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
