The turf
Candid talk
Robin Oakley
Dean McKeown is one of the canniest jockeys these days on the Northern Circuit, and not surprisingly. His racing education began early. As an apprentice he rode a horse called Miss Merlin one day at Wind- sor. It had been laid out for the race, the stable had its money on at 33-1 and there was every confidence. McKeown was drawn one, and admits that he drifted across to the centre, but he won easily: 'I never saw another horse in the race.'
Unfortunately for him the rider of the second horse was a certain L Piggott, never a man to lose a race he could win by any means. McKeown and his stable were amazed to hear that Lester had objected to the winner. It turned out that he had done so on the bizarre grounds that the appren- tice-ridden horse had drifted left and `frightened my horse out of racing'. McKe- own was called in by the stewards and told that his mount had been disqualified and the race awarded to Piggott. As they left the stewards room the senior jockey turned to him and said, 'You learned something today, son. Bullshit beats brains.'
Typical of the middle-rank jockeys on whom the sport depends, and for my money one of its best tacticians, Dean McKeown comes like so many of them from a family with racing connections. His father left home at 12 and went to Fulke Walwyn as a stable lad. But he couldn't live on the wages and left to spend 22 years in the army, where he was with the King's Troop and ran saddle clubs. Based in Aldershot, the family always had horses and, although he passed a fair range of 0 Levels, Dean McKeown defied his moth- er's hopes that he would be a computer programmer and opted for the racing life. So did his brother Dale, a promising jump jockey, who rode out his time with Reg Akehurst and then went to the United States where, after a serious shoulder injury, he has been a much sought-after work rider for the likes of Jonathan Shep- pard and Michael Dickinson.
Dean, now 37, rode for the late Peter Robinson, for Patrick Haslam and for Lord Huntingdon before moving north to ride for Mark Johnston and Richard Whittaker. Racing has not restricted his horizons. He has ridden in Germany, Spain, Kenya and India, as well as having one of the well- sought after contracts to ride in Hong Kong in 1993, where he punched home plenty of winners. Had he not taken the Hong Kong job he reckons he would have ridden 100 winners that year, having won 69 races by September.
Despite having his ups and downs, like so many, he has often been on the fringes of the top ten jockeys. And if adversity is the best test of character then Dean McKeown has come through. The coincidence of a broken leg in Germany with the tricky peri- od coming out of apprenticeship made times hard for a while. He answered an advertisement placed by Richard Whittak- er for a stable lad.
When he turned up Whittaker told him, `I want a lad, not a jockey.' But, says the trainer, McKeown said that he was content to graft and take his chances. Both were as good as their word and enjoyed a success- ful partnership for many years. 'He really is a grafter,' says Whittaker. Although McKe- own later went freelance, Whittaker still thinks enough of him to have been making plans the day I met them both at York to fly the jockey down from Hamilton to ride a horse of his who had been giving trouble in the stalls when ridden by another jockey but who goes sweetly for Dean McKeown. It must have been a pleasant change from the 70,000 miles a year he drives to and from race meetings.
McKeown is a great admirer of Pat Eddery, who he believes to be the most underestimated jockey of our age, despite his string of championships. 'I'd never say it to him but I think he's out of this world. Everyone knows what a good ride he gave Silver Patriach in the Derby, working all the way. He does that sort of thing day in and out.' But McKeown, an adopted Northerner who lives near York with his wife and three daughters in a place with a few acres 'where it isn't racing, racing, rac- ing', is also fiercely loyal to his fellow Northern jockeys, saying that the likes of Kevin Darley and Jason Weaver are the equal of any of the more fashionable names in the South.
He has a reputation for being able to tell owners rather more than most about their horses, and for doing so candidly. So will he, when the time comes eventually to hang up his boots, consider training him- self? 'Not in the present climate,' he says. `It would be unwise to do well as a jockey and then give it all back as a trainer.' Some of that Yorkshire canniness has clearly rubbed off.
Talking of canniness, I have a suggestion for the Prime Minister. Home Secretaries have too much on their plate otherwise to give proper attention to the racing industry. So why not transfer responsibility for a sport responsible for 100,000 rural jobs to the Minister of Agriculture? In the Parlia- mentary Secretary Lord Donoughue, one- time adviser to Lord Callaghan as Prime Minsiter and enthusiastic racehorse owner, he has just the man. And the post would only be in keeping given that when this government's jobs were dished out to the eager and the desperate, sitting at home cradling their telephones, Lord Donoughue took his offer of a job from Tony Blair on a mobile phone in the parade ring at Kemp- ton. Now there's style.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
Previous page
