Daniel Butler 

Liverpudlian Daniel Butler was born on 9th July, 1851.

In November 1863 he became apprenticed to James Godding at Palace House, Newmarket. Aged 12 and the most diminutive of stable lads, he rode out at exercise for the next two years, learning his trade.

He made his racecourse début in 1865 at the Houghton Meeting on Captain White's Black Prince, a two-year-old carrying 5st 7lb in a £50 Plate. He finished unplaced behind the Sam Kenyon-ridden Rose Cheri: James Cameron on Jura finished second.

He kicked off the 1866 season riding Vulture on the first day of the Craven Meeting at Newmarket. He gained his first win just two days later on April 18th. Wearing the red, white & blue colours of Mr Jackson in a field of sixteen, he scored with consummate ease on Hopvine, that being only his third ride in public. Daniel finished the season with eight wins, eight seconds and seven thirds from fifty-three rides.

The following year he had 434 rides - considerably more than any other jockey - kicking home 97 winners, including five at Warwick on September 4th, 1867. His winners that day were Lily (7-1), King’s Cross (7-1), Goodwood (6-1), Diamond (5-4) and Python (4-7).

That year, wearing the tartan and yellow colours of owner A. de Montgomery, he won his first big handicap, the Northumberland Plate, on Fevacques. Later, as requested by the generous owner, the following sums from his winnings were paid to the town’s charitable institutions: The Infirmary, £20; The Deaf & Dumb Institution, £5; The Blind Asylum £5; The Dispensary, £5; Ragged & Industrial School, £5; The Fever Hospital, £5 and The Sick Children Hospital, £5.

Daniel’s next big winner was Numa Pompilius in the Nottinghamshire Handicap, a ride turned down by James Cameron in favour of stable-companion Knight Errant.

It was in the Huntingdon Cup that Daniel first revealed himself to be an accomplished judge of pace. Riding the complete outsider, Goodwood (then known as the Amanda colt), he was up against four very decent animals in Mousley, John Davis, Rama and Lecturer. Daniel stayed at the back of the field until four furlongs out when he gradually began to pick off his opponents. Inside the last furlong, Tom Chaloner still led on Mousley, yet, despite Chaloner’s most strenuous efforts, Daniel got up to win cleverly by three-quarters of a length.

Before the end of the season Daniel won the Brighton Stakes on Knight Errant and, replacing a sick Sam Kenyon, the Lewes Nursery on Retty and a Wolverhampton Nursery on Beauty. Other important wins came on Goodwood (Warwick Cup) and Seville (Great Yorkshire Handicap).

The following season, 1868, began slowly for Daniel: he finished third on Blueskin in the Trial Stakes before Purveyor proved a poor mount for him in the Lincoln Handicap won by Charlie Maidment on Indigestion. He came away from Lincoln having ridden three seconds then, riding at Nottingham, increased his losing run to ten. A Derby walk-over aside, Daniel had to wait until Liverpool for his first winner of the season: King’s Daughter in the Handicap Plate. Suddenly the winners flowed; at Chelmsford he won the Stand Plate on Marquis of Worcester, the Belhus Plate with Bush Hill at 5-1, the Springfields Handicap on Dr Wilson and the Fairlands Handicap on Benevolence. He also had a good Warwick, winning on Mistletoe, Eau de Vie and twice on Rampart.

He was out of luck at the Epsom Spring meeting: though aboard some hot favourites, he rode six straight losers. Daniel’s next winner came at Northampton in the Earl Spencer Plate when he made all the running on Ironmaster to easily defeat Alruna and Moslem. That, however, was his only victory at the venue - he rode sixteen consecutive losers before storming home on Mother Neasham in the Falcon Plate at Thirsk.

Then it was on to Newmarket and the Two Thousand Guineas week.

Here Daniel won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Kingsland, beating Silenus (John Daley), King Charming (John Morris), The Palmer (John Wells) and Lord Ronald (Jem Snowden). Daniel’s riding was ‘sublime’ though Wells lodged an objection on the grounds of jostling: this was quickly over-ruled. Cyclamen was Daniel’s only other winner that week.

He won twice at Chester, the Eaton Plate (Patrician) and the City Plate (The Cown), and steered Beauty into third place for the Chester Cup behind Paul Jones (Henry Jefferey). He then won York’s Flying Dutchman Handicap on Python. He rode no winners at Doncaster’s Spring Meeting and Vedette was his only winner at Bath.

Daniel rode three winners at the Epsom Summer Meeting: the Horton Stakes (Esher), Bentinck Plate (Airdrie) and the Durdans Plate (Little Coates).

He hit top form at Manchester, winning six times in two days, his most important win coming on Chivalry for the Salford Borough Cup. Whilst at the post for this race, Donaldbain lashed out, catching Daniel on the leg. He immediately dismounted but declined to allow Mr Haughton, the owner, to look for another jockey. Though crying with agony, Daniel was lifted back in the saddle and loudly cheered for his pluck. He then made every yard of the running to defeat Donaldbain (James Hudson). He gave up his rides for the rest of the day.

He then endured a fruitless Royal Ascot, his second in the Royal Hunt Cup on Satyr being as good as it got.

From then until the season’s end, Daniel maintained a steady stream of winners, the best of which may have been the three-year-old Vex, who was in foal when she won the Stewards’ Cup. This victory was not without incident: some fifty yards from the winning post, James Hudson on Mercury was in front. As Daniel attempted to pass, Mercury made a grab at Vex, biting the mare in the neck. Daniel prevailed to get Vex home by three-quarters of a length. He had sweated hard to do the weight on the winner (eventually putting up 3lb overweight) and, exhausted, spent the next few days in bed.

He finished his season having ridden a very acceptable 79 winners and, though he had ridden 97 winners the season before, it remained a highly respectable total.

Daniel’s biggest win in 1869 came on Brigantine in the Ascot Gold Cup.

Having retired to his winter quarters at Newmarket, he emerged from them at the start of the 1870 campaign noticeably heavier. To get in shape for the new season, he pursued his love of hunting and took part in coursing whenever a local meeting was held. He also rode in several races at a newly established hybrid meeting at Bromley.

He finished his apprenticeship in 1870 but continued to enjoy big race success, landing the 1871 Ebor Handicap on Not Out. He quite often rode in France: he scored for Count Lagrange on Le Bosphore in the Prix de Longchamps at the Paris Meeting on the Bois de Boulogne before running unplaced in the Prix de la Seine on Pompier, won by stable-companion Mortemer (Harry Parry). Back in Paris the following Sunday, he secured the Prix de Cars with Pompier and the 10,000 francs Cup race on Nelusko. It was on Count Lagrange's Boulogne that he won the 1869 Newmarket Derby by a neck from Pretender.

Daniel was devastated in 1872 when news of the death of his close friend, jockey Sammy Kenyon, reached him. They had virtually grown up together on the racecourse, and, years later, many citied Sammy's passing as the beginning of the end for Daniel.

Despite all his success in the saddle, he fell upon hard times and began cutting corners. He was twice caught travelling in a second-class carriage on the London and Brighton Railway when having only paid for a third-class ticket. On the second occasion, he was fined £1 plus £1. 3s costs to the railway company. Two years earlier, in 1875, he had been fined 25 shillings for not having a dog licence.

Daniel died in abject poverty at Cambridge on April 14th, 1884. An inquest into his death was held on Wednesday 16th April at the George & Dragon coffee-house, Newmarket Road, Cambridge, whose landlord revealed that Daniel had come to his house some five weeks before his death and had remained there ever since. Calling himself 'Dan Butler, the jockey', he appeared in bad health: arrangements were underway to remove him to hospital when his condition worsened, resulting in him dying that Monday. Addressing Mr H. Gotobed, the coroner, the surgeon Mr Thomas Lucas stated that he had made a post-mortem examination of the body, and found the cause of death to be congestion of the lungs. A verdict in accordance with the evidence was returned.

Champion jockey Fred Archer organised a ‘whip round’ amongst his fellow jockeys and raised enough money to provide Daniel with a decent burial.