Paul Hanagan
| Paul Hanagan | |
|---|---|
Paul Hanagan winning UAE 2,000 Guineas on Soft Falling Rain
|
|
| Occupation | Jockey |
| Born |
8 September 1980 Warrington, Cheshire |
| Major racing wins | |
|
British Classic Race wins: Epsom Oaks (1) |
|
| Racing awards | |
| British flat racing Champion Jockey 2010, 2011 | |
| Significant horses | |
| Mayson, Soft Falling Rain, Wootton Bassett, Taghrooda | |
Paul Hanagan (born 8 September 1980 in Warrington, Cheshire) is a leading British flat horse racing jockey. Hanagan has twice been crowned champion jockey on the flat in Britain, riding 165 winners in 2011 to defend his title, having won his first title with 191 winners in 2010.
A graduate of the British Racing School, Hanagan sat on a horse for the first time aged 14, having previously harboured ambitions of playing football professionally, only to be told he was too small and light. His introduction to horse racing came through his father, Geoff, who had hoped to be a jockey and, having failed to make the grade in Newmarket, later rode out on weekends for local Warrington-based trainer Terry Caldwell. In a BBC interview in 2003, Hanagan recalls the moment he realised he wanted to be a jockey:
"My dad used to ride out at Terry Caldwell's yard and I followed him down one weekend…that was how it all started. Straight away I thought this is something totally different…I thought: 'This is what I want to do'. I was still only about 11, but it was kind of like a bug."
Hanagan went on to help out at Caldwell's yard in Warrington, Cheshire, riding out for the first time aged 14 and continuing his work experience there until leaving school to start a 9-week course at the British Racing School in 1997.
Hanagan's first job in racing came with the Norton-based trainer Malcolm Jefferson, who despite being better known as a trainer of National Hunt horses, gave Hanagan his first racecourse ride on Stone Beck at Haydock Park on 4 September 1998, finishing 4th.
A year later and on the recommendation from Jefferson that he should join a flat yard, Hanagan joined the growing yard of Malton-based handler Richard Fahey as an apprentice jockey.
Four years into a burgeoning career that had seen Hanagan register scores of 6, 23, and 29 in 1999, 2000 and 2001 respectively, Hanagan became British flat racing Champion Apprentice in 2002, recording an impressive tally of 81 winners, the second-highest total for a champion apprentice in the post-war era behind Lee Newman, the 2000 champion with 87 winners.
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