Career highlights of Desert Crown's jockey Richard Kingscote

Epsom was where it all started for Richard Kingscote. While it might not have been the Derby, it might well have felt like it to the teenager was thrown in the deep end for his very first ride in public, taking on the likes of Frankie Dettori, Johnny Murtagh and Kieran Fallon – all now Derby-winning jockeys themselves – in a conditions race there in August 2004. The value of the race meant that Kingscote, whose mount Famous Grouse finished fourth of the six runners, couldn’t even draw his 7 lb claim.

Kingscote returns to Epsom next week for only his second ride in the Derby when partnering Desert Crown for Sir Michael Stoute. The colt has been favourite for Epsom ever since his convincing win under Kingscote in the Dante Stakes at York (full replay below). That took Desert Crown’s record to two from two after the colt had made an impressive debut under the same jockey at Nottingham last year.

In 2018 Kingscote took his first Derby ride on board Knight To Behold for Harry Dunlop. He too went to Epsom after winning one of the main prep races, the Lingfield Derby Trial, under a well-judged ride from Kingscote who seized the initiative after half a mile or so, Knight To Behold having most of his rivals in trouble on the home turn before staying on strongly in the straight. But at Epsom Knight To Behold had more improvement to find than Desert Crown does this year and ended up beating only one home. Pulling off the same enterprising tactics in the Derby was always going to be a tall order and in the end Knight To Behold forced too strong a pace and was a spent force from early in the straight.

Knight To Behold was a one-dimensional type tactically who was invariably a front runner but Kingscote has more options on his Derby mount this year which can only be a good thing at Epsom. He travelled well under a patient ride at York and produced an immediate response when asked to quicken on the outside of the field.

Kingscote enjoyed his best-ever year in 2021, finishing sixth in the jockeys’ table with 128 winners, maintaining his record of achieving both a century of winners and more than a million pounds in prize money which he has managed each year since 2016, with the exception of the covid-hit 2020 season.

Having had that first ride at Epsom in 2004 for Roger Charlton whom he joined from the British Racing School, Kingscote got off the mark against fellow apprentices in a handicap at Lingfield later that year, riding Maystock for Gerard Butler. Incidentally, among the other jockeys seeking a first career success in the Lingfield race was James Doyle who himself won his first British classic earlier this year on Coroebus in the 2000 Guineas and whom Kingscote will be hoping to emulate at Epsom.

In 2007 Kingscote rode his first winner for Tom Dascombe, beginning a successful association which only ended last year when Kingscote joined Stoute. Kingscote and Dascombe first hit the headlines at the Newmarket July meeting of 2008 when the stable’s cheaply-bought two-year-olds Classic Blade and Firth of Fifth won the July Stakes and Superlative Stakes respectively with Kingscote making all the running on both colts. Another notable two-year-old success for the jockey and trainer came at Royal Ascot in 2012 when Ceiling Kitty won the Queen Mary Stakes; six years later Kingscote rode that filly’s son Arthur Kitt to win the Chesham Stakes at the same meeting.

The best horse Kingscote was associated with during his time at Manor House Stables was also a Royal Ascot winner. Brown Panther ran away with the 2011 King George V Stakes by six lengths, and while Kingscote lost the ride to Kieran Fallon when Brown Panther finished second in the St Leger later in the year, he got it back for good the following season and went on to partner the very smart stayer to another six wins. Those included the Goodwood Cup in 2013 and his first two starts in 2014, the Ormonde Stakes at Chester and the Henry II Stakes at Sandown.

Brown Panther’s career highlight – and Kingscote’s too so far – came in the Irish St Leger later in 2014, a race in which the pair had come off worst in a three-way photo two years earlier. The odds on favourite was the previous season’s St Leger winner Leading Light who had Brown Panther behind him in the Gold Cup earlier in the season but Brown Panther turned the tables under an enterprising ride from Kingscote. He was the only one to keep tabs on the favourite’s pacemaker Eye of The Storm and when that one weakened in the straight Brown Panther was left with a clear advantage over the rest of the field. He kicked clear turning for home to win unchallenged with Leading Light six and a half lengths back in second.

Sadly, tragedy struck Brown Panther in the same race a year later when he broke a leg soon after halfway but he gained one more big win early in 2015 when landing the Dubai Gold Cup on the Dubai World Cup card. That was a notable win for Kingscote because he had only returned to race riding less than two weeks earlier after sustaining multiple injuries, breaking his elbow, wrist and collar bone and puncturing his lungs, in a pile-up at Wolverhampton the previous November.

Kingscote’s other Group 1 winner to date came at the other end of the distance spectrum when he won the Flying Five at the Curragh in 2018 on Havana Grey for Karl Burke. Another sprinter, and one of the best horses Kingscote has ridden, was Kachy who won nine races for Dascombe and was ridden by Kingscote in every one of his starts.

Kingscote’s new association with Stoute supplied him with 22 of his winners in 2021, including Group 3 victories on Ville de Grace and Solid Stone. But Kingscote and Stoute first teamed up to strike in another Group 3 contest back in 2017 when Ballet Concerto won the Superior Mile at Haydock. That gelding, like Solid Stone, carried the blue and yellow colours of Saeed Suhail. The owner has already won one Derby with Kris Kin and Kingscote will be bidding to give him another with Desert Crown back at the course where his career began.

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