Northern National Hunt jockey Eric Henderson Boyle started out as an amateur but turned professional at the start of the 1963/64 season without having yet ridden a winner. He then had four seasons in the paid ranks and registered five victories.
His first two wins came courtesy of three-mile chaser Saxine, trained by Berwick-on-Tweed permit holder George Houston, at Kelso in April and Hexham in May 1965.
Eric rode three winners in the 1965/66 campaign, beginning with Houston’s Star Adorned in division one of the Carterside Novices’ Hurdle at Newcastle on April 16, 1966 – that fixture having been transferred from Rothbury, which had closed the year before. He won a Perth novices’ chase on Speldhurst Boy for Scottish permit trainer James Beck, and then won for a third time on the by then 13-year-old Saxine at Hexham on Whit Monday.
Although he never won on him, probably the best horse he rode in a race was Midnight Coup. Eric dead-heated for third place on him behind Lucky Domino in the George Mulcaster Memorial Cup Chase at Sedgefield on January 29, 1966, and then rode him seven days later in the Eider Chase at Newcastle, where he refused.
Weight became a problem for Eric. He’d put up 4lb overweight at 10st 7lb when winning for the last time of Saxine on that Whit Monday at Hexham, and he was overlooked in favour of Swanny Haldane for the ride on George Houston’s Star Adorned, who won the next race on the card, carrying the allotted weight of 10st 6lb.
Eric had a few rides the following season but had hung up his boots by the end of the campaign.
Eric Boyle’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Saxine, Kelso, April 3, 1965
2. Saxine, Hexham, May 12, 1965
3. Star Adorned, Newcastle, April 16, 1966
4. Speldhurst Boy, Perth, May 18, 1966
5. Saxine, Hexham, May 30, 1966
