John Delaney

Article by Chris Pitt

John Joseph Delaney was born on July 24, 1923, the oldest of four jump jockey brothers, the others being Tom, Peter and Brian. John served his apprenticeship with his father Jack Delaney, who had ridden winners in Ireland and was with the McCalmonts in Co. Kilkenny.

On September 8, 1951, he married Jean Green. She gave him a son, Stephen John.

John’s first winner was on Lord Leigh’s Hunting Cap in a selling hurdle at Southwell on April 10, 1952. They followed up in a similar contest on Hereford’s Easter Monday card four days later.

It was in the autumn of 1953 that John first became acquainted with a horse named Bacchus, owned at trained by Lord Leigh at Kenilworth. They teamed up to win handicap hurdles at Market Rasen and Huntingdon in October and at Cheltenham in November. Three days after that Cheltenham victory, John notched a double at Towcester, his ninth and tenth winners, resulting in his claim being reduced from 7lb to 5lb. He ended that season with a respectable nine winners, highlighted by a fourth victory on Bacchus in the Welsh Grand Annual Handicap Hurdle at Chepstow on Easter Monday 1954.

The following season, 1954/55, was numerically his best with 12 winners from 68 rides. Seven of those wins came courtesy of Bacchus, beginning with a dead-heat in a Newton Abbot novices’ chase at Newton Abbot on the second day of the season, following up over hurdles at Devon & Exeter a fortnight later, and finishing the month of August with success over fences at Buckfastleigh. Reverting to hurdles, Bacchus won again at Hereford in September and Uttoxeter in October, then won twice more over fences in the spring of 1955. A winner for Earl Jones at the annual Beaufort Hunt fixture in April and three winners for Malpas trainer George Owen over Whitsun rounded off what was to be John’s most successful campaign.

Despite an early victory on Bacchus at Buckfastleigh in the opening week of the season, the 1955/56 campaign was a disappointment with just three winners from 53 rides. However, it did provide John with the highlight of his career when riding Bacchus in the 1955 Gran Premio di Merano, Italy’s most famous and prestigious steeplechase.

Bacchus opened John’s account for the 1956/57 season by repeating his Buckfastleigh victory in early August. He won on Lord Leigh’s hurdler The Fosse at Stratford the following month, but there were no more winners all that season. The Fosse provided John with both of his winners in the 1957/58 campaign, in novice chases at Birmingham in November and Nottingham in December. It was twelve months before his next winner, Jig-Jog at Taunton on December 27, 1958. He rode one more that season and three in the one after that.

From then on he rode as stable jockey to Peter Green, who trained at Gunthorpe, Nottinghamshire most of his remaining winners were supplied by him. John’s sole success of the 1960/61 season came on the second day of Uttoxeter’s Easter fixture on selling hurdler Jig-Jog. The 1961/62 season yielded just two winners, Lanceron in a Southwell selling chase and Wise Prince in a Woore selling hurdle. The 1962/63 season brought two more, both on Green’s versatile grey Cope’s Cross, in a handicap hurdle at Woore in October and a handicap chase at Doncaster in November.

Wise Prince became the last of John’s 44 winners when winning the Askern Main Selling Handicap Chase at Doncaster on Monday, March 9, 1964. He had his final ride on the last day of the following season, finishing ninth on Gainsborough Lad at Stratford on June 12, 1965.

Afterwards he worked for Lord Leigh's Stoneleigh Abbey Stud for 25 years.

He had no hesitation in nominating Bacchus as the best he rode. Having won twelve races on him and ridden him in the Gran Premio di Merano, that’s hardly surprising.

John Joseph Delaney died suddenly at his home at Kintbury, Berkshire, on July 1, 1989, aged 65.

His winners, in chronological order, were:

1. Hunting Cap, Southwell, April 10, 1952

2. Hunting Cap, Hereford, April 14, 1952

3. Evening Flame, Towcester, May 10, 1952

4. Ballinaflower, Fontwell, February 17, 1953

5. Evening Flame, Nottingham, March 19, 1953

6. Bacchus, Market Rasen, October 3, 1953

7. Bacchus, Huntingdon, October 17, 1953

8. Bacchus, Cheltenham, November 11, 1953

9. Glen Cottage, Towcester, November 14, 1953

10. Jimmy Rivett, Towcester, November 14, 1953

11. Glen Cottage, Wolverhampton, December 7, 1953

12. Mine Lee, Uttoxeter, December 19, 1953

13. Kininvie, Hereford, March 6, 1954

14. Bacchus, Chepstow, April 19, 1954

15. Bacchus, Newton Abbot, August 2, 1954 (dead-heat)

16. Bacchus, Devon & Exeter, August 19, 1954

17. Bacchus, Buckfastleigh, August 28, 1954

18. Bacchus, Hereford, September 25, 1954

19. Bacchus, Uttoxeter, October 1, 1954

20. Devonic, Warwick, January 8, 1955

21. Bacchus, Warwick, March 14, 1955

22. Bacchus, Uttoxeter, April 2, 1955

23. Freddy George, Beaufort Hunt, April 16, 1955

24. Ambergate, Uttoxeter, May 28, 1955 (dead-heat)

25. Ambergate, Uttoxeter, May 30, 1955

26. Morecator, Uttoxeter, May 30, 1955

27. Bacchus, Buckfastleigh, August 6, 1955

28. The Fosse, Nottingham, December 6, 1955

29. Lardella, Uttoxeter, April 2, 1956

30. Bacchus, Buckfastleigh, August 6, 1956

31. The Fosse, Stratford-on-Avon, September 22, 1956

32. The Fosse, Birmingham, November 6, 1957

33. The Fosse, Nottingham, December 9, 1957

34. Jig-Jog, Taunton, December 27, 1958

35. Audition, Uttoxeter, May 18, 1959

36. Jimuru, Taunton, October 29, 1959

37. Shane, Uttoxeter, December 19, 1959

38. River Charmer, Southwell, May 2, 1960

39. Jig-Jog, Uttoxeter, April 4, 1961

40. Lanceron, Southwell, October 9, 1961

41. Wise Prince, Woore, October 28, 1961

42. Cope’s Cross, Woore, October 4, 1962

43. Cope’s Cross, Doncaster, November 24, 1962

44. Wise Prince, Doncaster, March 9, 1964