John Beasty

Article by Chris Pitt

National Hunt jockey John Beasty was a mere lad of 15 when riding his first winner on a horse named Unguent at Plumpton on November 26, 1947. And the horse was a touch on the young side too.

Trained by Harold Wallington at Epsom, Unguent was a three-year-old hurdler who took on his elders and beat them that day in division one of the Westmeston Novices’ Hurdle. The experience evidently didn’t do horse or rider any harm, for they combined to win again at Wincanton in January 1948.

John Alan Beasty was born on December 13, 1932. He rode as stable jockey for Epsom trainer Peter Thrale throughout the 1950s. Among his most prolific winners was a selling hurdler named Drury, on whom he won six times, but probably the best he rode was the useful chaser Claude Duval.

John won seven times on Claude Duval, beginning with the Park Chase  at Sandown on February 13, 1953, following up at Windsor a fortnight later and then winning again at Hurst Park eight days after that. The following season, they won at Hurst Park in January and then landed Kempton’s Coventry Handicap Chase on February 27, 1954.

John won just once on Claude Duval in the 1954/55 season, a minor contest at Towcester in May, but ran their best race in defeat, finishing a close-up third behind Mont Tremblant and Wise Child in the Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting.

John’s best season numerically was 1955/56, during which he rode 12 winners, including juvenile hurdler Solon Morn, who won at Hurst Park, Newbury and Warwick in January. He also won Sandown’s Village Hurdle on another four-year-old, Rocko. Peter Thrale ran both of them in the Triumph Hurdle, held in those days at Hurst Park. Dennis Dillon rode Solon Morn while John rode Rocko. Solon Morn passed the post first, five lengths clear of his nearest rival, but was disqualified for bumping and boring and placed second. Rocko, meanwhile, fell at the fourth flight.

Three of John’s six winners in 1956/57 came courtesy of juvenile hurdler Corner House, at Nottingham in October, Birmingham in November and Nottingham again in December. He enjoyed a more successful season in 1957/58, booting home 11 winners.

John rode his last winner on Maddalo,  trained by Peter Thrale, in division two of the Ashford Novices’ Hurdle at Kempton Park on February 21, 1959. Next time out, Maddalo came close to giving John the biggest win of his entire career, when finishing second in that year’s Triumph Hurdle.

John Beasty retired in the early part of the following season, bringing an end to a career that had brought him more than 80 winners. He died in 2014, aged 81.