John Dalton

John Dalton

1947-1975

Article by Alan Trout 

Born in 1947, John Dalton rode a dozen winners over jumps in just over four years. After a break he made a brief return to race-riding before being tragically killed in a car crash which also claimed the life of Flat jockey Tommy Reidy.  

The son of Newmarket trainer Alf Dalton, who trained all but two of his son’s winners, he made his debut under National Hunt rules at Warwick on January 18, 1965, when Nicolaid finished seventh of 13 starters in the Longbridge Selling Hurdle. It would be more than 18 months before he tasted success, but it finally came at Market Rasen on September 24, 1966, when Pancho Del Mar, making his racecourse debut, led all the way to land the Hambleton Juvenile Hurdle (Division 2) by ten lengths.

John had two more wins before the season ended but recorded only one during the 1967/68 campaign. Doubles at Huntingdon and Fakenham accounted for four of his five wins in 1968/69, but he only managed three more thereafter, the last coming at Plumpton on October 13, 1970, when having his second victory on the four-year-old Just Yogi in the Newick Novices’ Hurdle (Division 1). 

He persevered for a couple more years but was then absent from the weighing room from December 1972 to September 1974, during which time he acted as assistant to his father. He was unseated at the first flight on Stemic in the Christmas Party Novices’ Hurdle (Division 2, Part 1) at Southwell on December 19, 1974. That was his final ride. 

On November 28, 1975, he was killed instantly when the car he was driving ran off the road at the Letchworth exit of the A1. His passenger, Tommy Reidy died later in hospital. Both were aged 27.