Yates, David

Born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, on May 27, 1943, David Ian Yates became the champion apprentice in 1963.

Between the ages of 8 to 12, he spent four years in Spain, learning how to ride.

He won a string of good races, notably the 1962 Cesarewitch on Golden Fire, who had actually finished a neck second, but who got the race on an objection.

He said at the time; "Doug Marks, the trainer, thought I was mad, but I got on well with Lester Piggott and he lent me the £20 to lodge the objection. It was a lot of money in those days. He soon asked for it back, mind!"

Photo courtesy of Chris Pitt

David had started out with Fulke Walwyn in the early fifties, but he had mainly jumpers and, weighing only 5st 9lb, he joined Doug Marks.

When David put his helmet on, his ears 'used to stick out terrible'. David Elsworth, who was stable jockey for Marks, started calling David 'Flapper'.

When opportunities diminished in Britain, David rode abroad.

One of his most frightening assignments was riding in Iran during the outbreak of the Islamic revolution. 

"I rode in Sweden, India and Hong Kong, trained and rode in Kenya, and rode in Iran before the Islamic revolution in 1979. It was in Kenya that David married in 1985. He has two children during his marriage.

"They were trying to promote racing and built a beautiful racecourse in the mountains on the outskirts of Tehran. But when the revolution happened, we all had to get out very quickly." 

On hanging up his saddle after breaking his leg in the mid-eighties riding work for Fulke Johnson Houghton, David became a driver for the Racing Post's publishers, Trinity Mirror.

Charlie Wilson, then the editor of The Sporting Life, rang the Injured Jockeys Fund asking if they had any jockeys who wanted to drive. They put David up for the job.

David and Doug Marks maintained their racing link and remained great friends.

David Yates died in Thatcham, Berkshire, on 8 May, 2013, just a few days short of his 70th birthday.

Fellow jockey said: 'He was a lovely man who never said a bad word about anyone.'

David's parents were Philip (born 1920) and Mary Stoke (born 1923).