Thomas Oscar Barber was apprenticed to Jack Fallon and rode his first winner on Romney in an apprentices’ handicap at Lewes on June 11, 1912.
His first big winner was on Hera in the 1928 Wokingham at Royal Ascot, beating Gordon Richards on Capture Him and Steve Donoghue on Stracathro by a head and a short-head in a three-way thriller.
Riding as a freelance, Tommy enjoyed a memorably ‘glorious’ Goodwood in 1932, landing the Stewards Cup on three-year-old 33-1 shot Solenoid for Lewes trainer George Poole, winning by a head following a desperate duel with Dick Perryman’s mount Slipper in the final furlong; and then adding the Chesterfield Cup on another longshot, 25-1 outsider Seraph Boy, trained by Fred Templeman at Lambourn.
In 1933, Tommy won Doncaster’s Portland Handicap on Valkyrie for Newmarket trainer Colledge Leader. He retired in 1935 but returned to the saddle during the war, riding for four seasons from 1940 to 1943.
Tommy Barber died on July 6, 1965.
