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Tommy Delaney
Article by Chris Pitt
Tommy Delaney, one of four jump jockey brothers, started out with George Beeby at Compton, Berkshire and then went to Chris Benstead at Epsom. He rode his first winner on juvenile hurdler Highwell at Stratford on October 5, 1950 but had to wait over four years for his second.Easily his best season was 1954/55 when he rode six winners from 32 rides. The first two came in Newbury hurdle races on horses trained by George Beeby. The remainder were outside rides, culminating in a Whit Monday double at Huntingdon on selling chaser Bellock and George Spann’s handicap chaser Just Madam.
Having disappointingly drawn a blank in 1955/56, he did at least manage one winner in 56/57, this being on selling chaser Unprepared at Cheltenham on November 15, 1956
Tommy won another Cheltenham selling chase on Unprepared, trained by George Spann at
Russley Park, Wiltshire, in October 1957 and followed up at Huntingdon ten days later. The second of those wins saw his claim reduced from 7lb to 5lb.Tommy’s final winner came on Carrhill in the three-mile one furlong Norton Fitzwarren Handicap Chase at Taunton on March 12, 1960.
The closest he came to winning another race was when finishing second on Damp Rag in the three-mile 190 yards Whittlebury Handicap Chase on the Saturday of Towcester’s 1961 Easter fixture. Ironically he was beaten by his younger brother Peter riding Ace Pot II.
Tommy was a leading light in the Stable Lads’ Association virtually from its formation in 1975, and though he was at one time able to combine its work with his job as head lad to Anthony Johnson, it soon became a full-time occupation.
Tommy Delaney died suddenly on November 14, 1985 at the age of 52. He was commemorated by a plaque erected in his memory at West Oxfordshire Technical College, where Tommy had been a teacher and an examiner for the previous five years. The college ran the country’s only course on the ‘science and practice of stud and stable husbandry’. An annual Tommy Delaney award was also instigated, financed through a memorial fund organised within the college.
His winners, in chronological order, were:
1. Highwell, Stratford-on-Avon, October 5, 1950
2. Oxford Hill, Newbury, December 11, 1954
3. Merchant Prince, Newbury, January 1, 1955
4. Crinivit, Wincanton, April 21, 1955
5. Bellock, Towcester, May 7, 1955
6. Bellock, Huntingdon, May 30, 1955
7. Just Madam, Huntingdon, May 30, 1955
8. Unprepared, Cheltenham, October 15, 1956
9. Unprepared, Cheltenham, October 16, 1957
10. Unprepared, Huntingdon, October 26, 1957
11. Carrhill, Taunton, March 12, 1959
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