Grand National-winning rider Michael Scudamore, patriarch of the Scudamore racing dynasty, has died at the age of 81.
Father of champion jumps jockey Peter and grandfather of top rider Tom and trainer Michael, Scudamore won the world’s greatest steeplechase at Aintree on Oxo in 1959.
He won many of National Hunt’s major prizes including the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Linwell in 1957, the 1956 King George VI Chase on Rose Park and the Welsh Grand National on Creeola II in 1957.
Scudamore rode his first winner at Chepstow in 1949 and his last ride was at Wolverhampton in 1966.
Following his retirement from the saddle he took out a trainer’s licence in Herefordshire and one of his biggest wins came with Bruslee in the Mackeson Gold Cup at Cheltenham in 1974.
He last held a licence in 2008 when he handed over to his grandson Michael in April of that year with the young Scudamore recently training Welsh National winner Monbeg Dude.
Tom Scudamore paid tribute to his grandfather on Twitter.
“He was the original and the best. I wish I was half the jockey and most importantly half the man. Respected and loved by all who knew him. ‘Keep a leg either side and keep on kicking’ Michael Scudamore RIP,” he said.
