Joe Mercer OBE

British racing has lost one of its greatest figures with the passing of former champion jockey Joe Mercer OBE at the age of 86.   Joseph Mercer was one of two brothers, born in Bradford in Yorkshire, who lit up Britain's apprentice ranks in the decade after the Second World War. The elder brother Emmanuel 'Manny' Mercer served his apprenticeship in Newmarket with George Colling and created such a good impression (most obviously by riding the 100/1 winner of the 1947 Lincolnshire Handicap, Jockey Treble, aged only 17) that Major...