There’s a spectacular picture (left) of jockey Adrian Major flying through the air having been ejected by his mount Latch Key at Plumpton in February 1962. Amazingly he walked away unscathed and rode a winner on Vain-Wax an hour later.Adrian Ambrose Major was born on August 23, 1938. He began his riding career as an amateur and rode his first winner on Prosody at Wincanton on March 12, 1959. Prosody also provided him with his only other winner that season, scoring at Buckfastleigh on May 16.

He rode only one winner the following season, Gypsy Warning at Taunton on April 28, 1960.

He turned professional during the 1960/61 season and rode for Neville Dent, who trained at Brockenhurst, in Hampshire. He notched his first as a professional on Ann, trained by Dent, at Worcester on March 14, 1961.

The following campaign, 1961/62, was by far his most successful, riding 13 winners from 123 rides, five of those winners being for Dent, five for Doug Marks and three for Albert Piper. He rounded off a good season with a double at Newton Abbot on Dent’s Oh Johnny and Marks’ Clever Cobbler.

At that stage it looked as though he would progress to become a successful NH jockey but, alas, the fates dictated otherwise. His riding career was over before the end of the following season, an eleventh fence fall on a horse named Staff College at Stratford on 27 April 1963 resulting in severe head injuries which necessitated his retirement.

The two best horses he rode were Go Slow, trained by Piper, on whom he won the Lord Stalbridge Memorial Gold Cup at Wincanton in

February1962; and the grey Capricorn, trained by Dent, on whom he won three chases. He rode Capricorn in the 1963 Grand National, when, as 66-1 outsiders, they reached the 28th fence before pulling up. Within a month of that memorable day, his career was at an end.The photo, above, shows Capricorn with his trainer Neville Dent (on the left) and owner Rodney Phelps.

Photos courtesy of Chris Pitt

Adrian Major was one of the Injured Jockeys Fund’s first beneficiaries once the organisation had been formed in the wake of the accidents to Tim Brookshaw and Paddy Farrell in the 1963/64 season.

He died from cancer in August 1995, aged 56, leaving a widow, Sue, and one daughter, Cheryl, by a previous marriage.

Adrian Major rode a total of 19 winners during his career. They were in chronological order:

1. Prosody, Wincanton, 12 March 1959

2. Prosody, Buckfastleigh, 16 May 1959

3, Gypsy Warning, Taunton, 28 April 1960

4. Ann, Worcester, 14 March 1961

5. Capricorn, Nottingham, 5 December 1961

6. Croise, Lingfield, 8 December 1961

7. Capricorn, Newton Abbot, 26 December 1961

8. Croise, Newbury, 20 January 1962

9. Vain-Wax, Plumpton, 12 February 1962

10. Go Slow, Wincanton, 22 February 1962 (Lord Stalbridge Memorial Gold Cup Chase)

11. Go Slow, Taunton, 3 March 1962

12. Smogland, 17 March 1962

13. Royal Reprieve, Worcester, 21 March 1962

14. Royal Reprieve, Worcester, 31 March 1962

15. Smogland, Southwell, 19 April 1962

16. Oh Johnny, Newton Abbot, 26 May 1962

17. Clever Cobbler, Newton Abbot, 26 May 1962

18. Capricorn, Plumpton, 29 September 1962

19. Island Lion, Wincanton, 18 October 1962