Johnjoe Murphy-Knight has caught the eye with two recent hunter chase victories on the Michael Scudamore-trained Fix At All.
This article first appeared in the Racing Post on Friday 7th April.
Murphy-Knight, 17, hails from Leicestershire, but joined Scudamore’s Herefordshire yard 18 months ago and has ridden in two Flat races, an amateur riders’ hurdle and the pair of hunter chases.
Raised by his grandparents, his interest in horses caught fire at the age of 11 after his grandmother bought him a riding lesson. “I was hooked straight away,” he says. “After that I went to occasional race meetings with my grandparents – Leicester was obviously our local track – and then started riding out in the holidays for Michael Appleby before joining him on leaving school.”
Deciding Jump racing was his first choice, he began looking for a suitable yard and through friends of friends heard about Scudamore, who gave him a job. Murphy-Knight says: “I came for two weeks and I haven’t left.”
Two unplaced rides for his new boss in Flat races and then a hurdle spin gave punters no clue to the talent that was legged up on 16/1 shot Fix At All at Ludlow last month, but they won comfortably, and then returned to the track a week last Monday bidding for a repeat. Murphy-Knight says: “I felt a bit of pressure, because I wanted to do well again, and there were some very experienced riders like Jack Andrews and Darren Andrews in the race.”
Fix At All duly won, but not before his young rider had made a decisive move with three fences to jump, holding his line through a narrowing gap, and showing confidence and skill far beyond his limited experience.
The rider adjudged to have caused the issue was men’s championship leader Jack Andrews, who picked up a careless riding ban of eight days which is active when an amateurs’ race is held under Rules. The ban kicks in after he has ridden Not That Fuisse in today’s Randox Foxhunters’ Chase at Aintree, and he misses just a single point-to-point meeting on April 23. In Andrews’ words: “It could have been a lot worse.”
