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Anthony Webber was born on August 17, 1954, at Cropredy Lawn, Mollington Road, Banbury, North Oxfordshire, on the farm and racing stables of his trainer father, John.
He rode his first winner, Foggerty, at Leicester, in an amateur riders' novice hurdle on 30 October, 1972. This win gave him particular pleasure as it was for his father.
John Webber had ridden in the early sixties. He had won a few times on a mare called Honey Isle, and it was from her that Dream Isle came.
Dream Isle became a Towcester specialist and, with Anthony on her back, won there six times.
Another prolific winner for the young jockey was Ballyrichard Again, which won seven races in the 1973/74 season. Anthony had his riding allowance clipped to 3 lb when easily landing the odds-on Ballyrichard Again in the Vivian Street Handicap Chase. (Friday, December 28, 1973.)
He said afterwards: 'I shall be able to have an extra glass of beer every so often.'
His father John said: 'I was especially pleased to win this race because I used to ride in point-to-points with Vivian Street who was a very good friend of mine.'
Photo supplied by Chris Pitt
That year, with 21 winners, Anthony became the champion amateur rider, beating Lord Oaksey by one.
The following season, he turned professional.
Anthony's first assault on the Grand National was in 1975 when, riding Ballyrichard Again, he fell at the Canal Turn.
In 1979, so heavy was the traffic going to Aintree that Anthony was forced to leap from his car and run for the best part of three quarters of an hour in order to weigh out to ride one of Major Bewicke's in the first.
When he got there, trainer Peter Cundell informed him that Martin O'Halloran, Coolishall's jockey, was unwell. Anthony was asked to replace him.
Coolishall fell at the fourth last. He had been travelling sweetly at the time and Anthony was convinced that he would have finished in the first four or five.
He rode his father's Might Be in 1981 (fell) and Hard Outlook in 1982. This was the hunter-chaser Grittar's year: making his only mistake at the final fence, Grittar won by 15 lengths from Anthony on Hard Outlook who, in turn, was a distance clear of the remounted grey, Loving Words.
Anthony had just three more rides in the great race: he fell at the fourth on Mender in 1983, finished sixth on the grey Two Swallows in 1984 and, finally, came down at the first on the Roddy Armytage-trained Talon.
Several other horses came down with Talon who, struggling to rise, put his foot on Anthony's chest. The jockey, unable to breath or move for a few moments, just lay on the turf until dragged to his feet.
The fall that finished him as a jockey came at Doncaster: rising from it, he realised that his sense of balance had gone.
On Wednesday, April 30, 1986, the knocks that Anthony had endured finally caught up with him: he was advised to relinquish his licence on medical grounds.
His father replaced him with George Mernagh, who had been the stable's former amateur.
Anthony opened Hillside Stud, near Lambourn, where he became a horse chiropractor.
When John Webber died, Anthony's brother, Paul, took over the running of the yard.
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