Chris Adley

1909 -1973

Article by Chris Pitt

Some 40-odd years ago I stumbled across an old copy of the Daily Mirror, dated Saturday, June 4, 1960. It was the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend so there were plenty of meetings to choose from in the racing section. Kempton, Warwick, Doncaster and Stockton comprised the four Flat cards.

Due presumably to lack of space, the day’s four jumps meetings weren’t shown. The only reference came in the form of a small footnote in the bottom right-hand corner of the page entitled ‘NH Hints’, simply giving selections for each of the races at Buckfastleigh, Cartmel, Hexham and Towcester. Faraway places with strange-sounding names, certainly to a kid who’d then have been aged seven. Who could have known that one day I’d have visited them all?

Browsing through that day’s Daily Mirror’s list of runners and riders at Doncaster, my eyes were drawn to the name of a jockey whose name I didn’t recognise. All the usual suspects were there, such as E Smith, E Hide, Durr, Fawdon, Starkey, Tulk, Greening and Buckle, but who was ‘Adley’?

Subsequent investigations revealed that Christopher Adley was one of the veterans of the weighing room. Born in 1909, he’d have been over 50 by the time of that Doncaster ride, on an unraced two-year-old named Dencorla in the £263 Frickley Two-Year-Old Selling Stakes.

A check of the form book revealed that Dencorla finished eighth of the nine runners. Adley also had a ride two days later, on Doncaster’s Whit Monday card, aboard another two-year-old named Enniskerry, who finished fifth of nine.

Further research unearthed that Adley had initially been apprenticed to Newmarket trainer Felix Leach before moving north. Remarkably, he had had his first ride in public in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket on October 12, 1927, even though he was unable to claim an apprentice allowance due to the value of the race. His mount, the four-year-old Bassoon, had on his previous outing carried 12st 7lb to victory in the Traboun Welter Handicap Plate for amateur riders at Edinburgh on September 20, ridden by Alec Cottrill. Now carrying just 6st 2lb for Chris’s services, Bassoon finished unplaced.

Chris rode his first winner on Ebeu Fugaces, trained by Felix Leach, in the Lowther Apprentice Plate at Carlisle on July 4, 1928, getting home by a neck. 

He was crowned champion apprentice in 1929 with 35 winners, which included Ripon’s Great St Wilfrid Handicap on Sir Picton and York’s Rockingham Handicap on Carafe. This resulted in his inclusion on a set of cigarette cards, an illustration of which is reproduced with this article.

He held a Flat jockey’s licence between 1931 and 1939, riding initially for Felix Leach but then as a freelance from 1932. A search through the 1930s editions of ‘Horses in Training’ for those years reveals his weight steadily rising from 7st 0lb to 7st 13lb. He rode his last winner in Britain on an unnamed two-year-old colt trained by Fred Templeman, scoring by a length in the Channel Selling Plate at Bath on June 20, 1929. 

He spent the winters abroad, riding in Egypt and India and was a leading jockey in India for many years after the war, riding for princes and maharajahs.

He did not hold a British jockey’s licence again until 1959 when he returned to his home country to ride on the Flat. He rode for four seasons without success. Between 1960 and 1962 he rode for a trainer named James Walsh, who was based at Priory Stables, Nostell Estate, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire. His final ride was on Walsh’s two-year-old colt Yuribug, who finished last of 12 in the Clifton Stakes at Thirsk on April 13, 1962.

Sadly, Christopher Adley died a lonely death in 1973, aged 63. He was found dead in a Liverpool community centre with just 5p in his pocket. At the inquest the coroner recorded an open verdict.

Few will remember his name, other than perhaps the odd old-timer in India, where he’d plied his trade for so many years. But whenever I look at that June 4, 1960 copy of the Daily Mirror, it is always Chris Adley’s name that springs to mind.

Additional information on his career in Britain provided by Alan Trout.