Dick Francis Dead at 89

Posted on February 15, 2010

Retired British jockey and New York Times bestselling author Dick Francis has died at the age of 89.

Had he remained in the racing world as a trainer or thoroughbred expert after retiring from riding in 1957, Dick Francis would have been remembered as one of the most successful jockeys of his era.
Mr. Francis, who died Sunday at age 89, would also be remembered as the jockey who spectacularly managed to lose in the 1956 Grand National, Great Britain's most famous steeplechase. A photograph of him within a whisker of the finish line, aboard Queen Elizabeth's horse Devon Loch, flat on its belly with four legs helplessly splayed out, is one of racing's strangest images. To "do a Devon Loch" is a still a byword for losing a race from a seemingly unassailable position.
But the disaster actually helped launch Mr. Francis's subsequent career as a journalist and then as horse racing's most eloquent writer of thrillers. Almost all his books became international best-sellers, and they made Mr. Francis a wealthy man.

Dick Francis was also a devoted husband who wrote many of his books with his wife. After she died, he nearly stopped writing.

After the death in 2000 of Mary Francis, his wife of 53 years and a close collaborator on his books, Mr. Francis expressed doubts that he would ever write another novel. "She was the moving force behind my writing," he said. "I don't think I shall write again other than letters now. So much of my work was her."
Indeed, he didn't write another novel until Under Orders in 2006. That novel brought back Sid Halley, the retired steeplechase jockey who was his champion sleuth.

Francis lived an extraordinary life: he was a fighter and bomber pilot in World War II. As a jockey, he won more than 350 races. He was champion jockey in 1953-1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

At the age of only 36 he retired because of injuries started a new career, first as a journalist and eventually as a beloved mystery author. There are 60 million of his books in print. He will be greatly missed; our condolences to his family and friends.