Irish-born National Hunt jockey Willie Bourke came to ride in Britain at the start of 1966, basing himself with Arthur Thomas. Thomas had some top-class horses in his yard but it was common knowledge that they were in fact prepared in Ireland by Paddy Sleator, who used Thomas’s Warwickshire base more or less as a matter of convenience.
Willie scored his first success in Britain in the Matlock Chase at Uttoxeter March 19, 1966, aboard the prolific winning chaser Scottish Memories. Seven days later he won a Worcester novices’ chase on 12-year-old Another Flash, a former top-class hurdler who was belated being switched to fences. He then won a brace of novice hurdles on Wild Ruler at Uttoxeter on Easter Monday and at Perth at the end of April.
The following season Willie steered Scottish Memories to an all-the-way, unchallenged, distance victory in the Ellastone Optional Selling Chase at Uttoxeter on December 17, 1966. Scottish Memories was winning for the 32nd time but that turned out to be the last of Willie’s five British winners. He presumably returned to Ireland soon after the Jockey Club began to raise concerns over Sleator’s arrangement with Thomas, having spent barely a year riding in Britain.
Willie Bourke’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Scottish Memories, Uttoxeter, March 19, 1966
2. Another Flash, Worcester, March 26, 1966
3. Wild Ruler, Uttoxeter, April 11, 1966
4. Wild Ruler, Perth, April 28, 1966
5. Scottish Memories, Uttoxeter, December 17, 1966.
William Bourke winning on Scottish Memories at Uttoxeter on 17 December 1966.
