My dad and grandad were legendary jockeys – now I’m making my own way in racing

IF your dad and grandad are iconic jockeys and your great-grandfather won the Grand National, chances are you’re going to be pretty good at riding horses.

Step forward Margot Scudamore, who boasts an almost impossibly good racing pedigree.

She might still be seeking her first winner after only six rides.

But if history is anything to go on then it’s likely we’ll be hearing a lot of her name in future.

Margot’s dad is Cheltenham Festival hero Tom.

He rode ten winners at jump racing’s biggest meeting including an awesome Stayers’ Hurdle triumph on Thistlecrack in 2016 – the same year they teamed up to win the King George.

While Peter was champion jumps jockey eight times and pipped his son to 13 winners at Cheltenham.

He nearly won it all, including four Welsh Grand Nationals and two Scottish Grand Nationals.

But famously couldn’t get his hands on the Aintree version despite being closely associated with winners Miinnehoma and Little Polveir throughout his career.

We have to go back to Michael, Margot’s great-grandad, for a Grand National winner in the family.

He rode in the world’s most famous race 16 years in a row and won it on Oxo in 1959.

So, high standards for Margot, but to her credit she’s taking it one step at a time and learning all she can from her family.

In a wonderful interview with Sun Racing columnist Matt Chapman on Sky Sports Racing, Margot said: “I was always going to be a jockey.

“I was put on a horse before I could walk and it was the idea from the get-go really.

“This is the plan and hopefully I can just follow in dad’s and grandad’s footsteps.”

If you have heard the name Margot Scudamore before then don’t be surprised.

She made headlines aged 14 in the 2021 Cheltenham Festival when then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson granted her permission to watch her dad race during term time.

Johnson stepped in after her letter went viral online, ultimately sending a directive to Chulmleigh Community College headmaster Michael Johnson.

Scudamore said: “Margot and her sister Myrtle were told to see the headmaster. They were told they were not in trouble but still not quite believing that when they went to his office.

“But the headmaster said, ‘I have had a phone call from the Prime Minister and we have come to an arrangement’.

“He said he had told the PM her lockdown work had been good and her teachers were all happy for her to watch me. Margot was shaking!”

Hopefully she’ll have her own fans watching her at the home of jumps in the near future.

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