Grand National winning jockey, ITV Racing voice, and Cheltenham's most quotable storyteller
Horse RacingMick Fitzgerald once said that winning the Grand National was 'better than sex'. Three decades later, nobody has come up with a better line.
The Irish jockey rode over 1,300 winners in a 20-year career that ended with a heavy fall at Aintree in 2008. Before then he had been one of the most successful and charismatic jump jockeys in the country: champion Cheltenham Festival winners, the 1996 Grand National on Rough Quest for his long-time partner trainer Nicky Henderson, two Queen Mother Champion Chase wins on Call Equiname and Moscow Flyer, and a reputation as a horseman of real judgement as well as courage.
Since retiring he has become the face and voice of ITV Racing, a fixture at every major jumps meeting from Cheltenham to Aintree to Sandown. His enthusiasm is infectious, his analysis is sharp, and his storytelling is legendary across the racing community. He is also a regular on Sky Sports Racing and a director of several National Hunt syndicates.
Fitzgerald is one of those rare sportspeople who is just as entertaining off the course as on it. He has appeared annually at Steam's February racing event, usually the week after the Festival, and always packs the room with traders, trainers and jump racing obsessives who come for the inside track and leave with sore sides.
At Steam Wine Bar, Fitzy brings the Festival, the Grand National, and the kind of untellable stories that only a man who has fallen off horses for a living at 30 miles an hour can tell.
Two decades of world class speakers in the basement at EC3. Want to book Mick Fitzgerald or someone like them? Tell us what you need and we will come back with a plan.
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