Dave Yates explores the troubled life of 13-time Champion Jockey Fred Archer in a new documentary airing on Racing TV this weekend.
Nicknamed The Tin Man, Archer was one of the most famous sportsmen of the Victorian era and won 21 British Classics in his career, including the Derby on five occasions.
Between 1874 and 1886 he was Champion Jockey every year, riding 2748 winners in total including 246 in one season (1885) a record that stood for 48 years until Gordon Richards broke it in 1933.
But delirious from wasting and following the loss of his wife during childbirth, Archer committed suicide at just 29 years of age.
Yates, chief racing correspondent at the Daily Mirror, who wrote and presented the documentary, said: "I’ve had something of a fixation about Fred Archer since I visited the old National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket as a student.
"The gun with which Archer ended his own life was one of the exhibits, and it created quite an impression on me.
"I badgered the management at Racing TV to ask if we could make a documentary about his life and was thrilled when they gave the project the go-ahead.
"As well as Cheltenham, where Archer was born, and Newmarket, where he lived, we filmed round Epsom, where he had no equal in winning five Derbys, and also at the defunct Lewes racecourse, where he had the final rides of his life.
"But perhaps the most informative place was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in London where John Betts, the keeper of the museum, helped me to mix ‘Archer’s mixture’ - the explosive laxative that helped him in his battle against the scales.
"It has been a real labour of love. I hope people enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it."
The documentary airs on Racing TV (Sky channel 426) at 1430 (BST), 1730 and 2030 on Saturday and at 1000 on Sunday.
Hope you like this. It has been a labour of love. https://t.co/BhMWCNi47B
— Dave Yates (@thebedfordfox) May 7, 2020
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