Arthur Cox

Article by Alan Trout

Arthur Edwin Cox rode ten winners under National Hunt rules between 1918 and 1922, although his first ‘win’ had come much earlier.

At Folkestone on January 18, 1915, he had as busy afternoon. First, he partnered Gomphrena, who finished third in the Four-Year-Old Handicap Hurdle. Then he came out to ride Gnu in the Moderate Handicap Hurdle. Owned, like Gomphrena, by Horatio Bottomley, Gnu was running in his fifth race in 14 days, ridden each time by Arthur. In a very close three-horse finish, Gnu and Per Mare, ridden by Roger Burford Snr, passed the winning post locked together, with the odds-on favourite Sir Colin almost upsides them. Gnu and Per Mare could not be separated by the judge, who declared a dead-heat, with Sir Colin just a short-head away in third. Burford then lodged an objection to Gnu on the grounds of “bumping and crossing after the last flight of hurdles”. The objection was overruled. As Bottomley would not agree to the stakes being divided, the dead-heaters went out to do battle once more after one further race had been run. Just as it looked as if there would be another close finish, Per Mare fell, leaving Gnu to come in alone. However, it was not Arthur in the saddle, for he had been replaced by George Dulller, one of the greatest riders over hurdles of all time. Hence, it was he who was credited with the win, not Arthur.

Gnu did not run again, and Arthur had to wait three years for his first ‘official’ win. This came at Windsor on January 15, 1918, when MacMerry, owned by Bottomley and trained by James Hare, won the Thursday Selling Handicap Hurdle by eight lengths. Three more wins quickly followed, two of them on MacMerry, and the second of those, the Village Selling Hurdle at Sandown Park, no doubt gave Arthur extra pleasure because the runner-up, West, was ridden by George Duller.

Arthur Cox continued to ride the occasional winner, the last being Nareesh, owned, like all the others, by Horatio Bottomley, in the St James’s Selling Hurdle at Sandown Park on April 22, 1922, winning by three lengths. He held a licence until 1924 but had no further success.

Arthur Cox’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. MacMerry, Windsor, January 5, 1918

2. Canute, Gatwick, January 21, 1918

3. MacMerry, Gatwick, January 22, 1918

4. MacMerry, Sandown Park, February 20, 1918

5. Minstrel Park, Lingfield Park, March 18, 1919

6. Longerline, Sandown Park, October 25, 1919

7. Longerline, Plumpton, January 7, 1921

8. Woodsyke, Kempton Park, March 5, 1921

9. Nareesh, Gatwick, March 3, 1922

10. Nareesh, Sandown Park, April 22, 1922