Marcus Foley is born and bred racing, his father worked for a very prominent man in National Hunt racing in Captain Radclyffe a close friend of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Therefore he could practically ride before he could walk. And his mother in fact is sure that he was born with a whip in his hand! From the age of 16 he has made rapid stride towards the top of the industry, starting as a point to point jockey he had a winner on his second ride, this was soon followed by the offer of a job as amateur stable jockey to Nicky Henderson one of the UK's leading trainers. On only his second ride under National Hunt rules he had a winner at Folkstone for the Queen Mother on Braes of Mar. This led to the appointment of an agent and a host of trainers joining the queue for his services. He followed up that season to finish third in the amateur jockeys title race and the decision was quickly made to turn professional. He followed this season with even more improvement tiding 50 winners even after a broken collar bone and was crowned Champion Conditional in England collecting 2 'Lesters' as young jockey of the year in consecutive years. Inevitably he soon rode out his claim and in his first year of riding as a professional on level weights with the best jockeys in the industry he won the First National Bank Chase at Ascot, the Tote Scoop Six hurdle at Sandown and the Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury (richest hurdle race in Europe). He has since won several major races in the UK and is also a regular at all the major festivals including Aintree and Cheltenham at which he has also had 2 rides so far in the Grand National. The last 2 years he has suffered with 2 broken arms but is still very highly regarded and injury free is looking forward to booting home many winners in conjunction with ESL and Darren Weeks.
