Jack Anderson
Northern Flat jockey John ‘Jack’ Anderson was born in Hull circa 1890, the younger of two jockey brothers. He served his apprenticeship with Melton Vasey and rode his first winner on Tactics in the Brompton Apprentice Plate at Catterick on October 24, 1906.
Vasey was fulsome in his praise for his young apprentice, saying that he had never known a lad who made such a study of horses’ temperaments. He added: “He can get more out of a rogue, or sluggish horse by kidding to it than other jockeys can by knocking them about.”
Being from Hull, Jack’s big ambition was to ride a winner at his local course. Hull’s racecourse, at Hedon, had fallen into abeyance but had been revived in 1901. However, it was but a short-lived revival and Jack was just in time to have his wish granted. None of his winners gave him such a thrill as that on a horse named Lester Reiff, trained by ex-jockey Yorky Priestman, in the Goole Selling Plate at what was to prove Hull’s last-ever meeting on September 11, 1909.
Jack completed his apprenticeship that year and rode as a professional jockey from 1910 to 1913 and periodically during the 1920s. Although much better known as a Flat jockey, he did have one win over jumps, when Rainy Day won the Town Hurdle at Market Rasen on Easter Monday, April 17, 1922, beating Lucid, the mount of former Grand National-winning jockey Bob Lyall, by six lengths.
He renewed his Flat licence after the Second World War and rode his last winner on Gracious Son in a two-year-old seller at Carlisle on July 2, 1947, by which time he was in his late 50s. By then he was assisting Graham Mather – who trained Gracious Son – at Richmond.
In retirement, Jack was invited to represent professional jockeys at the Blaydon Races centenary celebrations on Tyneside. He was also the subject of a television interview.
Jack’s elder brother, George Gaston Anderson (c1885-1952), served his apprenticeship with William Elsey at Baumber. He held a licence between 1906 and 1915, and again from 1919 to 1922. He then rode for a brief period in Austria before renewing his British for two seasons in 1925 and 1926.
George trained for a short while then later had a hotel at Hornsea, where he died in 1952.
