Johnny Murtagh

Johnny Murtagh (born May 14, 1970) is an Irish flat racing jockey and trainer from Bohermeen, Navan, County Meath. He has won many of the major flat races in Europe, including all the Irish Classics, all the Group 1 Races at Royal Ascot, the Epsom Derby, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes and Europe's biggest race the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He has also been Irish flat racing Champion Jockey five times.

Early career

Murtagh was a keen amateur boxer as a young boy and was once Irish boy's under-14 boxing champion. He also came close to joining Blackburn Rovers’ youth football team.

In an RTE radio interview, Johnny stated that at a fight one evening in his native County Meath, a spectator advised his mother that Johnny would make a good jockey, citing his small size, weight, good balance, sense of rhythm, and courage. His mother wrote to the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (RACE) in County Kildare, a school for apprentice jockeys, and got a two-week trial for her son. After persuasion by friends, he joined. He was one of 26 successful candidates who progressed onto the RACE 10-month course.