Wiles, Stephen

Stephen rode several point-to-point winners before graduating to riding under National Hunt rules, his first winner in that sphere being Lothian Legend in a Market Rasen novices’ chase on September 25, 1965. Later that season they combined to win twice more at the Lincolnshire track, landing a hunters’ chase in May and a three-mile handicap chase in June. The following season they won a handicap chase at Southwell in October.

He did not ride another winner under NH rules for almost five years, novice hurdler Polar Boy finally breaking the drought at Catterick in March 1981. They then followed up at Teesside Park (Stockton) four days later.

Stephen turned professional at the start of the 1971/72 campaign and achieved his first success in the paid ranks on Angailor in a Sedgefield juvenile selling hurdle, his sole victory that season. He went on to ride one winner in each of the next four seasons before doubling his seasonal tally to two in 1976/77, courtesy of selling hurdler Early Morning who won at Market Rasen and Catterick in December.

On September 27, 1977 he was first past the post on Soldiers Field in a Sedgefield selling hurdle but was disqualified for hanging left and interfering with the runner-up, resulting in the stewards reversing the places.

That would have been his last winner, for he took over his father’s training licence on February 1, 1979 and hung up his riding boots. His wife, Elaine, whom he’d married on May 21, 1969, acted as his assistant trainer. It was a slow start and it was not until January 22, 1982 that he saddled his first winner, Falling Schnell, ridden by Chris Grant, in a Catterick selling hurdle.

Just two months later, Stephen and Elaine Wiles were involved in the notorious ‘Flockton Grey’ ringer affair. The horse became Stephen’s first winner on the Flat when romping home by 20 lengths under Kevin Darley in a two-year-old maiden at Leicester on March 29, 1982. However, he was later found to be a three-year-old named Good Hand.

In May 1984 three men, Ken Richardson, Colin Mathison and Peter Boddy, appeared at York Crown Court charged with having conspired to substitute Good Hand for Flockton Grey with the intention of defrauding bookmakers. All three were found guilty. Richardson was given a nine-month suspended sentence and fined £20,000, Mathison was find £3,000 while Boddy escaped with a conditional discharge.

In 1986 Stephen Wiles appeared before the Jockey Club’s disciplinary committee. He was banned from holding a trainer’s licence for five years for having entered and run Flockton Grey, knowing that the horse had not been in his care for 14 days preceding the race.

A few months after he’d lost his licence, he and Elaine split up. Stephen eventually trained point-to-pointers from the same yard at Flockton, while Elaine worked for trainer Steve Norton until his retirement and is now a long-serving almoner for the Injured Jockeys Fund.

Stephen Wiles’ winners were, in chronological order:

1. Lothian Legend, Market Rasen, September 25, 1965

2. Lothian Legend, Market Rasen, May 14, 1966

3. Lothian Legend, Market Rasen, June 11, 1966

4. Lothian Legend, Southwell, October 17, 1966

5. Polar Boy, Catterick, March 8, 1971

6. Polar Boy, Teesside Park, March 12, 1971

7. Angailor, Sedgefield, October 5, 1971

8. Happy Councillor, Uttoxeter, March 17, 1973

9. Walden Rights, Market Rasen, June 1, 1974

10. Walden Rights, Teesside Park, February 10, 1975

11. Early Morning, Teesside Park, December 19, 1975

12. Early Morning, Market Rasen, December 3, 1976

13. Early Morning, Catterick Bridge, December 22, 1976

14. Soldiers Field, Sedgefield, September 27, 1977 (finished first, disqualified)