John Basford

Alan John Basford, who went by his second Christian name, held a jump jockey’s licence for two seasons in the mid-1950s but failed to register a success. The closest he came was when finishing second, beaten 3 lengths, on a horse named Cluniac at Worcester in March 1957. He renewed his licence for the 1960/61 season and rode for Dick Holland, who trained at Market Drayton, Shropshire.

His first winner was on Easter Fable in a two-mile handicap hurdle at Stratford on June 2, 1962. He doubled his score when winning a Woore novice hurdle on Lady Roonagh seven days later.

Both Easter Fable and Lady Roonagh had started favourite for their respective races, as was the case with John’s third winner, Generous Joe, the 7/4 market leader in a Newton Abbot novice riders’ hurdle at the start of the 1962/63 campaign. Two more winners followed later that season, the first on Lady Roonagh at Bangor, and then on Great Welcome, who justified odds of 6/4 on when winning at Uttoxeter on Easter Monday 1963.

He scored a third victory on Lady Roonagh, this time at Uttoxeter, in September 1963. The last of his seven winners – all of them trained by Dick Holland – came on Dumbeau in a Wolverhampton maiden hurdle on March 25, 1964.

He continued riding for three more years, his final mount being on Green Bee, pulled up in the Checkley Selling Handicap Hurdle at Uttoxeter on Easter Monday, March 27, 1967.

His winners in chronological order were:

1. Easter Fable, Stratford-on-Avon, June 2, 1962

2. Lady Roonagh, Woore, June 9, 1962

3. Generous Joe, Newton Abbot, August 16, 1962

4. Lady Roonagh, Bangor-on-Dee, April 6, 1963

5. Great Welcome, Uttoxeter, April 15, 1963

6. Lady Roonagh, Uttoxeter, September 5, 1963

7. Dumbeau, Wolverhampton, March 25, 1964