1. William Buick was born on 22 July 1988 and is a Norwegian-born British flat jockey.
39 Facts About William Buick
1. 2.
William Buick shared the champion apprentice jockey title in 2008 with David Probert and won the Lester Award for Apprentice Jockey of the Year in 2007 and 2008.
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William Buick has won five British Classic Races: the St Leger in 2010,2011 and 2021, the Derby in 2018 and the 2000 Guineas in 2024.
4.
William Buick was British flat racing Champion Jockey in 2022 and 2023.
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William Buick was born in Norway in 1988, where his Scottish-born father, Walter, was Scandinavian champion jockey on eight occasions and his Danish mother, Maria, a dressage rider and showjumper.
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William Buick has two younger brothers called Martin and Andrew.
7.
William Buick was riding horses from a young age and used to ride out in the mornings before going to school.
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William Buick, who was very small for his age, rode in his first race on 10 August 2006 at the age of 18, on Tiny Tim, trained by Andrew Balding, at Brighton racecourse.
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William Buick was part of a duel for the 2008 apprentice title, fought between him and David Probert, who like William Buick was attached to the Andrew Balding stable and had his first ride on the stable's schoolmaster Tiny Tim.
10.
The partnership got off to a perfect start at the Dubai Carnival in March 2010, with William Buick winning the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on Gosden's Dar Re Mi on what was his first top-level ride for the trainer.
11.
William Buick formed a partnership with the David Simcock-trained two-year-old Dream Ahead, winning the Group 1 Prix Morny at Deauville and the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket.
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Dream Ahead, on whom William Buick had won two Group 1 races in 2011, won both the Sprint Cup at Haydock over 6f and then the Prix de la Foret over 7f at Longchamp, in which he beat the star French mare Goldikova, providing William Buick with the first Group 1 double of his career, having won the Prix Marcel Boussac earlier that day on Elusive Kate for John Gosden.
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William Buick won a second successive St Leger with victory on Masked Marvel.
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In 2012, William Buick won nine Group 1 races across the globe.
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One of these victories came in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot aboard Fallen For You, where William Buick completed a treble after he won the Albany Stakes aboard Newfangled and the Wolferton Stakes with Gatewood on day four of the royal meeting.
16.
Nathaniel, on whom William Buick had won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 2011, was bidding to become the third horse in history to win the race back to back after a successful seasonal debut in the Eclipse Stakes two weeks prior.
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The day after the King George, William Buick steered the sister of Nathaniel, Great Heavens, to Group 1 success in Ireland in the Irish Oaks on his 24th birthday, making that William Buick's fifth Group 1 victory of the year.
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William Buick had three Group 1 victories in France in 2012, the other two being Elusive Kate in the Prix Rothschild and globetrotting Gordon Lord Byron in the Prix de la Foret.
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William Buick then won the Nunthorpe Stakes during the Ebor Festival at York aboard the Australian mare Ortensia, on whom he won the King George Stakes at Goodwood that year.
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William Buick brought Ortensia from what looked like an impossible position two furlongs out, to win by a neck from Spirit Quartz.
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William Buick finished a successful year with well over 100 winners and finished third in the British Flat Jockeys' Championship.
22.
William Buick achieved his first Group 1 success for Godolphin on the Saeed bin Suroor trained Sajjhaa in the Jebel Hatta at Meydan.
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In November 2014, William Buick signed with Godolphin to ride as first jockey to trainer Charlie Appleby, while James Doyle was signed as first jockey to Godolphin trainer bin Suroor.
24.
William Buick said: "I have been very fortunate to have been employed by John Gosden since I completed my apprenticeship and without his faith and wise counsel I would not be in the position that I am in today to take what is, in my opinion, the most coveted position in world racing".
25.
Later that month William Buick's ride on Space Age in the King George V Stakes gave Appleby his first Royal Ascot victory.
26.
The suspension was doubled when William Buick called the stewards corrupt, something for which he later apologised.
27.
At Royal Ascot William Buick rode four winners, including Ribchester in the Queen Anne Stakes.
28.
William Buick later felt unwell and went to Addenbrooke's Hospital where he underwent tests and was diagnosed with a post head-injury syndrome.
29.
At Royal Ascot William Buick had two wins, in the Royal Hunt Cup on Dark Vision and the Silver Wokingham Handicap on Chiefofchiefs, and rode Pinatubo into second place in the St James's Palace Stakes.
30.
William Buick finished second in the 2020 jockeys' championship with 133 wins to champion Oisin Murphy's 142.
31.
William Buick completed another successful year with nine European Group 1 wins, eight of them for Appleby, including the Irish Derby, the Grand Prix de Paris and the St Leger on Hurricane Lane, and the Vincent O'Brien National Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes on the two-year-old Native Trail.
32.
William Buick rode Saffron Beach, trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam, to victory in the Sun Chariot Stakes.
33.
William Buick was leading jockey at the Goodwood Festival, with seven wins.
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William Buick finished the season second in the jockey's championship, just two wins behind Oisin Murphy.
35.
On 25 February 2022, William Buick won the 2021 flat jockey of the year Lester award.
36.
William Buick won the flat jockey of the year Lester award for the second year running.
37.
William Buick retained his Champion Jockey title with 133 winners at a strike rate of 22 per cent.
38.
William Buick finished the season in fifth place in the title race, with 81 winners at a strike rate of 21 per cent.
39.
On 1 August 2021, William Buick married long-term partner Jane Duncan at Cheveley parish church.