A name that possibly only the most ardent horse racing enthusiast will be familiar with, Fred Archer was, without a doubt, an icon of his time.

Born in Cheltenham, Archer was apprenticed to the legendary trainer, Matthew Dawson at only 11 years of age; no doubt, the reputation of his father William (a Grand National-winning jockey), being a key influence of this decision.

Operating out of Heath House, Newmarket, Archer had to learn quickly and that he did. Indeed, his first winner came when he was just 12 years old.

There was no doubting his talent, a lot of which appeared to have been passed down to him by his father and when he was just 17, he won the 2,000 Guineas on Atlantic, which sparked the start of a decade of dominance in the saddle.

Early on, he was given the nickname, “Tinman”, reportedly because of his love of tin (money), though it later came to represent his iron-willed competitiveness.

Statistics Unsurpassed

Such was his complete dominance, Archer was the British Champion Jockey for 13 consecutive years (1874-1886), while in 1885, he rode 246 winners; a record that stood for 48 years, until it was beaten by the brilliant Sir Gordon Richards, who rode significantly more races per season.

During his career as a jockey, Archer rode 2,748 winners from 8,084 rides, representing a strike rate of over 34 percent. Indeed, in modern racing, a strike rate of 20 percent is considered to be elite which means that Archer’s strike rate was statistically staggering.

Archer also had a prolific British Classics record, riding 21 winners, which included five Epsom Derby victories, including on Silvio (1877) and Bend Or (1880), with these in particular being regarded as masterclasses. His finish on the latter where he snatched victory in the final strides is still regarded as one of the most famous in Epsom history.

Staggering Stature

Standing at 5’10”, Archer was considered exceptionally tall for a jockey and before modern nutrition he endured constant battles to stay under the maximum required weight of 8 stone 10 Ibs. Archer developed his own extreme techniques in order to do this, often spending hours in Turkish baths and starving himself; a physical toll that is understood to have major mental effects in his later life.

In 1884, Archer suffered a great personal loss after his wife Helen (daughter of Dawson) died in childbirth and he never fully recovered from the grief. In November 1886, his condition worsened, weakened by extreme wasting, depression and a high fever (understood to be typhoid), Archer fell into a state of delirium.

At only 29, at the height of his fame he took his own life with a revolver, with the news causing a national day of mourning in Victorian Britain, comparable to the death of a Royal.

It is said that to this day, local legend claims that on a misty morning at Newmarket, Archer’s ghost mounted on a light grey horse can be seen galloping across the Heath.