1994 Arkle Chase but the two horses who flew the claret and blue with the greatest aplomb were Queen Mother Champion Chase and King George winner Edredon Bleu, and the peoples’ champion, Best Mate, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2002, 2003, and 2004 – becoming the first horse since Arkle to land the Festival’s biggest prize on three occasions.
Dean Holland – Died: 24th April 2023, aged 34
Sad as the deaths of Hide and Lewis were, other racing-related losses were far more sudden and far more shocking. Topping the pile in that regard was the tragic loss of Australian jockey Dean Holland, who died following a horror fall in the first race at Donald racetrack on 24 April.
Vying for the lead in the early stages, Holland was left helpless as his mount veered to the inside, stumbled and crashed through the rails. Immediately attended to by medics at the track and air-lifted to hospital, sadly he could not be saved. The winner of over 1,000 races, including two prestigious Australian Group 1s, Holland leaves behind a wife and four children.
Paul Barber – Died: 18th June 2023, aged 80
Born on 31 December 1942, Paul Kelson Barber grew up to carry on the family tradition of dairy farming and cheese making from his base at Manor Farms, Ditcheat. In addition to the cows under his care, Barber also had an overwhelming love of horses – experiencing early success as an owner in the Point to Point sphere – and cited a lifetime ambition to “milk 1,000 cows and own a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner”. By the time of his passing, he had gone on to achieve each of those goals in spectacular style.
Barber had experienced some success with trainer Jim Old, but his greatest triumphs came with Paul Nicholls, whom Barber selected to succeed Old in 1991. No bad judge of a cow, horse, or human, Nicholls would go on to be crowned Champion Trainer on 14 occasions, handing Barber two Cheltenham Gold Cup winners in See More Business (1998) and Denman (2008), and a dual King George champ, Clan Des Obeaux. As for the cows, Barber had no fewer than 3,000 regularly being milked at his farm by the time of that second Gold Cup success.
Cody Dorman – Died 5th November 2023, aged 17
The 2023 Breeder’s Cup had barely concluded when one of the meeting’s most heartwarming tales suffered a tragic postscript with the death of 17-year-old Cody Dorman. Diagnosed with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome at birth, Cody was confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. However, that didn’t stop the youngster from forming a remarkable bond with a foal at the Godolphin operation. So strong was the relationship between horse and human that the foal was named Cody’s Wish in honour of his best friend.
Fast forward to the racing days of Cody’s Wish, and the kind-hearted horse also proved to be rather talented – so talented that he landed the Breeders’ Cup Mile in both 2022 and 2023, with Cody there to catch him in action. It was on his journey home from that latest success that Cody sadly suffered a medical event and passed away, a tragically short but infinitely memorable life.