Article by Chris Pitt
Born on November 28, 1914, John Edward Raymond Burton was a south-west based jumps jockey who rode from just after World War II until 1962/63. He rode seven winners in his most successful season, 1952/53, but by far the most famous horse with which he was associated was Jim Ford’s 1955 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Gay Donald.
John was still claiming 7lb when he rode Gay Donald for the first time, finishing fifth in a Taunton novices’ chase on May 17, 1951. He partnered him in all his races the following season, but they were not harbingers of great things to come, for while Gay Donald came within half a length of winning a three-horse race at Taunton in November, the remainder of his efforts were uninspiring, a lucky second at Wye, a distant last of three at Windsor being among the better ones, and his season ended prematurely following a Boxing Day fall at Wincanton.
John was again Gay Donald’s regular partner during the 1952/53 campaign when, as the 100/8 outsider of five, he began by winning a handicap chase at Taunton on September 27. Following an unseated rider at Cheltenham and a fall at Wincanton, Gay Donald finished runner-up to the useful Whispering Steel in Cheltenham’s Honeybourne Chase, and was then second to Stalbridge Rock at Wincanton on Boxing Day. Then came three more disappointing efforts – a fall at Wincanton, last of four at Sandown, and a distant third of four at Kempton – before resuming winning ways at Stratford on the last day of January and following up at Lingfield in February.
Six days after the Lingfield win, on February 26, 1953, John and Gay Donald were third in a chase at Ludlow. That would be the 20th and final time he rode him. The following season Tony Grantham won on Gay Donald at Wincanton and kept the ride thereafter, winning four more races that season and, in 1955, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
But as one door closed, another opened with a horse named Prince Stephen, owner-trained by Captain E. J. Edwards-Heathcote at Beasley Farm, Timberscombe, near Minehead. John won a pair of novice hurdles on Prince Stephen, at Taunton in February 1955 and at Worcester the following month. Those were two of his five winners for the 1954/55 campaign, the first having been on novice chaser High Flame at Newton Abbot’s Christmas fixture for Cullompton trainer Jack Cann, the fourth and fifth being gained at two long-lost venues, Napparella at the annual Beaufort Hunt fixture and Luesweed at Buckfastleigh.
The next season, Prince Stephen supplied John with his entire total of three wins, scoring at Stratford in November, Newbury in January, and culminating in the valuable Liverpool Hurdle on Grand National day 1956. Most would remember that day for the dramatic collapse of Devon Loch on the Aintree run-in, but John Burton would have had good reason for recalling it in celebration of the biggest win of his riding career.
Prince Stephen was aimed high in 1956/57, finishing sixth in Cheltenham’s County Hurdle and fifth in his bid for a back-to-back success in the Liverpool Hurdle. Returned to more modest hurdling company, he won at Newton Abbot on Easter Monday, returning there the following month to land the Charles Vickery Memorial Challenge Cup.
Prince Stephen was one of just two winners John rode in 1957/58 when registering yet another Newton Abbot success in September. His other victory that season came courtesy of Dainty Dish, trained by John St. Aubyn Trevisick at Barnstaple, at Newton Abbot on Easter Monday.
It was on Easter Monday the following year that John rode the last of his 30 winners, 20-1 outsider Surrey Street in a Wincanton novices’ hurdle.
He began training soon afterwards, based at Southbank, Holbrook, Wincanton, while continuing to ride in races, but he never had more than three or four horses in his yard and 1963 marks his final entry in ‘Horses in Training’. He was later employed by the Jockey Club as a veterinary officer’s assistant.
John Burton died on January 13, 1971 aged 56, leaving a widow and two daughters. His winners from 1950 onwards were as follows:
Countryman, Newton Abbot, May 20, 1950
Loop the Loop, Newton Abbot, September 8, 1950
Countryman, Taunton, March 8, 1952
Gay Donald, Taunton, September 29, 1952
Countryman, Hereford, November 8, 1952
Astronomical, Wincanton, January 8,
Gay Donald, Stratford, January 31, 1953
Gay Donald, Lingfield, February 20, 1953
Flying Gold, Taunton, February 21, 1953
Lord-de-France, Newton Abbot, April 4, 1953
Lord-de-France, Devon & Exeter, September 9, 1953
Homespun Too, Newton Abbot, May 15, 1954
High Flame, Newton Abbot, December 28, 1954
Prince Stephen, Taunton, February 5, 1955
Prince Stephen, Worcester, March 21, 1955
Napparella, Beaufort Hunt, April 16, 1955
Luesweed, Buckfastleigh, May 28, 1955
Prince Stephen, Stratford, November 17, 1955
Prince Stephen, Newbury, January 18, 1956
Prince Stephen, Liverpool, March 24, 1956
Holytown, Wincanton, September 15, 1956
Prince Stephen, Newton Abbot, April 22, 1957
Prince Stephen, Newton Abbot, May 18, 1957
Prince Stephen, Newton Abbot, September 28, 1957
Dainty Dish, Newton Abbot, April 7, 1958
Surrey Street, Wincanton, April 23, 1959
