George Flippance

George Flippance

1903-1971

Article by Alan Trout

Born in 1903, George Flippance rode over jumps during the 1930s, ending his career with 16 wins, 12 of which came courtesy of a horse named Captain Ginger. 

Captain Ginger was also George’s first ride in public when finishing third in the Shottesbrook Novices’ Hurdle at Hawthorn Hill on November 2, 1932. He kept the ride and, a few weeks later, on December 29, gained his first success when the pair won the Fairford Maiden Hurdle at Cheltenham by a length from Jawbreaker, ridden by local jockey Tim Hamey, who had earlier that year won the Grand National on Forbra. 

At Newton Abbot on May 10, George had his second win when Prince Silver narrowly edged out Sublime Fire and Robert Mason by half a length to win the Teignbridge Selling Handicap Chase. He again only managed to ride two winners the following season and three the next, but then had a career-best score of seven for the 1935/36 campaign, all bar one of them on Captain Ginger. 

Undoubtedly, it was handicap hurdler Captain Ginger who promoted George’s career the most. Among the dozen races they won together, they twice scored on consecutive days of a two-day meeting: Torquay’s 1935 Easter fixture and Newton Abbot’s 1935/36 season-opening meeting. They won Torquay’s Ladies’ Handicap Hurdle three years running from 1934 to 1936. 

Although Tommy McNeill won on Captain Ginger at Newton Abbot in August 1937, it was somehow appropriate that his last race should have been with George Flippance aboard, when finishing third at Newton Abbot on September 9, 1937.

Devoid of Captain Ginger’s help, George had to wait until February 1939 for his next win, on Gay Song at Hawthorn Hill. His last winner came during the final days of peace when Hiker won the Brookside Handicap Hurdle at Newton Abbot on August 7, 1939. He was unplaced on the nine-year-old in three subsequent outings and did not renew his licence the following season.

George Flippance died in 1971. It is highly likely that he was the father of – or at least related to – Fred Flippance, the long-serving head lad to Newmarket trainer Harry Thomson (Tom) Jones. 

George Flippance’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Captain Ginger, Cheltenham, December 29, 1932

2. Prince Silver, Newton Abbot, May 10, 1933

3. Captain Ginger, Torquay, April 2, 1934 

4. Captain Ginger, Newton Abbot, May 16, 1934

5. Captain Ginger, Newton Abbot, August 6, 1934 

6. Captain Ginger, Torquay, April 22, 1935 

7. Captain Ginger, Torquay, April 23, 1935 

8. Captain Ginger, Newton Abbot, August 5, 1935

9. Captain Ginger, Newton Abbot, August 6, 1935

10. Captain Ginger, Devon & Exeter, August 28, 1935

11. Tell Me Another, Totnes, September 5, 1935

12. Captain Ginger, Shirley Park, September 9, 1935

13. Captain Ginger, Torquay, April 13, 1936

14. Captain Ginger, Buckfastleigh, June 1, 1936 

15. Gay Song, Hawthorn Hill, February 28, 1939

16. Hiker, Newton Abbot, August 7, 1939