MICHAEL KINANE PROFILE
Born: June 22, 1959
Height: 5ft 4in
Family: Married to Catherine with two daughters, Aisling and Sinead
First winner: Musicari, Leopardstown, March 19, 1975
Champion Apprentice: 1978
Champion Jockey: 13 times up to 2003
Major Group One winners
Irish Derby: Galileo, High Chaparral
Irish Oaks: Alydaress, Dance Design
Irish 2,000 Guineas: Dara Monarch, Flash Of Steel, Rock Of Gibraltar
Irish 1,000 Guineas: Trusted Partner, Yesterday, Saoire
Irish St Leger: Vintage Crop (twice), Kastoria, Alandi
Irish Champion Stakes: Carroll House, Cezanne, Pilsudski, Giant’s Causeway, High Chaparral, Azamour, Sea The Stars
Epsom Derby: Commander In Chief, Galileo, Sea The Stars
Epsom Oaks: Shahtoush, Imagine
2,000 Guineas: Tirol, Entrepreneur, King Of Kings, Sea The Stars
St Leger: Milan
King George Stakes: Belmez, King’s Theatre, Montjeu, Galileo, Azamour
Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe: Carroll House, Montjeu, Sea The Stars
Belmont Stakes: Go And Go
Breeders Cup winners: Johannesburg, High Chaparral (twice),
Hong Kong Cup: Precision
Japan Cup: Pilsudski
Melbourne Cup: Vintage Crop
During a brilliant riding career that spanned 35 years, Mick Kinane would establish himself as Irish racing’s most decorated Flat jockey before retiring last December. Following a truly memorable association with John Oxx’s champion racehorse Sea The Stars, the 50-year-old Co Tipperary-born rider exited amidst a blaze of glory that was only fitting for someone who had contributed so much to the elevation of Irish Flat racing to its current world-class status.
In 2009, the Sea The Stars team achieved glorious success during a six-race unbeaten run that included famous victories in the 2,000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Mick Kinane’s role in securing such an unprecedented legacy was incalculable, his cool and experienced hand stamped all over each of those memorable occasions.
This trademark big-race calm defined Kinane throughout his long reign as one of the most sought after names on the international stage. The only jockey who can claim wins in all the major European Group Ones as well as in the Belmont Stakes, the Breeders’ Cup, the Japan Cup, the Hong Kong Cup and the Melbourne Cup, he is an instantly recognisable and universally respected figure.
While no one could have predicted such a lifetime of remarkable achievement, as a son of the Champion Hurdle-winning jump jockey Tommy, Mick was always destined for life in the saddle. He learnt his trade under Liam Browne on the Curragh, rode his first winner at the age of 15 at Leopardstown in 1975, and would become Champion Apprentice three years later.
An incredible haul of 13 Irish jockeys’ championships followed, while Kinane’s early partnership with Dermot Weld was the first of three groundbreaking affiliations with Irish trainers. In 1985, he rode his initial European Group One winner on Committed for Weld in France, a triumph that propelled him into racing’s wider consciousness.
Over the course of the next 15 years, Kinane would confirm his supremacy as the world’s number one Flat jockey, his services frequently called upon by renowned international trainers such as Henry Cecil, Michael Stoute, Michael Jarvis and Andre Fabre.
Throughout that time, his partnership with Weld continued to excel, their success in the 1993 Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop the undoubted highlight. Kinane’s determined drive through the rain-soaked Flemington mud to plunder a first northern hemisphere success in the ‘race that stops a nation’ remains one of Irish sporting history’s single most unlikely feats, one that catapulted racing – and Ireland – into mainstream media.
Eventually, almost inevitably, Kinane joined forces with another powerhouse of Irish racing. As Aidan O’Brien sought to enhance Ballydoyle’s standing as the most dominant of international training centres in 1998, there was simply no one better qualified for the job of stable jockey.
Finally, after six dominant years with O’Brien, Kinane began the third and final chapter of his sensational career with John Oxx. Sea The Stars’ awe-inspiring 2009 campaign ensured that he bowed out in flawless style, and it is appropriate now that this most humble of men will formally act as ambassador for the sport to which he has devoted his life. In so many ways, it is a role that Mick Kinane has been fulfilling for as long as anyone can remember.