Gold Cup-winning jockey Bradley dead at 65
London, United Kingdom (AFP) — Former Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jump jockey Graham Bradley has died aged 65, it was announced Thursday.
He had been suffering from semantic dementia in recent years.
Bradley won the 1983 Gold Cup aboard Bregawn, leading home a remarkable success for trainer Michael Dickinson, who saddled the first five in that year’s race.
Bradley also won the 1996 Champion Hurdle on Jim Old’s Collier Bay and the 1985 Irish Grand National with Rhyme ‘n’ Reason.
John Francome, Britain’s champion National Hunt (jumps) jockey seven times between 1976 and 1985, said Bradley was “a really lovely lad and a lovely jockey”.
Francome also told Britain’s Press Association: “He was very quiet [in the saddle] and could ride a very patient race, which is something a lot of people can’t do. He was incredibly stylish and just a genuinely nice human being.
“He was very good — if you were a horse, you’d want him to ride you.”
After retiring as a jockey, Bradley enjoyed further success with his bloodstock business.
But he was banned for eight years — reduced to five on appeal — in 2002 by the Jockey Club, the then governing body of British racing, after being found guilty of breaches of the rules, including passing privileged information to a gambler alleged to be involved in a scheme to dope horses
