Article by Chris Pitt
It’s unusual that a jockey rides winners on the Flat, over hurdles and fences while still a 7lb claimer but that’s what Trenton Bridge did, his first ten winners comprising six on the Flat, a couple of hurdle races and a pair of novice chases.
Trenton Gordon Morley Bridge was born in Nottingham in 1953, his unusual first Christian name being the result of his father’s passion for the home ground of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.
He served his apprenticeship from 1970 to 1975 with Peter Supple at Clock House Stables, at Green Street Green, near Dartford, Kent, and rode his first winner on the Supple-trained Paddlesworth in the Long Distance Apprentices’ Handicap at Sandown on April 23, 1971. It was a dramatic race because one of the runners, Trolliloes, fell nearing the Eclipse Stakes start and brought down another, Fairy Godmother. Both horses and riders escaped unhurt and Fairy Godmother came with a perfectly timed run to collar Paddlesworth on the line, albeit minus her rider.
Trenton rode one more winner that year – Peter Supple’s two-year-old No Cloud in the Stewards’ Nursery at Haydock in October – but none the next. However, Supple operated a dual purpose yard and Trenton took out a jump jockey’s licence for the 1972/73 season.
Paddlesworth, who had given him his first winner on the Flat, also became his first over jumps when winning the Esher Handicap Hurdle at Kempton – the meeting had been transferred from Sandown due to building works at the Esher track – on Saturday, November 4, 1972. They followed up over course and distance four weeks later.
With the law that disqualified apprentices from claiming an allowance on the Flat once they had ridden over jumps having rightly been rescinded, Trenton was still able to utilise his 7lb claim for the 1973 Flat campaign, during which he rode four winners. Three of them were owned by Mr Wing Sang Tsui, who had several horses with Supple and gave them all names relating to his homeland, hence it was China Silk, China Bank and Canton Silk that provided Trenton with three winners in the space of a month at Folkestone, Beverley and Goodwood.
Back over jumps, Trenton rode three winners in the 1973/74 campaign, all in novice chases. Blest opened his account over fences at Lingfield in December and Gallic Rebel won twice at Wye, firstly on the eve of the 1974 Cheltenham Festival and then in April. This meant that Trenton had ridden winners on the Flat, over hurdles and over fences while still claiming a 7lb allowance.
There was just one winner on the Flat in 1974, that being the three-year-old colt Boardroom at Lingfield in August, while the 1974/75 NH season delivered two, both on China Bank, who had graduated to hurdling and won at Huntingdon in January, following up in the Don Butchers Challenge Trophy Handicap Hurdle at Plumpton in March. The latter victory was particularly appropriate as Peter Supple had been attached to Butchers when riding as a professional National Hunt jockey from 1959 to 1963.
Surprisingly given his dual-purpose status, Trenton rode just one more winner under each code. Having completed his apprenticeship in 1975 he then rode as a fully-fledged jockey on the Flat in 1976 and had his sole success when getting Gavin Hunter’s juvenile Regency Bill (right) up in the last stride for a short-head victory at Leicester on March 30, 1976.
Over jumps, where he was still entitled to a 5lb claim, he rode his final winner on Hangseng in a Towcester novices’ hurdle on Saturday, October 2, 1976.
In addition to have been one of the few jockeys to have ridden winners on the Flat, over hurdles and fences while still claiming 7lb, he was also one of the very few riders to have appeared on one of the teams in the popular TV competition ‘It’s a Knockout’.
Trenton Bridge’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Paddlesworth, Sandown Park, April 23, 1971
2. No Cloud, Haydock Park, October 2, 1971
3. Paddlesworth, Kempton Park, November 4, 1972
4. Paddlesworth, Kempton Park, December 1, 1972
5. China Silk, Folkestone, April 17, 1973
6. China Bank, Beverley, May 5, 1973
7. Canton Silk, Goodwood, May 17, 1973
8. Ryarsh, Wolverhampton, August 18, 1973
9. Blest, Lingfield Park, December 8, 1973
10. Gallic Rebel, Wye, March 11, 1974
11. Gallic Rebel, Wye, April 8, 1974
12. Boardroom, Lingfield Park, August 10, 1974
13. China Bank, Huntingdon, January 23, 1975
14. China Bank, Plumpton, March 4, 1975
15. Regency Bill, Leicester, March 30, 1976
16. Hangseng, Towcester, October 2, 1976
