William Buick

William Buick (born 22 July 1988) is a Norwegian-born flat jockey who holds both British and Danish citizenship. He shared the champion apprentice jockey title in 2008 with David Probert and won the Lester Award for Apprentice Jockey of the Year in 2007 and 2008. His first group race victory was in the St. Simon Stakes. His first group one race victory was in the E. P. Taylor Stakes aboard Lahaleeb. In 2010 he was hired by John Gosden as his stable jockey and won his second group one in the Dubai Sheema Classic. He is currently hired by Godolphin Racing.

Buick was born in Norway in 1988, where his Scottish-born father, Walter, was Scandinavian champion jockey on eight occasions and his mother, Maria, a dressage rider and showjumper. He has two younger brothers called Martin and Andrew.

Buick was riding horses from a young age and used to ride out in the mornings before going to school. He later recalled "I didn’t go much (to school). I rode out most mornings and was always late. My mum wasn’t too keen but my dad said that if it was what I wanted, crack on."

Fluent in Norwegian, Danish, English and German, Buick was a regular visitor to the UK, where he spent summer holidays riding out for trainers Reg Hollinshead, Marcus Tregoning and Andrew Balding. After completing his education abroad, he joined Balding as an apprentice jockey.

Buick was very small for his age but had his first ride on 10 August 2006 at the age of 18, on Tiny Tim at Brighton. Tiny Tim’s trainer Andrew Balding later said "We had to be a little careful and hold him back a little, because he was so small. But he had a knack of settling horses and by the time he had his first ride we could see he was very talented."

Before Buick’s first ride on Tiny Tim, the former Classic-winning trainer Ian Balding had struck a bet with the Tote at 500-1 on Buick becoming champion jockey before the year 2020.

Buick’s first win came on the Paul D’Arcy trained Bank On Benny at Salisbury on 27 September 2006 and by the end of the year he had ridden ten winners, leading Ian Balding to say "without question he is the best apprentice we have ever had."

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