Cliff Boothman

Written by Chris Pitt

Yorkshire jockey Cliff Boothman rode a total of 14 winners during a career that spanned from the early 1950s to Boxing Day 1970 when a fall at Wetherby resulted in a broken back.

Boothman, a farmer’s son from Leeds, started his career as a professional boxer, training in The Calls, Leeds, and won 99 out of 109 fights. On the day war broke out in 1939 he was due to represent his country in Belgium fighting for the British Empire welterweight title.

After the war he began riding as an amateur and scored his first three winners at Cartmel over the 1953 Whitsun bank holiday, first being on Haris II on the Saturday and then landing a double on Dombleue and Harris II on the Monday. He won again on Haris II at Sedgefield on June 2, giving him a total of four winners from just 16 rides.

He bought a farm at Biggin, near South Milford, and took out a trainer’s permit. He rode no more winners as an amateur but nevertheless turned professional in 1961. He then had to wait until Easter Monday 1965 to ride his first professional winner, Lanchester in the Rase Selling Handicap Hurdle at Market Rasen. His second winner came in the very same race 12 months later when dead-heating on Tele-Bingo.

His best season as a professional was in 1967/68 when riding three winners from 48 mounts. Although well into his fifties he continued to ride as well as train and had ridden two winners during the early weeks of the 1970/71 campaign, but a Boxing Day ride on Mon Bleu in a Wetherby novices’ hurdle was to be his last. Mon Bleu fell at the first flight and Boothman, aged 55, was taken to Harrogate General Hospital where it was found that he had broken his back and there was little hope of him being able to walk again.

But being confined to a wheelchair did not deter him from training. He continued to rise at 7am to watch his horses work, running his three-wheel invalid car alongside the gallops. He trained many winners from his wheelchair, among them being his old favourite Adelphi, on whom he’d won three times. He saddled Adelphi to win a Southwell selling hurdle as a 14-year-old. Three years later, Adelphi ran his last race, aged 17, when finishing fourth, beaten seven lengths, in a Hexham selling hurdle on 20 October 1976.

Boothman died on Friday, March 18, 2005, aged 90. He was survived by his wife Phyllis. They had one daughter, Amanda Carter, a Leeds city councillor. His funeral took place on March 30 at Calverley Parish Church, Leeds.

Cliff Boothman’s winners in chronological order were:

1. Haris II, Cartmel, 23 May 1953

2. Dombleue, Cartmel, 25 May 1953

3. Haris II, Cartmel, 25 May 1953

4. Haris II, Sedgefield, 2 June 1953

5. Lanchester, Market Rasen, 10 April 1965

6. Tele-Bingo, Market Rasen, 11 April 1966

7. Lanchester, Market Rasen, 13 August 1966

8. Adelphi, Market Rasen, 7 August 1967

9. Rose Cottage, Southwell, 29 August 1967

10. Adelphi, Hexham, 30 September 1967

11. Touch Line, Wetherby, 9 November 1968

12. Valairon, Wetherby, 30 March 1970

13. Adelphi, Southwell, 31 August 1970

14. Touch Line, Hexham, 7 September 1970