Jennings, Tommy

Tommy Jennings

Article by Chris Pitt

Tommy Jennings was born in Co. Wexford, Ireland on January 4, 1936, and was apprenticed to Major Fred Sneyd. His scored the first of 69 winners ridden on Widello at Chepstow on March 7, 1959.He rode mostly over hurdles but progress was slow – it took him seven seasons to amass just 17 winners. He turned the corner in the 1965/66 season, riding nine winners including a big race success on Fulke Walwyn’s Beau Caprice in Division 1 of the Gloucestershire (now Supreme Novices’) Hurdle at the 1966 Cheltenham NH Meeting. Beau Caprice did not begin his racing career under NH Rules until the age of eleven. Tommy won on him twice at Wincanton, in November 1965 and February 1966, before guiding the by then 12-year-old Beau Caprice to a remarkable victory in one of the season’s most important novice hurdle events.

Also that season he teamed up with the best horse he rode, Walwyn’s top-class hurdler Sempervivum, finishing second in Newbury’s Schweppes Gold Trophy. The following season, 1966/67, they won the National Spirit Challenge Trophy at Fontwell but Tommy then experienced the biggest disappointment of his career with the first flight fall of Sempervivum (who was normally a brilliant jumper) in the Champion Hurdle.

The 1967/68 campaign saw Tommy and Sempervivum win at Windsor in January, finish third – to Persian War and Major Rose, no less – in the Schweppes, then place fourth behind Persian War in the Champion Hurdle. They were third to Persian War in that season’s Welsh Champion Hurdle at Chepstow and third also in Taunton’s Melody Man Cup.

The story behind the Melody Man Cup, incidentally, dates back to 1940. French wine importer Major M. A. J. Rihal escaped with British troops from Dunkirk, joined the British army on his arrival here and did part of his training at Taunton. He formed an intense liking for the area and made up his mind to come back and win a race at Taunton. After 23 years he achieved this ambition to some effect, for in 1963 his Melody Man broke the course record when winning at the Somerset track. Rihal donated a trophy to be run thereafter in memory of his horse.

Having failed to achieve double figure tallies in any of his previous ten years as a jockey, Tommy enjoyed a banner season in 1968/69 with a total of 20 winners. They included the Walwyn-trained Mugatpura, who, having won a lowly handicap hurdle on Newton Abbot’s Easter Monday card, stepped up to win the Scottish Champion Hurdle 12 days later.

Tommy rode eight winners in 1969/70 but only two the following season, both on handicap hurdler Indigo Jones, at Taunton on January 21 and

Fontwell on March 3, 1971. Ironically, it was Indigo Jones who was responsible for ending Tommy’s career two months later when taking a crashing fall in the Silverstone handicap Hurdle at Towcester on Whit Monday, May 31, 1971 (right).That fall, plus the cumulative effect of nearly 100 others during his 12-year career, caused Tommy’s retirement on medical grounds. He suffered from brain damage and high blood pressure and was told by doctors one more fall could be fatal. He wasn’t even allowed to school over jumps or ride yearlings.

Shortly after Tommy’s retirement had been announced, Upper Lambourn trainer Richard Head wrote a letter to the Sporting Life in praise of the former jockey: “Tommy represented the majority of National Hunt jockeys who must more or less accept any ride that comes their way. He accepted all rides with the utmost enthusiasm and good humour, which he readily imparted to the horses that he rode. He would always ‘give a horse a good ride’.”

Head concluded: “Despite the triumphs and the disasters, Tommy would always be back for more with his natural enthusiasm and optimism unimpaired. He will be missed, I am sure, in the jockeys’ changing rooms and certainly by the many people for whom he rode.”

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