Cannon, Mornington

He won the 1899 Triple Crown on Flying Fox. He could easily have landed a second Triple Crown the next season, but was savaged by the bad-tempered Diamond Jubilee on the gallops and replaced by an inexperienced nineteen-year-old jockey named Herbert Jones whom the horse had taken to. (Together, Diamond Jubilee and Jones galloped into turf history as they landed the Triple Crown.)

Cannon was not the first jockey to have been attacked by Diamond Jubilee. The horse positively loathed Jack Watts, trying to savage him before the Coventry Stakes at Ascot.

Cannon won a total of six classics, his last being in the 1903 Oaks on 

Our Lassie, trained by Charles Morton – the very trainer who had given Cannon sweet money some sixteen years earlier. His last big win came on Zinfandel in the 1905 Ascot Gold Cup. He did not renew his licence after 1907.

In March, 1894, aged 20, he married Nelly Gray Dennett, aged 25.

Cannon, one of the few totally honest jockeys, was a beautiful horseman whose main fault lay in an almost pathological inclination to leave his challenge until the last possible moment and win by as little as possible. His father Tom had the same weakness. Trainer John Porter thought that his runner in the 1901 Derby, William the Third, would have won the race had Cannon not employed such delaying tactics, but records show that the favourite, Volodyovski, won easily enough, despite swerving badly two furlongs out.

Comfortably off and with his weight increasing, he decided to give up riding in June 1909. Throughout his last years in the saddle he had suffered considerably from rheumatism which affected both his legs and arms.

He retired to Hove and survived long enough to see his great nephew Lester Piggott follow in his footsteps as champion jockey. However, largely because of inflation, he became short of money at the end of his long life.

Mornington Cannon was a fine cricketer, a good boxer and took an active interest in athletics.

He died on June 1, 1962, a few days after his 89th birthday.

Speaking in January 1904, Mornington Cannon said:

“When I was fourteen, riding began in earnest and I was apprenticed to my father for seven years. I left school, but we were taught by a tutor each afternoon. At least four hours a day of horseback was the rule, and even after I had begun riding in public, and considered myself no end a big man, the lessons were kept up. Duke of Parma (below), winner of the Cesarewitch in 1875, was my schoolmaster, and the first thoroughbred I ever rode – only, of course, as a hack. The first trial I ever rode in was on Jolly Sir John. Those were well-filled days. Riding trials in the morning, study in the afternoon, and more riding after study. Moreover, we had got together a pack of basset hounds which fully occupied our leisure time. No end of fun did we have with that pack, which still survives in the New Forest under the care of Mr Heseltine, brother of the well-known cricketer. Coraline was my first mount in a race, a five furlong scurry at Kempton Park in 1886. A number of punters backed Coraline thinking that my father would be sure to pick something good for my debut. Alas! I finished last for I had been put on the worst horse in the stable. There was a reason for my father’s action; he purposely selected ‘crocks’ for my first half-dozen races, arguing quite rightly that I must watch others win before I began winning myself. He also thought that jockeys who began by winning were rarely successful afterwards. For many years he forbade me to ride with whip or spurs. My worst fall came in 1887 in the Great Metropolitan Stakes. I was riding Kester and, at Tattenham Corner, was lying second when I struck into The Cob and fell. Woodburn came down on to the top of me and George Chaloner followed suit and landed on top of both of us. They both had something fairly soft to fall on but the unfortunate ‘cushion’ lay there half-stunned. Promptly a mounted policeman galloped, slung me over his shoulder, and took me into custody. Somehow I fell to the ground and into unconsciousness. Both my knees were put out and it was weeks before I rode again.’

Cannon’s two favourite horses were Derby-winning Flying Fox and Eager.

Cannon’s mother was Catherine Day, the daughter of the formidable John Barham Day. Mornington had two had two brothers, Walter Kempton (1871 – 1951) and Tom (1872 -1945).

Cannon’s Triple Crown winner, Flying Fox, was lucky to survive at birth. Its mother - the mare Vampire - was vicious-tempered: after attacking a stable hand she killed her first foal. 

Flying Fox’s luck continued in the 1899 Derby when, ridden by Mornington Cannon, he was strongly tackled by Holocauste who then stumbled, breaking a leg.