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Albert Piper
Article by Chris Pitt
Albert Archibald Piper was a south-west based professional jumps jockey-cum-trainer in the 1950s. The Piper family had been horse dealers for four generations with varying degrees of success and tragedy. Albert’s grandfather broke his neck when thrown from a young horse under a wagon wheel; his father was kennel huntsman to the Dartmoor Foxhounds for 40 years; his uncle, Edwin Piper, had ridden the 100-1 outsider Aboyeur to finish second past the post in the infamous ‘Suffragette Derby’ of 1913 and had been the main beneficiary when Aboyeur was awarded the race on the disqualification of the favourite Craganour.
Albert began his riding career in the late 1940s as an amateur and rode five winners in that capacity – the last two being Dixon at Devon & Exeter and Tai-Ford at Newton Abbot at the start of the 1951/52 season – before turning professional shortly afterwards and achieving his first ‘paid’ success on Dixon at Taunton on November 3, 1951.
He struck up a successful acquaintance with a three-mile chaser named Jo Hukum, being on board for five of the six victories achieved by that son of 1943 Ascot Gold Cup winner Ujiji during the 1953/54 season. Not only was he the jockey, he had taken out a trainer’s licence at the end of 1953 so also saddled Jo Hukum to the last three of those wins. He also rode Jo Hukum in the 1954 Welsh Grand National (unplaced) and in that year’s Mildmay Memorial Chase at Sandown, finishing eighth. Jo Hukum provided Albert with his two winners for the 1954/55 season, scoring at Taunton and Newton Abbot, both victories coming in the month of September.
The other star of Albert’s string was Golter, who gave him the last two wins of his career in the saddle when scoring at Devon & Exeter in August1956
and Wincanton on March 21, 1957. Just nine days after that final win, Albert rode Golter over the Grand National fences in the Topham Trophy but was unluckily brought down. None the worse for that experience, they teamed up again at Cheltenham the following month to finish a good third behind that grand horse Crudwell in the Golden Miller Handicap Chase.Billy Williams was entrusted with the ride when Golter won at Wincanton in March 1958 but Albert rode him in the following month’s Whitbread Gold Cup, albeit finishing among the backmarkers. He hung up his riding boots at the end of the 1958/59 season.
Having initially been based at Beechlands Stables, Chagford, near Tavistock, he moved his training operation in late 1959 to Deal Farm, Manaton, near Newton Abbot, (left) where he combined farming with training a small string of nine or ten horses. By far the most significant moments of his training career came at Cheltenham’s National Hunt Meeting, where he trained the winner of the historic National Hunt Chase twice within three years. Go Slow was his first winner, taking the prize in 1962, with Red Vale following suit in 1965. Both were partnered by the highly experienced amateur rider George Small.
The 1965 edition of Horses in Training lists Albert Piper as having moved yards from Deal Farm to Forde House, Chillaton, Lifton, in Devon. Surprisingly, despite having achieved dual success in what was once the highlight of the Cheltenham National Hunt Meeting, he is not listed in any subsequent editions of Horses in Training, nor are there any records of further training successes.
Albert Piper died in 2000.
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