Kenneally, John

John Kenneally was born in Co Waterford, Ireland, on August 7, 1934.

John's first mount was, in fact, an old sow called The Bonn.

His parents had a farm near Cappoquin in Co Waterford and John rode the pig bareback. She was, he recalled, a prolific breeder but a right nuisance in the yard and had to be put in a special field.

He began his racing career at the stable of Timmy Hyde, the rider of 1939 Grand National winner Workman. He then spent a short time with the legendary Vincent O'Brien but, aged 18, decided to try his luck in England and found work with a number of trainers including Tom Pettifer, Jack Anthony, John de Moraville and Solly Parker, who gave John his first winner - Evening Paradise at Manchester on Easter Saturday, 1955.

In 1957 he joined the Market Deeping (Peterborough) stables of ex-jockey George Vergette and, by his own admission, made a mistake. The stable jockey at that time was Geoff Mann. When Mann suddenly left, Vergette asked John to become his stable jockey/head lad which meant that he would in future be getting less outside rides: against his better judgement, John agreed.

Still - there were several good horse that Vergette trained, and none better than Purple Silk which John rode to victory at Doncaster in the spring of 1963 as the big freeze began loosening its grip.

Receiving 17 lb from 1961 Grand National winner, Nicolaus Silver, John and Purple Silk drew right away on the run-in to win by eleven lengths. The favourite, Hoodwinked, finished third.

The partnership then tackled the Golden Miller Handicap (Tuesday, 9 April), but were beaten into second by Happy Spring, ridden by R.Vibert.

Later that month (27 April), Purple Silk contested the Whitbread Gold Cup and was allocated 9 st 7 lb.

It was an impossible weight for John to achieve, and Clive Chapman came in for the ride, guiding Purple Silk into second behind Hoodwinked.

Vergette decided that Purple Silk's target should be the following year's Grand National and so it was that John and Purple Silk lined up at Aintree in 1964, quoted at 100/6.

Again, John was unable to do the correct weight of 10 st 

3 lb and weighed out just one pound overweight.

That might not sound a lot over the full National distance but history shows that he was beaten by only half-a-length by Team Spirit.

John's defence was always that if he had wasted further to draw the correct weight, he would have weakened himself even more and possibly not have had the strength to have got as close to the winner as he did.

That autumn John and Purple Silk returned to Aintree, only to come second again, this time to Red Thorn in the Grand Sefton.

John's last ride in the National came in 1967 when aboard 66/1 shot Lucky Domino. They parted company at the nineteenth.

By now John was losing his battle with the scales and decided to call it a day. He tried his luck at training before becoming travelling head lad to David Arbuthnot.

Finally retiring from racing, he became a taxi driver in Newbury.

He died in January 2015, aged 80.