John William Weare Bisgood, popularly known as Jack Bisgood, was born on September 28, 1900. He rode a total of 35 winners under National Hunt rules during the 1920s.
Jack had his first ride in public on Woodchurch in a Windsor selling hurdle on February 14, 1923, finishing last of nine.
However, he had ridden a winner by the end of the year, registering his first success on Square Cut in the two-mile Yafford Chase at the Isle of Wight meeting at Ashey on September 26, 1923, being the only one of the five runners to get round without falling.
He enjoyed his most successful season in 1926/27 with 10 wins.
Jack rode in two Grand Nationals, the first in 1929 on that year’s National Hunt Chase winner Big Wonder, who started at 50-1 but refused. The following year, Jack rode a 100-1 shot, the 15-year-old Cryptical. They pulled up.
Despite failing to get round in two Grand National attempts, Jack did manage to finish third in two races over the Grand National fences, both in 1929, aboard Sir Lindsay in the Stanley Chase and Hackdaile in the Becher Chase.
It was in that same year that he rode the last winner of his career, Big Three, who won a match for the Freshwater Selling Handicap Chase at the Isle of Wight on May 16, 1929, squeaking home by a head.
He had his final ride at Newbury on November 11, 1930. By then, the Isle of Wight, where Jack had ridden his first and last winners, had disappeared from the racing scene.
Those racegoers who attended the Isle of Wight’s meeting at Ashey on Whit Monday, June 9, 1930, would not have known they were witnessing its final day’s racing under National Hunt rules. A second meeting had been planned for the August Bank Holiday Monday but shortly beforehand the grandstand was destroyed in a mystery blaze and the meeting was cancelled, as subsequently were the two fixtures scheduled for 1931, the dates for which had already been published.
Conflicting reports suggest the cause of the fire was either a farm hand burning up hedge clippings too close to the wooden grandstand, or a ‘gentleman of the road’ using the stand as an overnight refuge. It is said that when news of the blaze was brought by telegram to a meeting of the course’s directors, the page-boy asked them if there was to be any reply, to which the chairman exclaimed ‘Bring champagne!”. Turning to his directors he said “Gentlemen, the stand at Ashey has burned down and we are fully insured!”
The Isle of Wight’s course at Ashey had long since returned to open farmland by the time Jack Bisgood breathed his last. He lived to a good age, dying on November 1, 1980, aged 80.
