Ron Lawson
Article by Chris Pitt
Ronald Ellis Lawson was born in 1925. He was apprenticed to Walter Easterby at Tadcaster, in Yorkshire and enjoyed an early share of success, quickly riding out his 7lb claim. He made a bright start to 1948 when winning on Lord Fitzwilliam’s Liberty Light at Lincoln’s opening of season meeting in March, later winning on that same horse at Haydock in July. He rode as a freelance after completing his apprenticeship in 1949 but found winners hard to come by without the benefit of a claim.
He had one winner from just three mounts in 1950, that being Chateau Sorciere at Brighton. He relinquished his British jockey’s licence at the end of 1951 and rode for the next three years in Ireland where he again achieved a fair measure of success, particularly in 1952 when his winners included the Gallinule Stakes on Windy Torrent. He also finished third on Windy Torrent in that year’s Irish 2,000 Guineas and rode him in the Irish Derby, finishing seventh.
Ron returned to Britain in 1955, settled in Oxfordshire and rode on the Flat until 1966, mostly for Compton-based trainers such as Ken Cundell, Atty Corbett and George Beeby, but never rode more than two winners in a year.
His final success, on the Beeby-trained Intriguing in the Mountain Ash Maiden Plate for two-year-olds at Chepstow on May 23, 1961, was gained in the stewards’ room, after Snowy Fawdon’s mount King Card had passed the post three-quarters of a length in front of Intriguing, only to be disqualified for boring and placed second.
Ron Lawson died in Gorleston Hospital, near Great Yarmouth on July 27, 1993, aged 67.
His British winners post-1950 were:
Chateau Sorciere, Brighton, August 9, 1950
Happy Glow, Worcester, July 9, 1955
Mend-a-Tear, Brighton, September 21, 1955
Catherine, Worcester, April 21, 1956
Concrete (dead-heat), Birmingham, May 21, 1956
Blue Orchid, Worcester, June 29, 1957
Musical March, Warwick, July 4, 1958
Wild Cat, Bath, August 13, 1959
Wild Cat, Folkestone, August 24, 1959
Intriguing, Chepstow, May 23, 1961