Amateur rider James Walter de Mestre was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, on May 2, 1916. He was a relative late-comer to riding in races under National Hunt rules. He rode for several years but had reached the age of 44 before riding his first winner.
That first success came on Chastise in the Cerne Abbas Handicap Hurdle at Wincanton on December 8, 1960. The partnership finished third at Sandown seven days later, following that effort with success in the Goodwood Handicap Hurdle at Fontwell on Boxing Day.
Jimmy had to wait until May 1962 before riding his third winner, the four-year-old hurdler Golden Oracle at Towcester. They followed up at Wye nine days later. His next win came aboard Shahwin at Fontwell on Whit Monday, sharing the spoils with Clive Chapman’s mount Pyrotic in a dead-heat. Jimmy objected to Pyrotic on grounds of crossing but his objection was overruled.
He rode only one winner during the 1962/63 campaign but in doing so he claimed the scalp of a Grand National-winning jockey. Riding Juno Moneta, Jimmy got up close home to collar Bobby Beasley’s mount Tycoon by a neck in a 23-runner novices’ hurdle at Wye.
He had just one more winner, that being Soulievres in division two of the Novices’ Hurdle at Taunton on November 23, 1963.
One of his final mounts was on Ayr Spy in a four-year-old hurdle at Cheltenham on April 2, 1965, by which time he was within a month of his 49th birthday.
Jimmy de Mestre died in Winchester in December 1996, aged 80.
His winners were, in chronological order:
1. Chastise, Wincanton, December 8, 1960
2. Chastise, Fontwell Park, December 26, 1960
3. Golden Oracle, Towcester, May 12, 1962
4. Golden Oracle, Wye, May 21, 1962
5. Shahwin, Fontwell Park, June 11, 1962 (dead-heat)
6. Juno Moneta, Wye, April 8, 1963
7. Soulievres, Taunton, November 23, 1963