Andy Andrews

 (1938 - 2002)

Article by Chris Pitt

Newmarket-based jumps jockey Edward William Andrews was born in Derby on November 28, 1938. Always known as Andy Andrews, in his early teens he spent more time riding out for a local trainer at Shirley Park – a former National Hunt course near Birmingham which then staged pony racing – than he did at school. He became apprenticed to Geoffrey Brooke at Newmarket in 1954 but found himself competing with around 30 other apprentices there so chances were few and far between. He had a few rides in public, all on no-hopers, but began to put on weight and within a couple of years was up to 9st, ending any dreams of making it on the Flat.

He’d completed four of his five-year apprenticeship when he was called up for National Service. Andy joined the 17th/21st Lancers – later to be transferred to the 9th Lancers – and within seven weeks was serving at Detmold in Germany. He soon became involved in racing there for he looked after several horses owned by British officers and an application was made through British channels for him to receive a German Jockey Club jump jockey’s licence.

He soon achieved his first win over fences on a horse called Colway at Frankfurt in 1958. He rode at practically every racecourse in Western Germany and so enjoyed the life in the army that he signed on for an additional year to his obligatory two. He rode several more winners in Germany and also proved himself adept at boxing, becoming the regimental champion in the bantamweight class.

On returning to Britain in 1960 he joined another Newmarket trainer, Arthur ‘Fiddler’ Goodwill, and took out a jump jockey’s licence. He had his first ride over hurdles in Britain on a horse named King Alpin at Nottingham on October 24, 1960 and went on to ride a total of 38 winners under National Hunt Rules. The first of those was on the Goodwill-trained Ring Cycle at Wye on March 6, 1961, and he then doubled his score by winning on a horse named Lewes, also trained by Goodwill, at Bangor-on-Dee the following month.

He rode eight winners the next season, 1961/62, including two within seven days on Goodwill’s The Burgher, at Nottingham on February 6 and at Leicester on February 13; two within 48 hours on Ring Cycle, at Hereford on March 17 and Worcester on March 19; and two more courtesy of Lewes, at Worcester in December 1961 and Folkestone in April 1962.

The 1962/63 campaign yielded only two winners but included Andy’s most notable success, The Burgher in the Ansells Brewery Ltd Handicap Hurdle at Hereford on March 16, 1963. Ring Cycle was his other winner that season, scoring at Huntingdon’s Whit Monday fixture. Ring Cycle also got Andy off to a good start for the 1963/64 campaign, winning at Folkestone on August 27, but again, he rode only one other winner all season.

The 1964/65 campaign was even leaner, bringing Andy just one victory on The Burgher, at Folkestone on November 23. He left Goodwill at the end of that season and moved to yet another Newmarket trainer, Harry Thomson (Tom) Jones in search of better opportunities. Stan Mellor was then the stable’s number one jockey so, again, opportunities were limited.

Although he didn’t ride a winner during 1965/66, things began to pick up subsequently, and he rode a total of 20 winners throughout the next five seasons. Among them he rode the useful Excess when he won his first race at Wetherby and also on two subsequent occasions and earned some welcome publicity when winning the Hedge Hoppers Hurdle at Newbury on another useful sort, Pale Warrior.

Andy’s last winner was Christmas Joy at Fakenham on Easter Monday, April 23, 1973. His final ride, also at Fakenham, was Summer Scene, which finished fifth, on May 18, 1973. He retired at the end of that season.

Although Andy never rode him in a race, he was the first person to sit on Tom Jones’s brilliant two-mile chaser Tingle Creek when he arrived from America in 1972. Andy partnered Tingle Creek many times on the Newmarket gallops.

He later joined Michael Stoute’s stable and was his highly respected headman for 17 years. Afterwards, he became a world-renowned equine chiropractor.

Andy Andrews died at home in September 2002, aged 63, having been diagnosed with cancer four years earlier. He left a wife, Rita, and two daughters, Nicky and Fiona.