The horse with a taste for human flesh

Greville Starkey’s great victories as a jockey included the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Star Appeal at 119-1. In 1978 he won the Derby and Irish Derby on Shirley Heights and the Oaks and Irish Oaks on Fair Salinia. He was also known for his unerring mimicry of a Jack Russell terrier’s bark, a distinction that once had an airliner’s departure delayed while stewards sought in vain the animal aboard. When he deployed his trick during a celebratory dinner at Quaglino’s, trainer Henry Cecil wrapped a napkin round Starkey’s neck and led him yapping out of the restaurant on all fours.

In races he used it to disconcert his rivals: the Dowager Duchess of Bedford once told me that when her horse Jupiter Island, ridden by Pat Eddery, won the Japan Cup in a bumping battle with the Starkey-ridden Allez Milord, photos showed Starkey’s open mouth turned towards Jupiter Island: ‘He was barking at him to try to put him off.’