Liam Treadwell

On April 4th 2009 Liam Treadwell came out of the woodwork as a first time Grand National jockey and went on to stun the racing world by riding to victory on Mon Mone, the 100/1 rank outsider.

Over 70,000 watched on from the Aintree crowd, but few of them had actually backed him despite the fact that the horse had finished 10th in 2008.

As a jockey, Treadwell had spent seven years, from the age of 16, trying to make a breakthrough in the racing world, first taking on the flats and then moving to hurdles and steeplechase courses. Treadwell, 23, is a consummate professional which shone through in 2009 and thankfully the win was not a once-off. He also won the United House Gold Cup at Ascot at the end of October on The Last Derby, at odds of 33-1 when he won the race by five lengths, proving too strong for fellow contenders Aimigayle and Shining Gale.

Treadwell comes from a racing family with his father being a work-rider and stablehand at John Dunlop’s Arundel yard for the last 20 years, while his mother still works there part-time. He began his career by riding point-to-pointers for Nick Gifford but at 8 stone was too light so became an apprentice on the Flat for Amanda Perett and Dandy Nicholls. Ironically, he then became too heavy, but says that he always knew in the long-term that he was going to end up jumping.

At the point where he could have given up he got the call that changed his career and got him back on the winning track when Nick Gifford asked him to ride his horses in 2008.