birth_date honours article_title name occupation
13 december 1952 british best sports pundit 2004 mbe champion jump jockey -lrb- 7 times -rrb- rts john francome
 john francome jockey , author , pundit
john francome

john francome mbe -lrb- 13 december 1952 -rrb- is a former national hunt champion jockey , television pundit and author .
born in swindon , wiltshire , the son of a railway fireman , his family had no connection with the horse racing world .
at sixteen years old he became apprentice to lambourn trainer fred winter and so began his career as a jockey .
he rode a total of 1,138 winners , his last being in april 1985 .
during the course of his career he was champion jockey seven times , between 1976 and 1985 .
francome is the third most successful national hunt jump jockey of all time after tony mccoy -lrb- 19 championships -rrb- and peter scudamore -lrb- 8 championships -rrb- .
he is dubbed the best jockey never to have won the grand national .
after retiring , francome was awarded the mbe in 1986 for services to racing .
he was a trainer for 18 months before becoming a tv presenter for channel 4 's horse racing broadcasts .
like another former jockey , dick francis , francome has taken to writing works of fiction .
his books have featured on the bestseller lists .
francome ceased appearing on channel 4 racing at the close of 2012 when the highflyer production term ended .
he stated in a racing post interview that he had only continued to work on tv for so long out of loyalty to producer andrew franklin .
