Amateur rider Captain Meade Edward Dennis was born on August 6, 1893. He was the elder brother of amateur rider Stratford Dennis. He rode a total of 33 winners in England.
He achieved his greatest success when winning the 1927 Cheltenham Foxhunters’ Challenge Cup Chase on Pippin II. Pippin II was a late starter, winning his first race, a Royal Artillery Chargers’ point-to-point in March 1923, when he was eleven years old. Captain Dennis rode him for the first time when finishing seventh in the 1926 National Hunt Chase. They then won a hunter chase at Sandown’s Grand Military meeting, finished second in the Liverpool Foxhunters’ Chase, and returned to Sandown to win the Light-weight Hunters’ Chase at the Royal Artillery meeting.
Captain Dennis then bought Pippin II from his former owner, Lt. Bedford, and rode him to victory in the 1927 Cheltenham Foxhunters. At 15 years of age, Pippin II remains the oldest horse to have won at the National Hunt Meeting.
Nor was he finished. In 1928, aged 16, Pippin II, ridden this time by captain G. S. Poole, won the Liverpool Foxhunters by eight lengths. Captain Dennis was back on aboard eleven days later at Sandown’s Royal Artillery Meeting, winning a hunter chase by two lengths. That was the old warrior’s 17th and final win. He bowed out at Sandown the following year after finishing second.
Captain Meade Dennis had one ride in the Grand National, falling on Snapper in 1927.