Samuel Chifney

Samuel Chifney (c. 1753 – 8 January 1807), also known as Sam Chifney Sr., Sam Chifney the Elder or Old Sam Chifney and, entering Foxe's stables at Newmarket Racecourse in 1770, soon learned the rudiments of horse racing. He said of himself, "In 1773 I could ride horses in a better manner in a race to beat others than any other person ever known in my time, and in 1775 I could train horses for running better than any person I ever yet saw. Riding I learnt myself and training I learnt from Mr. Richard Prince, training groom to Lord Foley". In 1787 he rode for the Duke of Bedford, and two years later won The Derby on Skyscraper for the Duke. For Lord Grosvenor he won The Oaks on Ceres in 1782, and on Maid of the Oaks in 1783.

In 1789 Chifney rode the winners of both the Derby and the Oaks, riding Skyscraper to victory in the Derby for the Duke of Bedford and Tagg for Lord Egremont in the Oaks, becoming the first man to ride the double. The next year he won the Oaks again, riding Hypolita for the Duke of Bedford.

Few people liked Chifney, many regarding him as an "arrogant little upstart" from Norfolk. He was also known to be something of a dandy, to an extent that bordered on the effeminate, with hair flowing out from the front of his cap, ruffs and frills on his clothing and bunches of ribbons on his boots. This self-confidence and attitude distinguished him as "the first professional jockey as we understand the term", although added to this, he had a reputation for dishonesty – "he dressed like a mannequin, nurtured an ego the size of a house and was as bent as a paper clip."

Riding style Chifney was an instinctive horseman, whose considered approach contrasted with the untutored 'grooms' who had come before him. He is widely considered to have transformed race-riding, "from a ritual slogging match, to a mounted chess game."

Chifney's style of riding was to keep a slack rein – a method which has never found much favour, but which in his case was successful. He wrote that when pulling up, one should never jerk the mouth of the horse, doing it "as if you had a silken rein, as fine as a hair, and you were afraid of breaking it" and that the horse "should be enticed to ease himself an inch at a time, as his situation will allow." At Guildford for the King's Plate, he was given a heavy bridle for the horse Knowsley, a notoriously hard puller. He is reported to have said, "take away that silly gimcrack and bring me a plain snaffle." He won easily that day, and again at Winchester subsequently. On Eagle, an idle horse that he advised the Duke of Dorset to buy from Sir Frank Standish, he ran in the King's Plate at Newmarket. Standish was so sure that no-one could get the best out of the horse, that he advised Dorset not to back him "for a halfpenny." Chifney responded saying, "I'll let Sir Frank Standish see whether I can get him out or not and what's more, I'll neither use whip nor spur to him." The horse won by a neck, with neither whip nor spur, as Chifney had said.

Another favoured tactic of Chifney's was easing the load on a horse's back by constantly adjusting his seat throughout a race. "Suppose a man had been carrying a stone in one hand, would he not find much ease by shifting it into the other?" he himself argued.

Most distinctively, Chifney was also one of the first to ride a waiting race, coming towards the finish with a tremendous rush. In fact, the idea of saving a horse for a late run became known as the 'Chifney rush'. Chifney's manner of riding has been described thus: "He approached a race as if it were a piece of music, playing it slow and quiet until coming at the end with a beautifully modulated crescendo, sweeping past his one-paced rivals." He was considered the best horseman of his time; at tall, he could ride at 7 stone 12 pounds – – reducing from his natural weight of 9 stone 5 pounds during the summer.

He was regarded by fellow jockey, Frank Buckle, as a "model of perfection". He had hoped the Jockey Club might fund the bit, saying, "if the Jockey Club will be pleased to give me 200 guineas, I will make them a bridle as I believe never was, and I believe never can be, excelled, for their light weights to hold horses from running away." The Jockey Club never took up the offer, and in connection with his bit he became indebted to a saddler named Latchford for £350. He was committed to Fleet Prison for the debt, and died there aged 52 on 8 January 1807. Chifney is buried at St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate, Holborn.

Family Chifney married the daughter of Newmarket trainer Frank Smallman. They had two sons, both well known, and four daughters. The elder son, William Chifney (born at Newmarket in 1784), became a trainer at Newmarket. On 31 May 1803 he publicly thrashed Lieutenant-Colonel George Leigh (an equerry to the Prince of Wales) for accusing his father of cheating during the Escape case. For that assault, he was imprisoned for six months in Cambridge. He died in Pancras Square, Pancras Road, London on 14 October 1862.

Chifney's younger son, Samuel, was born in 1786. He also became jockey to the Prince of Wales, first riding for him at the Stockbridge meeting in 1802. He also used the slack-rein technique originated by his father and 'the Chifney rush'. He was five times winner of the Oaks, twice of the Derby and once, aged 57, of the 1,000 Guineas.

One of his daughters married the royal trainer William Butler (c. 1783–1827), and became the mother of the well-known jockey Frank Butler, another married a Mr Weatherby of Newmarket.