Bob Curson

Article by Chris Pitt

National Hunt jockey Bob Curson rode a total of 40 winners between 1953 and 1961. His career was at its height in the mid-1950s, achieving 11 wins in 1954/55 and a dozen the following season.

Robert Anthony Peter Curson rode his first winner on Dramamine, trained by Willie Stephenson, in the Dunsmore Handicap Hurdle at Warwick on February 2, 1953. He rode just one more winner that term, Sawtry at Towcester on April 25. The following season yielded just one success, Mokanna in an Easter Monday selling hurdle at Huntingdon, but he increased his score to five in 1954/55, three of them for Willie Stephenson, the other two for Diss, Norfolk trainer William Saunders.

Between them, Stephenson and Saunders supplied all 11 of Bob’s wins in 1955/56, which included three on Stephenson’s novice chaser Captain Hornblower and a Boxing Day double at Wetherby on Key Royal and Christmas Log.

It was a similar story in 1956/57, all 12 of his winners being trained by either Stephenson or Saunders, including an Easter Monday double at Market Rasen for Saunders and victories on Stephenson’s novice chaser Seas End at Doncaster and handicap chaser Clearing at Windsor. He rode Clearing in the 1957 Grand National but fell after being badly baulked at the fence after Valentine’s on the first circuit.

Afterwards, although he continued to ride for both Stephenson and Saunders, the flow of winners dropped to a trickle, three in both 1957/58 and 58/59, none the next season, and just two in 1960/61. It is possible that he suffered injuries that curtailed his campaigns.

Bob gained his final victory on Willie Stephenson’s My Timps in the Wragby Novices’ Hurdle at Market Rasen on October 14, 1961. He retired at the end of that season.