Article by Chris Pitt
Terence Cain was born in 1953 and his riding career spanned the 1970s. He is probably best remembered for winning the 1973 Cesarewitch on 25-1 shot Flash Imp as a 5lb claimer.
Terry was apprenticed to Ron Smyth at Epsom and rode his first winner on Bijou Boy, trained by Smyth, in a three-year-old handicap at Salisbury on July 1, 1971. He rode eight more winners that season, including two on Les Hall’s handicapper Two On A Tower in apprentice races at Ascot in September and Lingfield in October.
He went on to carve out a successful career as an apprentice, riding 73 winners before coming out of his time in 1976. His best season numerically was in 1973 when he rode 22 winners, topped by the Ron Smyth-trained Flash Imp in that year’s Cesarewitch on October 20, when his 5lb allowance proved barely necessary in galloping to a four-length victory over Edward Hide’s mount Irish Favour.
Terry followed up with 21 winners in 1974, but 1975 was the better year in terms of trophies, for his 16 successes included York’s David Dixon Gold Cup on Huzzar in May, Newcastle’s Harry Peacock Challenge Cup on Big Venture in July, and Bath’s Be Hopeful Memorial Handicap on Proud Pathan in August, all three trained by Duncan Sasse at Upper Lambourn.
Having completed his apprenticeship and joined the ranks of fully-fledged jockeys in 1976, Terry struggled to replicate the success of his early years. He managed to ride seven winners from 119 mounts that year, courtesy of trainers Richmond Sturdy, Richard Hannon, Ron Smyth and Milton Bradley, while Duncan Sasse supplied the other three, notably Psalve, on whom Terry won at Pontefract in May and followed up in the Royal Scots Cup Handicap at Edinburgh in June.
His score fell to just two in 1977, namely Ron Smyth’s Georgian Girl in the Silver Jubilee Handicap at Bath in May, and the David Jermy-trained Mingalles in a Folkestone three-year-old maiden in July.
Jermy also provided Terry with his first winner of 1978, his final year with a jockey’s licence, this being two-year-old Royal Connection at Chepstow on May 30. Epsom trainer Brian Swift put Terry on another juvenile winner, Sheer Elegance at Salisbury on June 6, and then four days later Royal Connection (left) won the Staff Ingham Stakes on Oaks day, Saturday, June 10, 1978, to give him his third winner of the season and what would be the last of his career in Britain. On reflection, winning the opening race at Epsom on the day of a classic was perhaps a fitting finale for someone who had served their apprenticeship within hailing distance of the historic racecourse.
He then moved to mainland Europe and went on to become a 16-times champion jockey in Holland, his successes including renewals of the Dutch Derby, plus a plethora of victories on the useful handicapper Hovis. He was also Mick Ryan’s go-to rider for the prolific ‘Boxberger’ horses in the 1980s. He made his living on a continental circuit also including Germany and Belgium for three decades, amassing more than 1,000 winners along the way.
When his long-time friend Allan Smith relocated from Belgium to Bahrain in 1994 to set up as a trainer there, Terry followed as his stable jockey. Smith became Bahrain’s multiple champion trainer, while Terry twice won the Bahrain Derby for him. When Smith moved to Dubai in 2001, Terry went back to Holland, but when Smith subsequently returned to Bahrain, Terry paired up with him again as second jockey. He hung up his race-riding boots in 2014 at the age of 60 but stayed on as Smith’s senior work rider.
He now lives permanently in Bahrain, albeit with an annual three-month holiday to visit family and friends in Epsom and use his property in Thailand.
Although Terry hadn’t ridden in a race for six years, his career had one glorious postscript. When stable jockey Gerald Mosse failed to clear the doctor ahead of his planned comeback in March 2020 from a heel injury sustained at the first Bahrain International Trophy meeting in November 2019, Smith found himself stuck for a jockey to ride the five-year-old Roman River for a race at Bahrain’s premier track, Sakhir. He suggested Terry should get his licence out again.
Having got the call-up for Roman River, Terry needed no second invitation. He went straight to the Bahrain Racing Club and renewed his licence. He was still riding out six or seven horses in the morning so was very fit.
And so, at the age of 66, he rolled back the years by steering Roman River to victory in a six-furlong contest at Sakhir.
According to Terry this was a one-off comeback. “That’s what’s in my head and that is the plan,” he said. “But if we’re struggling for jockeys, especially with the coronavirus stopping people from flying, then I suppose you never know.”
“I was riding until I was 60 anyway in Bahrain and around Holland and Germany, and although I decided to retire, I’m still a work rider with Allan so it wasn’t as if I wasn’t riding at all and I’m as fit as a flea.”
