View source for Richard Pitman

{{Short description|British jockey}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox horseracing personality
|name  = Richard Pitman
|native_name        =
|image =
|caption  =
|occupation  = [[Jockey]] (retired) and [[horse racing]] [[Sports commentator|commentator]] with the [[BBC]] (retired)
|birth_place =
|birth_date  =  {{Birth date and age|df=y|1943|1|21}}
|death_date  =
|height =
|career wins  = 427
|race  = [[Bet365 Gold Cup|1970 Whitbread Gold Cup]]<br />[[Ladbrokes Trophy|1972 Hennessy Gold Cup]]<br />[[Gainsborough Chase|1972 Gainsborough Chase]]<br />[[Pendil Novices' Chase|1972 Galloway Braes Novices' Chase]]<br />[[King George VI Chase|1972 King George VI Chase]]<br />[[King George VI Chase|1973 King George VI Chase]]<br />[[Champion Hurdle|1974 Champion Hurdle]]
|awards =
|honours  =
|horses  = [[Lanzarote (horse)|Lanzarote]]<br />[[Pendil]]<br />
[[Crisp (horse)|Crisp]]
|
}}
'''Richard Thomas Pitman''' (born 21 January 1943) is a retired British jump [[jockey]] who rode 427 winners in his career, including [[Lanzarote (horse)|Lanzarote]] in the 1974 [[Champion Hurdle]]. He won the [[King George VI Chase]] at [[Kempton Park Racecourse]] twice, the [[Bet365 Gold Cup|Whitbread Gold Cup]] once and the [[Hennessy Gold Cup]] once.
Pitman is also remembered for coming a close second in the [[1973 Grand National]] on [[Crisp (horse)|Crisp]] to [[Red Rum]] ridden by [[Brian Fletcher]]. He joined the [[BBC TV]] racing team in 1975. As an author, he has written seven racing novels and five non-fiction books.
Pitman married [[Jenny Pitman|Jenny]] in 1965 and they had two sons, Mark and Paul. In 1968 they bought a horse training yard at [[Hinton Parva, Wiltshire|Hinton Parva]], near Swindon, which Jenny operated as a place of recuperation for injured horses; Richard's prize money from riding Steel Bridge into second place at the [[1969 Grand National]] enabled them to build a house there. They moved to the Weathercock House yard at [[Lambourn]] in 1976, which Jenny continued to run after the end of their marriage in 1977.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pitman |first=Jenny |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yB4L5LMFE1EC |title=Jenny Pitman: The Autobiography |publisher=Transworld |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4464-9793-7 |pages=68, 82, 85 |author-link=Jenny Pitman}}</ref>
Their son Mark was also a jockey, his most notable success being in the 1991 Cheltenham Gold Cup on [[Garrison Savannah (horse)|Garrison Savannah]], a horse trained by Jenny Pitman. Mark became a trainer in his own right upon his retirement.
==Bibliography==
Pitman has written many books on the subject of horse racing. All have been co-authored with Joe McNally apart from ''Fit for a Queen'' and ''Good Horses Make Good Jockeys'', including:
* ''Warned Off (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 1)'' {{ISBNT|978-0340562918}}
* ''Hunted (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 2)'' {{ISBNT|978-0340586440}}
* ''Blood Ties (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 3)'' {{ISBNT|978-1490315645}}
* ''Running Scared (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 4)'' {{ISBNT|978-1489558015}}
* ''The Third Degree (The Eddie Malloy Series Book 5)'' {{ISBNT|978-0340695043}}
* ''Bet Your Life'' {{ISBNT|978-0750524452}}
* ''Joseph’s Mansions'' {{ISBNT|978-0006514503}}
* {{cite book|title =Fit for a Queen|isbn=978-1874645214|last1=Pitman|first1=Richard|year=1995}}
* {{cite book|title=Good Horses Make Good Jockeys|isbn=978-0720709117|last1=Pitman|first1=Richard|year=1976}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/2888811.stm/ Grand National guide by Pitman on BBC Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040626232505/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/2888811.stm |date=26 June 2004 }}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitman, Richard}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:English jockeys]]
[[Category:British horse racing writers]]
[[Category:BBC sports presenters and reporters]]
[[Category:1943 births]]
{{England-horseracing-bio-stub}}