The son of a horse-dealer and horse-breaker, Jack Lancelot Boddy was born at Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, on March 11, 1921. As a schoolboy he hunted and competed with ponies in the show-ring.
Aged 19, he joined the army, thus serving no formal apprenticeship. He began riding as an amateur after the war and had his first winner on Sergeant Kelly at Wetherby on Tuesday, March 30, 1948, the second day of Wetherby’s Easter meeting.
Jack rode three winners the following season, two on handicap chaser Happy Days for Spofforth owner-trainer Ted Gifford, the third being on San Michele in the Limestone Champion Hunters’ Chase at Market Rasen in May 1949. He also rode San Michele in that year’s Grand National, falling at the Canal Turn second time round.
Jack turned professional the following season but had to wait until March before breaking his duck in the paid ranks, on maiden hurdler Sunhaven at Southwell. He won on him again at Sedgefield the following month and then won a handicap chase on San Michele at Southwell. He rode San Michele again in the 1950 Grand National, this time falling at the seventh fence.
After having had a total of just seven winners in three seasons, he began riding for Walter Easterby and rode seven more winners in the 1950/51 season, then eight in 1951/52, beginning with three in a row on Easterby’s juvenile hurdler Warp Majestic and ending with three in a row on Jack Fawcus’s handicap hurdler Robert’s Choice. Sandwiched in between those victories, Jack finished fourth on Uncle Barney in the 1952 Grand National.
He won four more races on Warp Majestic in the 1952/53 campaign, representing half of his season’s total of eight. The other four included dead-heating on Uncle Barney in the 1952 Valentine Chase – ironically, the other dead-heater was Sergeant Kelly, who had been Jack’s first winner – over the Aintree fences. He partnered Uncle Barney in the 1953 Grand National but this time failed to complete, falling at Becher’s on the second circuit.
Jack rode with considerable success around the northern tracks throughout the 1950s, notching 15 winners in his best season, 1956/57, including Newcastle’s
John Eustace Smith Trophy Handicap Chase on the Jack Fawcus-trained Game Field (left) and the 1957 Liverpool Hurdle aboard Oakdale. The following season he achieved the biggest success of his career when riding Game Field to victory the 1958 Scottish Grand National.
Jack’s tally of winners decreased with the arrival of the 1960s, his final victory – the 88th of his career – coming on Herbert Megginson’s chaser Gurford on Saturday, June 1, 1963.
Following his retirement, Jack managed Peter Easterby’s stud – he had ridden Peter Easterby’s first winner when he began training – and later moved south to work for trainer George Todd at Marlborough.
Aged 62, Jack died in Oxford in October 1983. His wife, Mary, had predeceased him in February 1969.
Jack Boddy
Big winners:
1952: Valentine Chase – Uncle Barney (dead-heat)
1957: Liverpool Handicap Hurdle – Oakdale
1958: Scottish Grand National – Game Field
