Jonjo O'Neill was born in County Cork
on April 13, 1952.

He served his apprenticeship with Michael Connolly at The Curragh and rode his first winner, Lana, when dead-heating in a Flat race at the local track on September 9, 1970. He moved to England in 1973, and since his days as an amateur with the late Gordon Richards in the early seventies, Jonjo O'Neill has hit the highs and lows with force and regularity.

Two National Hunt jockey's championships (1977-78 and 1979-80), 901 career winners and forever associated with Sea Pigeon in the golden era of hurdling and dual Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup-winning mare Dawn Run, Jonjo is grateful of the highs. When the tapes went up, nobody wanted to win more than Jonjo. He was as strong as an ox and the last word in determination. It was a mindset that was to serve him well in later life.

His riding achievements kept him sane in the darker days. And there have been plenty.

There was a monumental battle to beat cancer and the battering his body took from falls during his riding career was severe - he has metal pins inserted in both arms, with plates and screws holding his legs together.

He almost lost a leg in 1980 when an eight-inch plate in his right leg moved and caused infection. Surgeons saved it and four years later, he claimed his second Champion Hurdle on Dawn Run, who in 1986, became the only horse to win both the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup. The pair are immortalised in bronze overlooking the parade ring at Cheltenham.

Jonjo's riding career, which spanned 16 years from 1970-1986, is legendary. Noted for his style and, in particular, his strength and power in a finish, in 1977/78 he broke Ron Barry's 125 winners-in-a-season record comfortably, recording 149.

That was the first of two championship seasons and three centuries. Ahead of him lay two Champion Hurdle victories on Sea Pigeon (1980) and Dawn Run (1984), two Cheltenham Gold Cup triumphs on Alverton (1979) and Dawn Run (1986).

He was never a one-trick pony. One of the highlights of his riding career came on the Flat at York in August 1979, when he carried home top weight Sea Pigeon to win the Ebor, despite riding with three broken toes.

He enjoyed numerous big-race successes, winning Kempton's Christmas Hurdle twice, the Irish Champion Hurdle and twice landed the Scottish Champion Hurdle, plus universal acclaim as one of the all-time great jump jockeys.