Arthur Cole
Article by Alan Trout
Arthur Cole rode eleven winners under National Hunt rules between 1903 and 1906 and had one ride in the Grand National.
His first victory was a comfortable 20-length win on Marioni in the Maiden Steeplechase at Hawthorn Hill on October 31, 1903. The six-year-old was winning for the first and only time in his career and was sent to Belgium before the end of the following year.
It was almost a year before Arthur had his second winner, but this marked the start of a long and fruitful partnership with the six-year-old Richmond Roy. Seven of his ten remaining wins were achieved on this chaser who won on six different southern courses. He supplied Arthur with this final win when taking the Canterbury Steeplechase at Wye by a distance at Wye on October 1, 1906.
It was on his other successful mount, Hallgate (three wins), that he had his ride in the 1905 Grand National, but the seven-year-old, like many others that year, was a faller. Arthur held a licence for another season but lost the ride on Richmond Roy when the horse changed stables.
Arthur Cole’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Marioni, Hawthorn Hill, October 31, 1903
2. Richmond Roy, Gatwick, October 24, 1904
3. Richmond Roy, Gatwick, December 8, 1904
4. Hallgate, Lingfield Park, December 16, 1904
5. Hallgate, Lingfield Park, February 24, 1905
6. Hallgate, Portsmouth Park, November 1, 1905
7. Richmond Roy, Maiden Erlegh, November 16, 1905
8. Richmond Roy, Portsmouth Park, April 16, 1906
9. Richmond Roy, Plumpton, April 23, 1906
10. Richmond Roy, Folkestone, May 7, 1906
11. Richmond Roy, Wye, October 1, 1906