Snowy Parker

Snowy Parker

1900-1994

Better remembered as a trainer, Evan James Parker, popularly known as Snowy, rode 16 winners under National Hunt rules, including nine in the 1926/27 season. 

Born in Birmingham on February 6, 1900, he was apprenticed to Bill Halsey, a former leading jockey under both codes, and made a promising start to his race-riding career, finishing second in the Apprentices’ Plate at Leicester on April 1, 1915, his mount, Amica, being beaten four lengths by Fairy King. However, despite holding a licence to ride on the Flat until 1929, he did not manage to ride a winner.

He made a similarly bright start to his career over jumps, finishing second on Fool Proof in the Saturday Selling Handicap Hurdle at Haydock Park on December 9, 1922, beaten eight lengths by Eric Foster on Regicles. But it would be more than three years before he actually won a race. 

That elusive first victory finally came at Manchester on March 6, 1926, when, in another race titled the Saturday Selling Handicap Hurdle – race names were not afforded much priority or originality in those days – he guided Laverstoke to beat Grand Duke II by two lengths. Snowy had ridden the six-year-old on his three previous starts, being placed each time, so they were not winning out of turn. 

Following two fourth place efforts, the combination struck again when taking the Stratford-on-Avon Handicap Hurdle at that Warwickshire venue on April 24, this time beating John Waugh’s mount Festoon by a head. 

He rode nine winners the following season, none in  1927/28, then four in 1928/29 including three on selling hurdler Burnt Heather. By then he had already taken out a trainer’s licence, based initially at Tamworth and then at Cheltenham, launching a career that would last some 40 years. 

His final victory was gained at Southwell on June 7, 1930, when his mount Benella, also trained by him, landed the Upton Selling Handicap Hurdle, beating Scorn, ridden by the previous year’s Grand National-winning jockey Bob Everett, by three-quarters of a length. His last ride was on Aultiore, unplaced in the Lutwyche Maiden Hurdle at Wenlock Hunt on May 5, 1933.

His successes as a trainer, based at Shifnal Cottage, Epsom from 1940 included Good View in the 1947 Portland Handicap (he also won as a 12-year-old at Goodwood), Fidonia in the 1949 Manchester November Handicap at 40/1, and two editions of the Midlands Cesarewitch at Birmingham with Avon’s Prince (1947) and Fidonia (1949). He also won Royal Ascot’s King George V Handicap with Vinca. 

He never trained more than ten winners in a year, mainly with cast-offs from other yards. He would spend years nursing horses back to fitness. Although focusing mainly on the Flat, he also provided future royal jockey Bill Rees with his first winner under National Hunt rules on Canberra at Wye in March 1953. He won four chases, including three in a row, with Pelican Star. That horse also gave Rees a safe ride round on his first excursion over the Grand National fences when finishing fourth in the 1955 Becher Chase.

 Snowy Parker died on March 28, 1994, aged 94.