Adam Kirby (born August 1988) is a

Group 1 Group 1 may refer to: * Alkali metal, a chemical element classification for Alkali metal * Group 1 (racing), a historic (until 1981) classification for Touring car racing, applied to standard touring cars. Comparable to modern FIA Group N * Group On ...

-winning

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...

. He was brought up in

Kirtling Kirtling, together with Kirtling Green and Kirtling Towers, is a scattered settlement in the south-eastern edge of the English county of Cambridgeshire. It forms a civil parish with the nearby village of Upend to its north. The population of the ...

near Newmarket, on the

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

border, where he still lives, and started riding out for

James Fanshawe James Fanshawe is a British racehorse trainer. Horse training career He principally trains flat horses such as multiple Group 1 winner Soviet Song. However, he has twice won the Champion Hurdle: in 1992 with Royal Gait, previously a disqual ...

aged 12. He served his apprenticeship with Michael Wigham in Newmarket and won with his first professional ride on Broughton Knows at Lingfield on 1 October 2004. In his early career, he became first jockey to

Walter Swinburn Walter Robert John Swinburn (7 August 1961 – 12 December 2016) was a flat racing jockey and trainer who competed in Great Britain and internationally. Biography Swinburn was born in Oxford. He was the son of Wally Swinburn, who won ...

until Swinburn quit training. For Swinburn, he won the prestigious handicap, the

John Smith's Cup The John Smith's Cup (known until 1998 as the Magnet Cup) is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at York over a distance of 1 mile 2 furl ...

, at

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

in 2006. Sprint handicapper Out After Dark also gave him some early big victories, including the 2005

Portland Handicap The Portland Handicap is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Doncaster over a distance of 5 furlongs and 143 yards (1,137 metres), an ...

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

. Over the next few years, he steadily picked up more winners. He rode over a hundred winners in both 2011 and 2012, and became the 2012/13 all-weather champion, with 91 winners, after finishing third the previous two seasons. In 2011, he also built a partnership with top-class miler

Excelebration Excelebration (foaled 13 April 2008) is an Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse. As a three-year-old he recorded wins in the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen and Hungerford Stakes, before winning his first Group 1 in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. After fin ...

, riding him four times and winning two

Group 2 The term Group 2 may refer to: * Alkaline earth metal, a chemical element classification * Astronaut Group 2, also known as The New Nine, the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962 * Group 2 (racing), an FIA classification for cars in ...

s. In 2013, he teamed up with Lethal Force, the horse which took his career to a higher level. Trained by Clive Cox, the grey gave Kirby his first

win in the

Diamond Jubilee Stakes The Platinum Jubilee Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. Three-year-olds foaled in the Southern Hemisphere are also eligible. It is run at ...

Royal Ascot Ascot Racecourse ("ascot" pronounced , often pronounced ) is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 horse races and ...

. The horse then become one of the sprint stars of the year with an all the way, course record-breaking victory in the July Cup at

Newmarket Racecourse Newmarket Racecourse is a British Thoroughbred horse racing venue in Newmarket, Suffolk, Newmarket, Suffolk, comprising two individual racecourses: the Rowley Mile and the July Course. Newmarket is often referred to as the headquarters of ...

, giving Kirby his biggest win to date. The same day he won the Bunbury Cup on Field of Dream. It would be a few years before he won another Group 1, but in 2014, he won three valuable handicaps - the

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

on Ocean Tempest, the Epsom Dash on Caspian Prince, and the

Royal Hunt Cup The Royal Hunt Cup is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile (1,609 metres), and it is scheduled to ...

on Field of Dream - and finished fifth in the jockeys' championship. In 2016, still battling to establish himself among the top jockeys in Britain, he narrowly won another Group 1 sprint - the

King's Stand Stakes The King's Stand Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 5 furlongs (1,006 metres), and it is scheduled ...

Profitable In economics, profit is the difference between the revenue that an economic entity has received from its outputs and the total cost of its inputs. It is equal to total revenue minus total cost, including both explicit and implicit costs. It i ...

, trained by Clive Cox. He missed the birth of his first child in order to take the ride; girlfriend Megan gave birth 45 minutes before the first race. The next day, he won the

Prince of Wales's Stakes The Prince of Wales's Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile 1 furlong and 212 yards (2,004 ...

My Dream Boat My Dream Boat (foaled 17 April 2012) is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse best known for his upset victory in the 2016 Prince of Wales's Stakes. As a two-year-old in 2014 he showed promise but failed to win in three races. ...

. In 2017, another Cox horse, Harry Angel gave him two more Group 1s, the July Cup again, and the

Haydock Sprint Cup The Sprint Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Haydock Park over a distance of 6 furlongs (1,207 metres), an ...

. In June 2021, Kirby won his first British Classic, the

Epsom Derby The Derby Stakes, also known as the Epsom Derby or the Derby, and as the Cazoo Derby for sponsorship reasons, is a Group 1 flat horse race in England open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey o ...

, on the Charlie Appleby-trained Adayar. The ride came as a late jockey change after Kirby lost his original ride, on the better-fancied John Leeper, to

Frankie Dettori Lanfranco Dettori (; born 15 December 1970), better known as Frankie Dettori, is an Italian horse racing jockey based in the United Kingdom. Dettori has been British flat racing Champion Jockey three times and has ...

, who had become available following the withdrawal of a number of

Aidan O'Brien Aidan Patrick O'Brien (born 16 October 1969 in County Wexford, Ireland) Aidan O'Brien bio NTRA. ...

's horses. He is known for being one of the tallest jockeys in the weighing room.

Major wins

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

* Commonwealth Cup - (1) - ''

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...

(2020)'' *

- (1) - '' Lethal Force (2013)'' *

- (1) - '' Adayar (2021)'' *

- (1) - '' Harry Angel (2017)'' * July Cup - (2) - ''Lethal Force (2013), Harry Angel (2017)'' *

- (1) - ''

(2016)'' *

Middle Park Stakes The Middle Park Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to two-year-old colts. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 6 furlongs (1,207 metres), and it is ...

- (1) - ''Supremacy (2020)'' *

- (1) - ''

(2016)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, Adam English jockeys Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 1988 births