Tributes paid to respected Birch, the jockey who could tame '˜tearaway' Sea Pigeon

Birch, who was 67, enjoyed a 30-year association with Peter Easterby before becoming assistant trainer to Hambleton-based Kevin Ryan.

As a jockey, the Oldham-born rider joined Easterby as an 18-year-old apprentice and won eight races on Sea Pigeon, including two Chester Cups.

Though he was not aboard the horse for his famous Ebor triumph in 1979, and two subsequent Champion Hurdle wins, Easterby was full of praise for Birch’s horsemanship.

“He made Sea Pigeon. The horse was a tearaway when I first got him, but Mark settled him down at home eventually,” said Easterby.

In Bill Curling’s acclaimed book, The Sea Pigeon Story, Birch explained how he managed to control the greatest dual purpose of all.

“We found with Sea Pigeon when he first came to us that if he was close to other horses at exercise, he always wanted to beat them and pulled like hell,” he said.

“After a time I used to keep him away from the horses he was working with and start eight or 10 lengths behind. When he was well behind, he used to start to relax and I would come up to the others in the last two furlongs.”

This explained why Sea Pigeon always had to be produced late, most notably during his Cheltenham triumphs in 1980 and 1981.

Birch recorded his first ever victory aboard Easterby’s Bollin Charlotte in July 1968 while his 1,000th came courtesy of the filly’s son Bollin Patrick.

The North’s leading rider on countless occasions, Birch did win an Ebor in 1981 courtesy of the Jeremy Hindley-trained Protection Racket.

Birch retired from race-riding in 1998 and helped Ryan establish himself as a successful trainer.

Ryan said: “Mark’s been with me from the very start. He was a big part of what we’ve done. It’s a very sad day.”

Malcolm Jefferson cannot wait to make up for lost time with Cyrus Darius when the highly-regarded horse resumes his steeplechasing career.

The winner of a Grade Two novice hurdle at Aintree’s 2015 Grand National meeting, the seven-year-old has not raced since making a winning debut over fences at Perth in September last year.

The horse picked up an injury during the race and missed the rest of the season before the planned comeback was put on hold by the recent dry spell.

However, Malton-based Jefferson has identified a graduation chase at Haydock on November 18 as a possible target.

“I’ve always said he was going to be a chaser,” said the trainer. “We desperately need some rain though, we haven’t been able to school on the grass or anything but he’s been working away.”

Meanwhile Cloudy Dream, last season’s Scottish Champion Hurdle runner-up makes a chasing debut at Carlisle today.

“Trevor (Hemmings) likes his chasers and so do I, in truth. He was unlucky up at Ayr but you can’t go back and do it again, can you? Touch wood, he jumps very well,” said Jefferson.