Richard Thomas Pitman (born 21 January 1943) is a retired British jump jockey who rode 427 winners in his career, including

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

in the 1974

Champion Hurdle The Champion Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run on the Old Course at Cheltenham over a ...

. He won the King George VI Chase at

Kempton Park Racecourse Kempton Park Racecourse is a horse racing track together with a licensed entertainment and conference venue in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England, 16 miles south-west of Charing Cross, London and on a border of Greater London. The site has ...

twice, the Whitbread Gold Cup once and the

Hennessy Gold Cup /Ladbrokes Trophy The Coral Gold Cup is a Premier Handicap National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run ...

once. Pitman is also remembered for coming a close second in the 1973 Grand National on Crisp to

Red Rum Red Rum (3 May 1965 – 18 October 1995) was a champion Thoroughbred steeplechaser. He achieved an unmatched historic treble when he won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, and also came second in the two intervening years, 1975 and ...

ridden by

Brian Fletcher Brian Fletcher (18 May 1947 – 11 January 2017) was an English jockey known for riding the horse Red Rum to win the Grand National in 1973 and 1974 and for second place in 1975. He first won the Grand National at the age of 20, in 1968 ridin ...

. He joined the

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

racing team in 1975. As an author he has written seven racing novels and five non-fiction books. He was married to

Jenny Pitman Jenny may refer to: * Jenny (given name), a popular feminine name and list of real and fictional people * Jenny (surname), a family name Animals * Jenny (donkey), a female donkey * Jenny (gorilla), the oldest gorilla in captivity at the time of ...

; they divorced in 1977. Their son,

Mark Pitman Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

, was also a jockey - his most notable success being a famous victory in the 1991 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Garrison Savannah, a horse trained by Jenny Pitman. Mark became a trainer in his own right upon his retirement.

Bibliography

Pitman has written many books on the subject of horse racing. All have been co-authored with Joe McNally apart from ''Fit for a Queen'' and ''Good Horses Make Good Jockeys'', including: * ''Warned Off (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 1)'' * ''Hunted (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 2)'' * ''Blood Ties (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 3)'' * ''Running Scared (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 4)'' * ''The Third Degree (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 5)'' * ''Bet Your Life'' * ''Joseph’s Mansions'' * *

External links

Grand National guide by Pitman on BBC Online
Living people English jockeys British horse racing writers and broadcasters BBC sports presenters and reporters 1943 births {{England-horseracing-bio-stub