James Thaddeus Bourke was born Co Limerick on October 28, 1945 and, having started out as an amateur, went on to ride over 100 winners.
Jimmy entered racing via point-to-pointing after finishing school at 18. After cutting his teeth with Pat Hogan and with a handful of pointing wins to his name, he decided to give England a try and took out his amateur rider’s licence in 1965. It didn’t take him long to ride his first winner, on Connolly for Tarporley trainer George Owen in a Wolverhampton hunters’ chase on February 8, 1965.
In 1967 the stewards withdrew his permit to ride which led him to spend a year under Robert Hall at the Fulmer School of Equitation, where he received extensive dressage training. That was not really part of Jimmy’s grand plan, but with hindsight it was a wonderful opportunity to be taught by a graduate of the Spanish Riding School.
In 1968 Jimmy returned to racing, taking out a professional jockey’s licence. He rode Astbury into third place in the 1971 Grand National and also finished fifth twice in the race, on Ginger Nut in 1970 and on Astbury in 1972. He finished tenth on both Norwegian Flag in 1974 and Hidden Value (after remounting) in 1977, thus completing the course on five of his seven Grand National rides.
An expert around Liverpool, he also won the William Hill Grand National Trial over the Aintree fences in 1972 on Glenkiln. However, he gained his biggest at Ayr, winning the 1973 Scottish
Grand National on 16/1 shot Esban, owned by the singer Dorothy Squires. Esban was officially trained by Bob Clay at Shareshill, Wolverhampton. However, although Clay held the licence, the training was effectively done by his head lad, former jump jockey Paddy Connors.
Jimmy enjoyed his best season numerically in 1969/70 with 17 wins. Among the trainers he rode for were Doug Francis, Jack Bissill, George Owen, Ray Peacock and Peter Milner. He won six races of Bissill’s chaser Ostrich Duck, including the Queen’s Royal Lancers Challenge Cup at Uttoxeter in April 1972 and the Roddy Baker Gold Cup at Stratford in May 1973. They scored their last victory together at Wolverhampton on December 27, 1973 (below).
An ebullient character, he retired from professional riding ‘when the phone stopped ringing’ – it had never been Jimmy’s way to chase rides, preferring trainers and owners to actively select him. His career then continued with the role of head lad in various yards; Steve Norton, Mel Britain, Sue Smith and Richard Whittaker, all benefitting from Jimmy’s experience.
In his retirement Jimmy returned to Ireland and built a bungalow near Tipperary, where he and his partner Katherine then lived.
