Article by Chris Pitt
In 1769 Captain Cook, a leading light in his profession, crossed the Equator and discovered Australia. One hundred and eighty years later, another Cook, also a leader in his own particular profession, made the same journey from the opposite direction and discovered British racing.
Australian jockey Billy Cook, popularly remembered as ‘Last-Race Cook’, only rode here for two years, 1949 and 1951, yet his name is still recalled by some of the older generations of racing fans.
William Henry Cook, always known as ‘Billy’ Cook, was born in Hornsby, a suburb of Sydney, on January 12, 1910. His father, a butcher by trade, owned a racehorse named Tricolour, and as a lad young Billy was taken to race meetings to see the horse run. The boy was immediately attracted by the animated scenes and the brightly coloured silks of the jockeys. That made up his mind to become a jockey himself.
He signed on as an apprentice with a local trainer but had to wait twelve months before he had his first mount in a race, and then a further six months before he rode his first winner, on a horse named Pigeon Pie at Canterbury Racecourse, (New South Wales) in September 1925.
Billy’s nickname of ‘Last-Race’ Cook had long preceded his arrival in Britain, having been earned following his riding of the winner of the last race on 13 consecutive Saturdays in Sydney. He was also known as ‘The Champ’ due to his exquisite riding skills.
He was Sydney’s champion jockey six times – with a record 150 winners in the 1939/40 season – and twice won Australia’s ‘race that stops a nation’, the Melbourne Cup, on Skipton (1941) and Rainbird (1945). His other big race triumphs in Australia included the 1930 Caulfield Cup on Amounis, the Victoria Derby and the Sydney Cup (on Crucis) although arguably his most famous victory was when defeating Phar Lap on Mollison in the 1929 Chelmsford Stakes. His only regret was that although he rode Phar Lap at exercise, he never had the opportunity to ride him in a race.
In 1932, the urge to go exploring took him to India, where he rode for the Maharajah of Kolhapur. His brother, Reggie Cook, a successful jockey himself in Australia, also rode in India, before moving on to do very well in Ceylon. After a season there, Billy returned to Australia but went back to India in 1938 where he wound up joint champion jockey despite only riding there for part of the season.
Having ridden over 2,000 winners in his native country and able to ride at 7st 7lb, Billy, together with his wife Rae and four children, left his farm home in Australia and arrived in Britain in 1949.
He made an immediate impact, winning on his second ride in Britain,
Walter Nightingall’s three-year-old colt Acid Test, in the City Maiden Plate on the first day of Liverpool’s Grand National meeting, March 23, 1949. But that was only the start, for he won the Lydiate Handicap the next day on High Beacon, and the day after that he landed the Molyneux Cup on Nighttime and the Bickerstaffe Two-Year-Old Plate on a filly named Danae, all of them trained by Nightingall.
He won races on both days of Newbury’s spring meeting the following week, had a winner at Newmarket’s Craven Meeting, then rode three more at Hurst Park’s two-day fixture, including the Tudor Rose Handicap on Red Haven. On the opening day of Epsom’s Spring Meeting, April 19, he won the Great Metropolitan Handicap in the colours of Lord Rosebery on Yoyo, trained by Jack Jarvis, then won the Westminster Stakes on Danae. He rode a double on Nightingall-trained horses at Sandown on April 22, Kind Regards and Leader. Back at Newmarket, Billy finished third in the Two Thousand Guineas on Barnes Park and sixth on Three Weeks in the One Thousand Guineas
At Lingfield on May 7, Billy won the Derby Trial Stakes on Cecil Boyd-Rochfort’s Brown Rover, beating the long odds-on favourite Jai Hind by five lengths. At Epsom’s Derby meeting, he won the Coronation Cup on Irish-trained raider Beau Sabreur. In the Derby itself, he elected to ride Barnes Park rather than Brown Rover, finishing fifth behind Nimbus, Amour Drake, Swallow Tail and Royal Forest, while Brown Rover finished well in arrears. And as if to credence to his nickname, Billy duly won the last race of that year’s Derby Day on Le Filou.
He continued to ride winners in June, including the Bessborough Stakes at Royal Ascot on High Beacon. The following week he won the Newbury Summer Cup on Sam Armstrong’s colt Vasant.
All of that and yet he’d been in the country barely three months. He went on to finish with a score of 42 winners, despite heading home to Australia early and missing the final weeks of the season.
When Billy returned in 1951 it was a case of déjà vu all over again, winning on his first ride back for the same trainer in the very same race at Liverpool, the City Maiden Plate, this time on the grey Part Du Lyon (left). They followed up at Newbury later that month.
Bill rode a double for Walter Nightingall at Epsom’s spring meeting, winning the Hyde Park Stakes on Set Fair and the
Epsom Maiden Plate on Malka’s Boy. Next time out, Billy and Malka’s Boy finished third to Ki Ming (Scobie Breasley) and Stokes (George Younger) in the Two Thousand Guineas. Billy also rode Malka’s Boy in the Derby, finishing fourteenth behind 28/1 outsider Arctic Prince.
He rode two more big-race winners for Nightingall, Master Rocky in Sandown’s Esher Cup, and juvenile Fairforall in Epsom’s Woodcote Stakes.
Billy’s final score for 1951 was a total of 23 winners. He returned to Australia at the end of that season and continued his successful career there, winning the 1953 Sydney Cup on Carioca, and the 1954 CB Fisher Plate on Rising Fast. He retired from riding in 1959 – ‘Last Race Cook’ finally riding his own last race at the age of 49.
Billy Cook died at his home the Gold Coast on January 29, 1985, aged 75. He was posthumously inducted in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2002.
His son Peter Cook was also a successful jockey in Australia and emulated his father by winning the Melbourne Cup twice, on Just A Dash (1981) and Black Knight (1984). He also won two Cox Plates, on Surround (1976) and Kingston Town (1982), plus the 1979 Doncaster Handicap on Belmura Lad. Understandably, he was often compared to his father.
Biggest wins
1949: Molyneux Cup – Nighttime
1949: Great Metropolitan Handicap – Yoyo
1949: Lingfield Derby Trial – Brown Rover
1949: Coronation Cup – Beau Sabreur
1949: Bessborough Stakes – High Beacon
1949: Newbury Summer Cup – Vasant
1951: Esher Cup – Master Rocky
1951: Woodcote Stakes – Fairforall
