Glenville Blackledge

Apprentice Glenville Blackledge was a fleeting presence on horse racing’s landscape, riding four winners from 38 mounts in 1971, his only winning season. He served his apprenticeship with Guilsborough trainer Ron Mason who supplied all of his quartet of winners, three of them on a four-year-old chestnut filly named Queen’s Fantasy. 

Queen’s Fantasy was Glenville’s first winner when landing the Easter Apprentice Handicap at Doncaster on April 10, 1971 by a short-head from Tony Ives on Tortuga. Later that month, Glenville rode Mason’s eleven-year-old veteran Peter Piper to finish runner-up in the Long Distance Apprentices’ Handicap at Sandown.

 His second winner was Winmona in an apprentices’ handicap at Edinburgh in June. Reunited with Queen’s Fantasy, he won similar contest at Nottingham on July 5.

They followed up five days later with victory in the Punters’ Club Apprentice Handicap at Newcastle.

And that was it. Four winners within the space of three months, all of them in apprentice handicaps, then Glenville Blackledge gradually faded from the scene. 

His winners were, in chronological order:

1. Queen’s Fantasy, Doncaster, April 10, 1971

2. Winmona, Edinburgh, June 21, 1971

3. Queen’s Fantasy, Nottingham, July 5, 1971

4. Queen’s Fantasy, Newcastle, July 10, 1971