Obituary: Geoff Lewis, a great jockey who will forever be remembered for his association with the unforgettable Mill Reef

Geoff Lewis, who has died at the age of 89, was a great jockey who rode Mill Reef in all his races including the Derby, King George and Arc.

The most successful Welsh jockey of all time, Lewis also rode dual Classic winners Right Tack, Altesse Royale and Mysterious, and forged notable partnerships with trainers Ian Balding, John Sutcliffe and Sir Noel Murless.

Although never quite champion jockey, he rode Lorenzaccio to beat Nijinsky in the Champion Stakes, and also numbered Silly Season, Be Friendly, Jimmy Reppin and Prince Regent among the horses who gave him a worldwide score of about 2,000 victories.

Lewis then trained at Epsom for 20 years, his best horse being champion sprinter Lake Coniston.

• 'He was one of the icons of the turf' - Geoff Lewis, who won the Derby and Arc on the great Mill Reef, dies aged 89 

Geoffrey Lewis was born at Talgarth, Brecknockshire, on December 21, 1935. He was the sixth of 13 children – he had nine sisters and three brothers – and his father was a general labourer.

The family moved to Shepherd's Bush, west London after the second world war and Lewis's first job was as a pageboy at the Waldorf Hotel.

At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to Epsom trainer Ron Smyth. His first winner was Eastern Imp at Epsom in April 1953 and he was twice runner-up to Edward Hide in the apprentice championship. Two of his early big-race winners were owned by Sir Winston Churchill – Tudor Monarch (1959 Stewards' Cup) and Vienna (1960 Blue Riband Trial).

Lewis's longest and most significant relationship with any stable started in 1958, when he became first jockey to Peter Hastings-Bass at Kingsclere in Hampshire.

Jockey and trainer struck with St Lucia (1958 Coronation Stakes), Kipling (1960 Gordon Stakes, beating Derby winner St Paddy), King's Troop (1961 Royal Hunt Cup) and Gaul (1963 Jockey Club Cup). Their best horse together was Secret Step, a grey filly who was nearly champion sprinter twice, winning the rich Vernons Gold Cup Handicap at York under top weight in 1962 and the July Cup in 1963.

Hastings-Bass died of cancer in June 1964 aged only 43 and was succeeded at Kingsclere by his assistant Ian Balding. Among the horses in the yard at the time was Silly Season, who went on to win the Dewhurst, St James's Palace, Champion and Lockinge Stakes. He also came second in the 1965 2,000 Guineas, but proved a difficult and frustrating ride.

Secret Step and Silly Season were owned by American plutocrat and anglophile Paul Mellon, and so too were many of Lewis's other Kingsclere mounts, culminating in Mill Reef.

They included Berkeley Springs, who won the Cheveley Park Stakes in 1965 and went on to be second in both the 1,000 Guineas and the Oaks, and Morris Dancer, a remarkably prolific and durable winner who broke the British prize-money record for a gelding on the Flat.

Many of his non-Kingsclere mounts were trained at Epsom, among them Be Friendly, the best sprinter he ever rode. Trained for Peter O'Sullevan by Cyril Mitchell, the colt clinched the 1967 sprint title with victory in the Ayr Gold Cup, and also won the Prix de l'Abbaye in 1968.

Sir Peter O'Sullevan: owned Be Friendly, the best sprinter Geoff Lewis rodeCredit: Alan Crowhurst

Lewis rode two more top-class Epsom colts in 1968 – Jimmy Reppin, who came third to Sir Ivor in the 2,000 Guineas, and Right Tack, who landed the Middle Park Stakes.

The following season he had a retainer from their trainer John Sutcliffe. Jimmy Reppin won the Sussex and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, while Right Tack completed the 2,000 Guineas double at Newmarket and the Curragh and then added the St James's Palace Stakes.

That season he rode Park Top to win the Hardwicke Stakes but received the severest criticism of his career when second on her in the Eclipse. The mare needed to be held up for a late run, and by the time Lewis found a clear passage Wolver Hollow was beyond recall. He was jocked off in favour of Lester Piggott for her victory in the King George.

He won the Irish Derby on French colt Prince Regent, but that link with trainer Etienne Pollet ended when Gyr was disqualified from third place in the Grand Criterium.

• Geoff Lewis: 'I rode some great horses - but there was something different about Mill Reef' 

That season Lewis was runner-up to Piggott in the jockeys' championship with his career-best score of 146. He was again second to Piggott in 1970, when he won the Doncaster Cup on the Balding-trained Magna Carta, the best horse he ever rode for the Queen.

He then caused an upset by leading all the way on Lorenzaccio in the Champion Stakes and beating Nijinsky by a length and a half in the last race of the Triple Crown winner's career.

Lorenzaccio was trained by Noel Murless, who appointed Lewis his stable jockey for 1971 after sacking Sandy Barclay. Crucially, Lewis stipulated that his new retainer allow him to continue riding Mill Reef, on whom he had won the Dewhurst Stakes.

Mill Reef and Geoff Lewis (left) win the 1971 Derby in convincing fashionCredit: Corbis via Getty Images

Mill Reef was the horse of a lifetime, and scored a series of magnificent victories over the next two seasons. Having come second to Brigadier Gerard in the 1971 2,000 Guineas, he triumphed in the Derby and recorded spectacular wide-margin wins in the Eclipse, King George and Arc.

As a four-year-old he added the Prix Ganay and Coronation Cup, but a broken leg on the gallops forced his retirement after 12 wins in 14 races.

Third to Mill Reef in the Eclipse was Welsh Pageant, a top-class miler on whom Lewis had won the Lockinge Stakes.

Later on the afternoon of his disappointment on Mill Reef in the 2,000 Guineas the jockey suffered a fall that for a while put his participation in the Derby in doubt.

However, he bounced back to such effect that he became the only jockey to win all three top races at one Epsom meeting. He followed up Mill Reef's Derby with victories on two Murless fillies – Lupe in the Coronation Cup and Altesse Royale in the Oaks.

• A jockey's nightmare, undisputable champions and the world-beating Mill Reef - six of the best horses associated with Geoff Lewis 

Altesse Royale also won the Irish Oaks, and by the end of the season her stablemate Hill Circus was rated her equal after winning the Sun Chariot Stakes. He also took the Coronation Stakes on Magic Flute.

Lewis benefited from a golden age of Murless-trained fillies, as their number also included Attica Meli, Mysterious, Mil's Bomb and Sauceboat.

Attica Meli was the champion three-year-old filly of 1972, when she won the Yorkshire Oaks and Park Hill Stakes, and she added the Doncaster Cup as a four-year-old.

Mysterious scored wide-margin victories in both the 1,000 Guineas and the Oaks in 1973 before finding Dahlia too good in the Irish Oaks. She then won the Yorkshire Oaks.

During those Murless years Lewis's best winners for other trainers included not only Mill Reef but also Random Shot (Arthur Budgett), who was awarded the 1971 Ascot Gold Cup when Rock Roi failed the drugs test; Sweet Revenge (Atty Corbett) in the Prix de l'Abbaye on the same card as Mill Reef's Arc; and Moulton (Harry Wragg) in the 1973 Benson & Hedges Gold Cup (now Juddmonte International).

Mill Reef and Geoff Lewis enter the winner's enclosure after winning the DerbyCredit: Gerry Cranham (cranhamphoto.com)

He then rode for Bruce Hobbs for three years, with Middle Park winner and 2,000 Guineas runner-up Tachypous the highlight.

He retired from the saddle after winning the Haydock Sprint Cup on Double Form for Fulke Johnson Houghton in 1979. Including a veterans' race in 1983, he rode the winners of 1,880 races in Britain.

Lewis trained at Thirty Acre Barn in Epsom for 20 years from the autumn of 1979, winning 539 domestic races.

He trained Yawa, who gained Group 1 success in the 1983 Grand Prix de Paris and 1984 Premio Roma, and Silver Wisp, who in 1992 came fourth in the 2,000 Guineas and third to Dr Devious in the Derby. The best horse he trained was Lake Coniston, the champion sprinter of 1995 by virtue of a dazzling victory in the July Cup.

With his business losing money, he retired in 1999 and lived in Marbella until returning to Britain in 2014.

Lewis was born the month after Piggott but took much longer to reach the top of his profession. Short and stocky, he never had weight problems and his classical style was reminiscent of that of Sir Gordon Richards.

A keen golfer, he had a stutter but it did not inhibit his fund of stories or short-lived outbursts of temper.

In 1959 he married Noelene, daughter of dual Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jim Munro. They had two children, Gary (who died young) and Marianne.

Geoff Lewis: 1935-2025

Geoff Lewis, who won the Derby and Arc on the great Mill Reef, dies aged 89 

Geoff Lewis: 'I rode some great horses - but there was something different about Mill Reef' 

A jockey's nightmare, undisputable champions and the world-beating Mill Reef - six of the best horses associated with Geoff Lewis