Jimmy Mullane Irish Champion Flat jockey 1951.
Rode winners of Irish Derby /irish Oaks in 1952 aged 19 and Irish 2000 guineas 1954.
A top rider in sprints and two year old races he could steal lengths at the start of every race by standing back off the line and gunning his horse as the tapes rose, a trick he learned from australian jack Thompson.
Richard McCormick told me that when Jimmy rode work for his father on The Curragh "Great things always happened ".
One day at Bellewstown riding a filly for Dick Jimmy , after stealing an early lead caught the filly's right ear, releasing it only near the finish when needing that final push to hold on, in an age when ear plugs were not thought of. Had Ruby or Frankie won a race in this style we would be in raptures for months after talking about the audacity of it all.
Riding freelance in the late 1950s he rode big race winners for John Oxx snr, Charlie Weld and Dick McCormick among others.
A court case over a horse saw him leave Ireland "under a cloud " so he tried Northern England to resurrect his career, riding winners but never to the heights of his early years.
Head injuries ended his career in 1969 , Jimmy took to living in a caravan near a convent.
his wife died when quite young and he never quite got over that.
He ended his days in a Nursing home near Kildorrery where i met him before his final stint in Hospital.
Alas dementia had taken his mind and his memories.
He died yesterday.
Rest in Peace Jimmy, your light shone as bright as any if for a short time.