John Birch 

Article by Chris Pitt

National Hunt jockey John Birch was born on August 24, 1930, and served his time with Tim Hamey at Prestbury, near Cheltenham. 

He rode his first winner on a chestnut handicap chaser named Rebel Abbey at Leicester on Tuesday, January 8, 1952. 

He won twice more on Rebel Abbey that season, at Hurst Park in March and Hereford on Whit Monday. The same horse also supplied him with both his winners the following season.

John’s banner season was 1953/54, during which he operated as a freelance and rode eleven winners for a variety of trainers including Noel Furlong, Phil Doherty, Reg Hollinshead, Jack Bissill and Frank Hudson. 

He scored doubles at Towcester in October 1953 and Woore in May 1954, rounding off the season by winning Towcester’s Fred Withington Challenge Cup Handicap Chase on Noel Furlong’s Comeragh.

The following season was a disappointment, yielding just two winners: a pair of Reg Hollinshead-trained three-mile chasers called Fairoaks  and Fair Newcombe. 

He made a bright start to the 1955/56 campaign, winning on selling hurdler Los Zicales at Devon & Exeter for Belbroughton owner-trainer Luther Bridge and on Eric Cousins’ selling chaser Hyson at Ludlow in September, but had just one more winner – King’s Inn at Chepstow on Boxing Day – to show for the rest of the season. Worse still, there was none at all the following season.

Having gone just over two years without visiting the winner’s enclosure, John finally ended the drought when landing a Leicester hurdle race on Celtic Night in January 1958. He then achieved the biggest victory of his career when Celtic Night held on for a short-head success in Doncaster’s valuable Princess Royal Handicap Hurdle. He also rode Celtic Night in that year’s County Hurdle at Cheltenham, finishing in tenth place.

John had just one more success that season, Bill Marshall’s Scottish Flake in a selling hurdle on Hereford’s Easter Monday card. He came close to a repeat victory over course and distance on Whit Monday but was beaten half a length into second place. Having failed to register a success in either of the next two seasons, he called time on his 24-winner career in 1960. 

John Birch died in March 2009, aged 78. 

His winners were, in chronological order:

1. Rebel Abbey, Leicester, January 8, 1952

2. Rebel Abbey, Hurst Park, March 7, 1952

3. Rebel Abbey, Hereford, June 2, 1952

4. Rebel Abbey, Hereford, November 8, 1952

5. Rebel Abbey, Wolverhampton, December 27, 1952

6. Loyal Toast, Huntingdon, October 17, 1953 

7. Loyal Toast, Towcester, October 24, 1953

8. Comeragh, Towcester, October 24, 1953 

9. Fairy Mesh, Worcester, December 5, 1953 

10. Wild Honey, Wolverhampton, December 8, 1953 

11. Effendi, Wolverhampton, January 18, 1954 

12. Weymouth, Wolverhampton, March 9, 1954 

13. Knight’s Harp, Bangor-on-Dee, April 24, 1954 

14. Knight’s Harp, Woore, May 13, 1954

15. Go-Between, Woore, May 13, 1954 

16. Comeragh, Towcester, May 15, 1954

17. Fairoaks, Southwell, December 20, 1954

18. Fair Newcombe, Ludlow, April 28, 1955

19. Los Zicales, Devon & Exeter, September 8, 1955

20. Hyson, Ludlow, September 23, 1955

21. King’s Inn, Chepstow, December 26, 1955

22. Celtic Night, Leicester, January 4, 1958

23. Celtic Night, Doncaster, February 1, 1958

24. Scottish Flake, Hereford, April 7, 1958