Racing lost a great identity with the passing of former jockey, Kevin Mitchell, earlier this week, aged in his early eighties.

Always entertaining he was a master story teller, he could tell a great yarn without cracking it for a smile, most of the stories were fair dinkum.

Mitchell was born in Deniliquin; he came to Melbourne with the view of being apprenticed as a jockey.

He could not have chosen a tougher profession, the country was just getting over six years of war and every stable in Caulfield had two and sometimes three apprentices, all cheap labour, ten bob a week and your keep, although the money didn’t always show up at the end of the week.

Most of his time was served under Basil Conaghan, the stables were on the corner of Station and Bond Streets opposite the main entrance to Caulfield Racecourse.

Conaghan was a character, he was known to be shouting orders out in the street as to how he wanted the horses worked, while lathering up for a shave.

Mitchell might have come up the hard way, however, he was an incredible judge, when he declared a horse would win he was never wrong, his judgement was impeccable.

Huge betting coups were pulled off when riding horses for Harry Slamen, (the black prince) they were a formidable partnership, bookmakers got the shakes when Slamen appeared in the betting ring.

Besides riding for Slamen he also rode successfully for Felipe Ismael, (The Filipino Fireball) the flamboyant punter who was betting as if there was no tomorrow.

When Ismael turned his attention to English racing he sought out Mitchell to come to Newmarket and ride a gallop before he backed the horse that duly won.

Kevin Mitchell rode against the best jockeys that this country has seen, George Moore , Neville Sellwood, Arthur Breasley, Roy Higgings, and host of others too numerous to mention, however, he claims that Darby Munro was the best he had seen, “Darby was in a class of his own,” he said.

His wife, Vilma, passed away last year, she was the daughter of Wally Shipton who rode successfully in Brisbane before coming to Melbourne.

Kevin Mitchell - A great jockey