29 Facts About Timmy Murphy

Timmy Murphy overcame problems with alcohol, which had led to a prison sentence after a drunken incident on a plane in 2002, to resume a successful career and win the 2005 jump jockey of the year Lester Award.

Timmy Murphy won the Irish Grand National on Davids Lad in 2001, and the Scottish Grand National on Merigo in 2010 and 2012.

Timmy Murphy had eight winners at the Cheltenham Festival, the first in 1997 and the last in 2009.

Timmy Murphy recorded his 1000th win in Britain in 2010.

Timmy Murphy grew up on the stud farm with brother Brian and learnt to ride as a young child.

Timmy Murphy went hunting and competed in gymkhanas and pony racing with his pony, Bluebell.

Timmy Murphy moved to the yard of trainer Dermot Weld and then to that of Declan Gillespie, but he was sacked from both yards and, apart from riding in a bumper and a point-to-point on horses owned by his father, had yet to ride on a racecourse.

Timmy Murphy turned professional later that year while working at the yard of trainer Kim Bailey in Lambourn, Berkshire.

Timmy Murphy rode 26 winners during his first season in England.

The job involved only occasional work riding in the mornings, so Timmy Murphy's timekeeping was not a problem.

Timmy Murphy rode 60 winners that season, in spite of a total of 52 days' suspension for use of the whip, but lost his job in November 1998, due mainly to his lack of communication with owners.

Timmy Murphy was offered a job riding for owner Wally Sturt, whose horses were trained by Jim Old, and rode his second Cheltenham Festival winner in 1999 on Sturt's Sir Talbot in the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle.

Timmy Murphy rode Beef Or Salmon in fifteen races for seven wins, including five Grade 1s.

Timmy Murphy rode two winners at the 2004 Cheltenham Festival: Tikram in the Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup and Creon in the Pertemps Final.

In May 2004 Timmy Murphy was signed as retained rider for Martin Pipe's major owner David Johnson.

Timmy Murphy rode two winners for Pipe at the 2005 Cheltenham Festival, Contraband in the Arkle Chase and Fontanesi in the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle, and the following month won the Aintree Hurdle on Al Eile for trainer John Queally.

Timmy Murphy finished the season on 143 winners, the first time he had passed a century.

Timmy Murphy was awarded the 2005 Lester Award for jump jockey of the year.

In March 2008 Timmy Murphy won the Ryanair Chase on Old Vic, taking his Festival tally to seven.

Timmy Murphy rode Comply or Die in the following three Grand Nationals, coming second to Mon Mome in 2009, twelfth in 2010 and pulling up in 2011.

In 2009 Timmy Murphy rode his eighth, and final, Cheltenham Festival winner with Chapoturgeon, trained by Nicholls, in the Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase.

In December 2013 Timmy Murphy was suspended for nine days after starting a fight in the weighing room, during which his shoulder was discolated when he was restrained by a jockeys' valet.

The trainer, himself a former National Hunt jockey, said that Timmy Murphy's style of riding would stand him in good stead in flat racing: "One thing that he has always been is a master of almost smuggling a horse through from A to B as efficiently as possible".

Timmy Murphy rode for three seasons on the flat, riding 31 winners in 2017.

Timmy Murphy struggled with his weight however and decided to retire aged 43 in 2018, his last race being a win on Happy Escape at Chepstow on 15 May 2018.

Timmy Murphy met his partner Dawn Symonds, who was a work rider for trainer Mark Pitman, in 1999 and the couple had a son, Shane, in December 2000.

In 2008 Timmy Murphy married Verity Green, daughter of Scottish racehorse owner Ray Green.

In 2002, Timmy Murphy was sentenced to six months imprisonment for indecently assaulting an air stewardess on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Tokyo to London Heathrow.

Timmy Murphy ultimately spent 84 days in Wormwood Scrubs before returning to racing.