Article by Chris Pitt
Scottish lightweight jockey Archibald Burns was born in Edinburgh on September 26, 1902. He was apprenticed to Percy Whitaker and made a slightly belated start to his riding career, partly due to the Great War. He was almost 20 when riding his first winner on Whitaker’s five-year-old gelding Quilp in a one-mile apprentices’ handicap at Lewes on May 22, 1922. He achieved his first notable success when winning the 1926 Goodwood Stakes on Broken Faith.
He was arguably unlucky not to win the 1927 Lincolnshire Handicap on Orbindos, being beaten a head by Freddy Fox’s mount Priory Park when putting up 4lb overweight at 6st 12lb. However, he quickly put that disappointment behind him by winning the Greenham Stakes on Lordland and the Newbury Spring Cup on Orbindos. He also won that year’s Chester Vase on Lone Knight.
He won the Newbury Spring Cup again in 1928 riding Vintage Bell. He also won the Chester Vase again in 1930, this time on Pinxit.
He became a close friend of Gordon Richards and used to go curling with him and their friends in St Moritz every winter. In September 1933, after riding at Doncaster, Archie and Gordon, along with Fred Lane, Fred Darling, Herbert Blagrave and Norah Hartigan, narrowly escaped death in a tragic air crash. The airplane, a ten-seater De Havilland Dragon, was due to take off from Armthorpe Aerodrome for a flight to Beckhampton. On take-off it failed to clear a six-foot hedge and plunged to the ground. The three jockeys and Herbert Blagrave were unhurt while Norah Hartigan and Fred Darling escaped with little more than cuts and bruises but the pilot died from his injuries shortly afterwards.
Archie’s career declined in the late 1930s, with Atty Persse being just about the only trainer to support him with regular rides. He served in the RAF from 1942 to 1945 and although he tried to resurrect his career in the immediate post-war years, he failed to do so. He had just five rides during the whole of 1950 and retired the following year. He died in 1970.
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