Mick Kinane Epsom Derby Profile

Mick Kinane is one of the most successful jockeys in the world with over sixty group one winners to his name, including over twenty Classic winners throughout Europe. His first winner, Musicari at Leopardstown came at the ripe old age of fifteen. Irish Champion Apprentice in 1978 and Irish Champion jockey an incredible eleven times since confirm Kinane as a true contender for classic victories this year.

In 1998 Kinane severed a fifteen-year link to the trainer Dermot Weld to become the regular stable jockey for Aidan O'Brien. English classic triumph was not long following and in the same year King Of Kings won the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. Victory after victory has followed for Kinane and O'Brien culminating in a superb 2001 classic campaign. The English and Irish Derby double on Galileo was joined by wins by Imagine in the Oaks and Milan in the St Ledger.

In 2004 the partnership with Aidan O'Brien came to an end having had over half a decade of big race winners including numerous Classic and Group 1 winners. Mick now rides for the John Oxx Stable and freelances for many of the top UK trainers.

Widely acknowledged as the man for the big occasions, Mick Kinane is the only jockey to have won Australia's Melbourne Cup, the Belmont Stakes in America, the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Breeders Cup. In almost his final big race for the O'Brien stable he won a Breeders Cup with High Chaparral in a fantastic finish which ended in a dead heat and was some compensation for the hard luck story on the Rock of Gibraltar the year before.