LIAM Ward, a six-time Irish champion jockey who rode 10 Irish classic winners, passed away last Monday, aged 92.

He had a long association with trainer Vincent O’Brien and is best remembered as the regular rider of Nijinsky, the pair successful in the 1970 Irish Derby.

Born in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, where his father was a saddler and his mother kept a shop, Liam turned his back on school aged 15, opting to follow his uncles Denis and Michael into racing.

Former jockey and family friend Mickey Colbert got Liam into Kildangan as apprentice to Roderic More O’Ferrall. “My first year I got no money at all. In year two it was a shilling a week.”

On Roderic’s retirement, which coincided with stable jockey Martin Quirke taking up training, Liam joined his former mentor in Mountjoy Lodge. Andorra, trained by Martin for Roderic More O’Ferrall, became Liam’s first winner, at the Phoenix Park in April 1947.

First classic

On coming out of his time Liam began to ride for former champion jockey Morny Wing, who provided the first of Liam’s 10 Irish classic victories - Do Well in the 1951 Irish St Leger.

A year later he rode DCM to win the Irish 2000 Guineas for Mickey Rogers and won the first of his six championships in 1953. In the 1950s Liam was attached to the all-conquering Paddy Prendergast yard for three seasons, as a prelude to his lasting association with Anne Biddle Brewster’s Palmerstown stable.

Liam rode Sindon to win the 1958 Irish Derby for that owner and, weeks later, was called up by Alec Head for the winning ride on Prince Aly Khan’s Amante in the Irish Oaks.

No prizes for guessing what Liam would subsequently nominate as his favourite course. Newmarket, by contrast, could be considered his least favourite. Sindon finished second to Bella Paola in the 1958 Champion Stakes, after which Liam candidly admitted that he had ridden to beat the favourite, which he did, only to be mugged by the French filly at the death.

Five years later Liam on Ionian and Jimmy Lindley on Only For Life fought out the finish of the 2000 Guineas, with neither prepared to claim victory. Lindley swiftly steered his mount back to the runner-up berth, leaving Liam with no option but to unsaddle in the winner’s enclosure. Five minutes ticked by before the judge delivered his verdict in favour of Only For Life.

Mrs Biddle Brewster provided Liam with another classic winner in 1960 when Zenobia won the Irish 1000 Guineas and he was champion jockey for the sixth and final time in 1961.

Ballydoyle years

Liam concluded his riding career as effectively first jockey in Ireland for Vincent O’Brien. Aurabella (1965 Irish Oaks) and White Gloves (1966 Irish St Leger) kept Liam’s name in the headlines and in 1967 he threw his leg over Sir Ivor to win the National Stakes at the Curragh.

Lester Piggott took over the mount when Sir Ivor won the Guineas at Newmarket and the Derby at Epsom, but Liam was the stable’s number one jockey on home soil and so he was back on board Sir Ivor for the Irish Derby.

Sent off the 1/3 favourite, Sir Ivor was sensationally beaten by Fulke Johnson Houghton’s Ribero, ridden by none other than Lester Piggott.

“In hindsight I shouldn’t have ridden him,” Liam recalled. “Sir Ivor was a heavy-shouldered, round-actioned colt. Though he could certainly go! I’d ridden him in his work since Epsom and he hadn’t worked well. Didn’t even want to pass his lead horse. He might have been jarred up from Epsom. I couldn’t have won from turning in on the Curragh that day.

“And if I hadn’t ridden, Piggott would have, and probably won on him too. If Piggott had kept the ride on Sir Ivor, the winner [Ribero] would never even have run. But there we are.”

Nijinsky

Two years later that ‘lose, lose’ nightmare was at least partly erased when Liam guided Nijinsky to an effortless Irish Derby success, at the immediate expense of one L. Piggott on Meadowville.

“Lovely horse to ride. You could settle him anywhere. Yes, he used to get very hot beforehand. But once racing he was straightforward.”

Nijinsky or Sir Ivor? “For me Nijinsky was much the better, though I know Piggott thinks otherwise. Mind you, Nijinsky’s true distance was 10 furlongs. His class carried him the rest of the way. A very, very good horse.”

In between Sir Ivor and Nijinsky, Liam won the 1969 Irish Oaks aboard Gaia and the Irish St Leger with Reindeer.

Retirement

Throughout his career, Liam was regarded by his fellow jockeys as a gentleman who always had a touch of class and excellent manners.

Upon retirement he became the only former professional jockey other than the late Michael Curran to be elected to the Turf Club, Liam served as a raceday steward at the Curragh, Leopardstown and Naas, where he was chairman of the panel. He also sat on the Appeals and Referrals Committees.

Speaking at his funeral ceremony, Liam’s son William said: “His knowledge of the game and the tracks was a huge asset in the stewards’ room. He was never condescending to apprentices. He gave them advice on how they could have handled a situation better and he did not allow older jockeys to bully them in front of the stewards. Fairness and doing the right thing was his credo.”

Liam was a director of the Irish National Stud in the early 1980s and he was heavily involved in the Racing Academy Centre of Education and the Drogheda Memorial Fund.

He loved and excelled at fishing, shooting and golf. With his first wife Jacqueline Hylton, he bred horses at Ashleigh Stud in Clonee, Co Meath until the farm was the subject of a compulsory purchase order by local authorities.

Around 1980, Liam then purchased Castlesize House in Sallins, Co Kildare, where he and his second wife Veronica were renowned for their dinner parties.

He is survived by Veronica and children William and Nicola. GW & MC