London, United Kingdom (AFP) — Walter Swinburn, who rode the legendary but ill-fated Shergar, has died peacefully at home aged 55, friends said yesterday.

Nicknamed the “Choirboy” for his angelic looks, he was just 19 when he rode the Michael Stoute-trained Shergar to a record 10-length victory in the 1981 Epsom Derby — his first ride in the race commonly regarded as the blue riband of the Turf.

The Aga Khan-owned equine star — whom Swinburn also rode to victory in the prestigious King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes — was to be later kidnapped from his Irish Stud.

Swinburn rode another two Derby winners and in 1983 won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s most prestigious race, for the one and only time on the astonishing race mare All Along for French art dealer Daniel Wildenstein.

He was to ride All Along in a stunning three-race sweep in North America which garnered her the top American racing award, the Eclipse Horse of the Year Award, for 1983.

In all, Swinburn rode eight British classic winners (Group One races restricted to three-year-old horses).

But he suffered a terrible riding accident in Hong Kong at Sha Tin racecourse in 1996 which resulted in him being in a coma for four days and left him with multiple injuries including a punctured lung.

Within months, though, he had recovered well enough to guide Stoute’s Pilsudski to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

However, weight problems forced him to quit the saddle soon afterwards and he took up training, but he never found the success he had enjoyed as a jockey, apart from one victory at Royal Ascot in 2011.

Swinburn’s death prompted a cavalcade of tributes with jumps racing legend AP McCoy tweeting: “Brilliant stylish and a genius in the saddle. A jockey that God hath retained. RIP.”

Stoute too paid tribute to his former stable jockey with whom he enjoyed so many memorable moments, saying he was a “natural horseman with great hands”.

“He had the right temperament for the big days and he thrived on them. We enjoyed many great days together but I would say our first Derby together with Shergar, when he was just 19, was an obvious one,” said Stoute.