John Francome MBE (13 December 1952) is a former National Hunt Champion Jockey, television pundit and author. At sixteen years old he became apprentice to Lambourn trainer Fred Winter and so began his career as a jockey. He rode a total of 1,138 winners, his last being in April 1985. He was Champion Jockey seven times, between 1976 and 1985 and is dubbed the best jockey never to have won the Grand National. After retiring, Francome was awarded the MBE in 1986 for services&n...