Fred Archer | |
---|---|
Occupation | Jockey |
Born |
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England |
11 January 1857
Died | 8 November 1886 Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, England |
(aged 29)
Career wins | 2,748 |
Major racing wins | |
St. James's Palace Stakes (1886) British Classic Race wins: Prix du Jockey Club (1880, 1883) Grand Prix de Paris (1882, 1885, 1886) |
|
Racing awards | |
British flat racing Champion Jockey (1874–1886) |
|
Honours | |
Fred Archer Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse | |
Significant horses | |
Bend Or, Iroquois, Ormonde, Melton, Paradox, Wheel of Fortune, Silvio, Atlantic |
St. James's Palace Stakes (1886)
Prince of Wales's Stakes (1879, 1881, 1883)
Champion Stakes (1878, 1881, 1885, 1886)
British Classic Race wins:
Epsom Oaks (1875, 1878, 1880, 1885)
1,000 Guineas (1875, 1879)
2,000 Guineas (1874, 1879, 1883, 1885)
Epsom Derby (1877, 1880, 1881, 1885, 1886)
St Leger (1877, 1878, 1881, 1882, 1885, 1886)
Frederick James "Fred" Archer (11 January 1857 – 8 November 1886), also known by the nickname The Tin Man, was an English flat race jockey of the Victorian era, described as "the best all-round jockey that the turf has ever seen".
He set records for the number of Champion Jockey titles (13), number of wins in a season (246) and number of race wins (2748) which remained unthreatened until the arrival of Steve Donoghue and Sir Gordon Richards well into the 20th-century.
Delirious from wasting and the loss of his wife during childbirth, he took his own life at the age of 29.
Archer was born to Grand National winning jockey William Archer in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1857. A "quick, retentive, and exceedingly secretive boy", at the age of 11 he became apprentice to trainer Mathew Dawson at Heath House, now home to trainer Mark Prescott. Archer served Dawson as a stable jockey from 1874 until 1886. He would marry Dawson's niece, Helen Rose Dawson. His first win was a steeplechase at Bangor-on-Dee in 1870 but his first official win under Jockey Club rules was at Chesterfield on 28 September 1870 on a horse called Atholl Daisy.