Arthur Coventry

Youngest son of the Honourable Henry Coventry, Arthur was born at Melton Mowbray on December 7, 1852.

He was an exceptionally fine gentleman rider who donned silks for the first time at Croxton Park in the spring of 1874.He won his first flat race a little later at Worcester riding The Baby, by which name the jockey was to be familiarly known throughout his career.

Such were his skills that he was greatly in demand by all owners of horses who intended to win. Fred Archer once said that there was no jockey living who could give Mr Coventry 5 pounds. Arthur was equally effective over the jumps, winning the 1879 National Hunt Steeplechase on Bellringer though he was unable to emulate his elder brother Henry who won the 1865 Grand National on the French-bred Alcibiade.

Arthur rode Jolly Sir John in the National of 1883. A flood of money from its connections and from the general public saw the horse start at 8/1, but hope was short-lived as Jolly Sir John fell at the second.

Arthur always attributed his success to the tuition he received from Tom Cannon at Danebury, who was just as proud of his student.  

Arthur was a quiet, modest man with charming manners - that was until someone upset him. He would then produce a string of profanities that would make a soldier blush.

He was also of a nervous disposition and highly strung. Arthur was often required to severely waste: on these occasions, he would go down to the start as white as a sheet but was as cool as a cucumber during the race.

He rode less bad races than any other, be they amateur or professional and, while he knew every trick on the racecourse, he was also by general consent the fairest.

In his book, Men & Horses I have known (an absolutely brilliant read - you can now get it in paperback for about £5) George Lambton, jockey, recalling Arthur's fairness wrote:

'I remember on one occasion at Brighton I was riding Oberon for Bill Beresford. Oberon had won the Lincoln. The race looked a good thing for him....when we got to the turn coming down the hill there were four of us going well - Arthur Coventry, Mr Abington, and Harry Escott. I was between Arthur and Mr Abington. Coming down the hill, my horse gradually lost its place. I looked like being squeezed out but when he felt the rise of the ground, he came again. 

'Abington shouted to Coventry; 'Keep him out!'  Arthur only had to  lean to the left to stop me, but he kept his horse as straight as a barrel, and I got up again and won a head, the other pair a short head away dead-heating behind me.'

Oddly enough, Arthur saw himself as the 'ugliest man in the world' yet, while he was no good-looker, the ladies adored him.

On his retirement from the saddle in 1890, Arthur became a Jockey Club starter. In those days, starters supervised these from horseback. He was responsible for dispatching the 1899 Derby field. Flying Fox, ridden by Mornington Cannon, was the red-hot favourite. Arthur took six attempts to get the field away by which time Flying Fox and several others had already covered over a mile. Tod Sloan, the American jockey, riding Holocaust, had kept his mount stationary throughout. When they were finally off, Sloan saw Cannon immediately go for his whip. The favourite had tired badly and, though still in front approaching the final furlong, was joined by Sloan and Holocaust. Sloan took up the running and success seemed assured – then, for him, tragedy. Holocaust broke a leg and Sloan’s best chance of winning the Derby had gone.

Word soon spread among the jockeys that Arthur Coventry was a just shade too good-tempered for the post and many an unscrupulous rider took advantage of the fact. As Arthur began finding the task increasingly difficult, his friends noticed that he was being ‘worn to a shadow by the worries of his office’. Arthur- anxious to be relieved of his duties – finally stepped down to become the secretary of the Hurst Park Club, a position far more suitable.

Arthur Coventry died at The Old Manor Hospital, Salisbury, on August 22nd, 1925.

He left effects of £9,792 3s. 2d. to his nephew Henry Callander.

Known as the Starting Machine, a barrier and tapes system for starting a race was first introduced at Newmarket on Thursday 1st July 1897. Arthur Coventry was a great advocate of it.

A race – the Arthur Coventry National Hunt Flat Race – was named after him and first run at Sandown on Friday, December 3rd, 1926, a year after his death, and won by Dunzar (7/2).