Sid Barnes

Sid Barnes 

Article by Chris Pitt

National Hunt jockey Sidney Peter Barnes (standing right in the photo) was born on August 30, 1932, and was attached to Gerry Wilson’s stable at Andoversford, Gloucestershire. He rode his first winner on Wilson’s handicap chaser Head Crest at Kempton on March 2, 1951, a horse that would play a major part in Sid’s subsequent career.

He rode three more winners that season, Allen’s Bridge at Newton Abbot on Easter Monday, Head Crest again at Sandown’s Royal Artillery Meeting, and the Fred Rimell-trained Punchestown Star at Wincanton in May.

Allen’s Bridge got Sid off the mark for the 1951/52 campaign, during which he rode six winners, losing his 7lb claim within a year of starting out. He also finished second on Head Crest, beaten two lengths, in that season’s (1952) Welsh Grand National. Unusually for a 7lb claimer, eight of those first ten victories were in chases, only Gerry Wilson’s dual-scoring juvenile hurdler Pontus being over the smaller obstacles. 

The following season he won Sandown’s Withington Stayers’ Handicap Chase on Head Crest and finished third on him behind Whispering Steel and Legal Joy in the Mildmay Memorial Chase. After finishing seventh in the National Hunt Handicap Chase at Cheltenham, Sid and Head Crest took their place at 40-1 shots in the 1953 Grand National line-up. Sadly, their Aintree dream ended at Becher’s first time around.

Head Crest gave Sid his only winner of the 1953/54 season, scoring at Sandown’s Royal Artillery fixture, but there was none the next. By 1955 he was riding for Dorking-based trainer Peter Rice-Stringer, who supplied him with all three of his winners for 1955/56.

Sid relinquished his licence in 1958 but returned in 1961 and rode his comeback winner on the John Hooton-trained chaser Princess Palm on the Saturday of Plumpton’s Easter meeting.

The following season, 1961/62, Sid won twice on a good chaser named John O’ Groats,

landing Folkestone’s Whitelaw Gold Cup and then following up at Wincanton. A week after the Wincanton victory they finished eighth of 13 at Cheltenham, after which Sid was ‘jocked off’ in favour of others.

He carried on riding for another season and had his final mount in public on Feeloptic in a Fontwell handicap chase on June 3, 1963. He then rode in Scandinavia where he was leading jockey in Sweden for two seasons. 

In later life Sid was a stalwart of Epsom Golf Club and he ran a taxi company. In 1996 he donated a claret jug, known as the Sid Barnes Trophy, for a four-ball matchplay between the Men and the Juniors.

Sid Barnes died on May 21, 2009, aged 76, his funeral taking place on June 11 at Randals Park Crematorium in Leatherhead, Surrey.

His winners were, in chronological order:

1. Head Crest, Kempton Park, March 2, 1951

2. Allen’s Bridge, Newton Abbot, March 26, 1951

3. Head Crest, Sandown Park, April 3, 1951

4. Punchestown Star, Wincanton, May 3, 1951

5. Allen’s Bridge, Worcester, October 13, 1951

6. Clonmore, Cheltenham, November 14, 1951

7. Rowney Cocktail, Towcester, November 16, 1951

8. Pontus, Nottingham, December 4, 1951

9. Western Clipper, Lingfield, December 7, 1951

10. Pontus, Stratford-on-Avon, January 3, 1952

11. Ballinalower, Fontwell Park, September 15, 1952

12. Head Crest, Sandown Park, November 21, 1952

13. Head Crest, Sandown Park, April 7, 1954

14. Winning Hit, Hurst Park, October 12, 1955

15. Liconda, Wye, October 31, 1955

16. Kind Answer, Sandown Park, November 19, 1955

17. Princess Palm, Plumpton, April 1, 1961

18. John O’ Groats, Folkestone, September 25, 1961

19. John O’ Groats, Wincanton, November 2, 1961