Bob Champion Bob Champion Robert Champion MBE (born 4 June 1948) is an English former jump jockey who won the 1981 Grand National on Aldaniti. His triumph, while recovering from cancer, was made into a film "Champions", with John Hurt portraying Champion. The film is based on Champion's book "Champion's Story", which he wrote with close friend and racing journalist and broadcaster Jonathan Powell. Champion was born in Sussex, but very soon after his birth the family moved to Guisborough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. At the height of his career as a jockey, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in
Charlie Cunningham (jockey) Charlie Cunningham (jockey) Charles "Charlie" Cunningham (1849-1906) was a 19th-century Scottish National Hunt jockey, who has been described as "Scotland's greatest jockey". Although he was an amateur throughout his career, he won the Scottish Grand National a record four times (1881, 1885, 1887 and 1889) and also the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup in 1886. He is also one of only two jump jockeys to ride six winners in one day, a feat he achieved at Rugby Hunt on 29 March 1881. In one three-year period, he won 144 out of 276 races. He was unnaturally big for a jockey,