One of racing’s most recognisable amateur riders, David Maxwell, has been forced to quit the sport on doctor’s advice.
The 47-year-old property developer’s final ride came in a hunters’ chase at Stratford in May on the Harry Derham-trained Joker De Mai, not realising he had incurred a fracture in his back when falling on the same horse in the previous month’s Randox Foxhunters’ Chase.
The son of licensed Irish trainer Jeremy Maxwell, David took his first steps into race riding in 2005 via Britain’s point-to-point circuit. After a couple of placed efforts he opened his account at Aldington in May of that year when winning a novice riders’ race on the Tara Pitman-trained Gladtoknowyou.
The following season he formed what was to prove a successful partnership with former trainers Kim and Giles Smyly, and in April 2007 rode in his first hunters’ chase when partnering Dante Citizen. Trained by the Smylys, the gelding was owned by Maxwell, who partnered his own horses more or less exclusively throughout his time in the saddle. The most successful was Noakarad De Verzee, who between 2007 and 2014 won 13 times under his owner, and provided him with a first hunters’ chase success when scoring at Uttoxeter in May 2009.
David Maxwell riding Noakarad De Verzee, his most successful point-to-pointer (photo: Jackie Oliver)
In an interview during that period Maxwell said his ambition was “to beat Richard Burton in the men’s championship” and “ride a treble at Cheltenham’s hunters’ chase meeting”. He failed to achieve either, but his infectious enthusiasm for horses and racing was not dimmed, and with 75 winners under rules he achieved more than many amateurs.
In recent years he focussed on riding under rules, placing his horses with some of Britain’s top licensed trainers, although he had a single point-to-point spin last season at Higham. He won the now-former champion hunters’ chase riders’ championship in 2018 (tied with Lorcan Williams on six wins), in 2019 with eight wins and again in the Covid-affected 2019/20 season with four victories.
Maxwell rode in 132 point-to-points and scored 40 winners, recording a season’s best of nine victories in 2006/07, and he gained another 37 wins in British hunters’ chases from 146 rides, although his biggest success in that sphere came under a typical Maxwell drive when riding the Paul Nicholls-trained Bob And Co to a narrow victory in the 2021 Champion Hunters’ Chase at the Punchestown Festival. Another highlight was finishing sixth in last year’s Grand National on Ain’t That A Shame.