Champion Charlie

Charlie Swan has been Ireland's champion jump jockey for each of the past eight seasons and has ridden more National Hunt winners in Ireland than any other jockey in history. He holds the Irish records for the most winners in a season and the most in a calendar year. He has twice been leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival and he has a string of big race victories to his credit including the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Irish Grand National, two Whitbread Gold Cups and the Irish Champion Hurdle. This book relates how Swan had to struggle in his early years as an apprentice - literally so when he was hefting muck sacks so heavy he had to get somebody to load them on to his shoulder. The book reveals the offers made to him by leading English trainers Martin Pipe and Nicky Henderson, and why Swan turned them down. It recounts the mental tortures suffered by his wife every time he rides in a race, and the terrible physical toll taken by his repeatedly broken arms which look like something out of a medical text book. Telling the life story of a brave and brilliant jockey, the book also reveals the aims and ambitions of the trainers with whom Swan has been most closely associated, as well as their setbacks and disappointments. Names like Edward O'Grady, Tom Foley and Aidan O'Brien are brought to life.