Willie Carson

S6 guest-lo9z5 2026-05-06 18:11:03

# Willie Carson William Fisher Hunter Carson (born 16 November 1942)[1] is a Scottish retired Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. At only five feet tall and riding at an easily maintained weight of 7 stone 10 pounds (49 kg), Carson was much in demand as a jockey up to his retirement in 1996 at the age of 54. Willie Carson was born in Stirling, Scotland, in 1942. He was apprenticed to Captain Gerald Armstrong at his stables at Tupgill, North Yorkshire. His first winner in Britain was Pinker's Pond in a seven-furlong apprentice handicap at Catterick Bridge Racecourse on 19 July 1962. He was British champion jockey five times (1972, 1973, 1978, 1980 and 1983), won 17 British Classic Races and passed 100 winners in a season 23 times. His total of 3,828 wins makes him the fourth most successful jockey in Great Britain. Carson's best season as a jockey came in 1990 when he rode 187 winners. This included six victories at Newcastle Racecourse on 30 June, making him one of only four jockeys to ride six winners at one meeting during the twentieth century. However, he came second in the 1990 jockeys' championship to Pat Eddery. Carson had a long association with trainer Major Dick Hern, for whom he rode his first three Derby winners. In 1980, Carson took over the Minster House Stud at Ampney Crucis near Cirencester and he and his wife Elaine have developed it into a state-of-the-art stud complex. He is the only known jockey since 1900 to have ridden a horse that he bred, Minster Son, to victory in one of the Classic races, the St Leger 1988. He and his then wife Carol had three sons Anthony, Neil and Ross. In the 1983 New Years Honours List, Carson was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Civil Division for his services to horse racing.[1] This entitled him to the Post Nominal Letters "OBE" for life. From 1982 to 1983 Carson joined Bill Beaumont as one of the team captains for A Question of Sport. With Clare Balding, Carson co-presented BBC horse racing on BBC1 until the BBC ended their racing coverage at the end of the 2012 season. He was chairman of Swindon Town FC from 2001 until August 2007. In November 2010, he was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) by the University of Chester.[2] In 2011, Carson came fifth in the eleventh series of ITV1's reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.[citation needed]  France  Germany  Ireland  Italy