Mornington Cannon

The great uncle of Lester Piggott, Herbert Mornington Cannon was born on May 21st 1873 in Houghton, Stockbridge, Hampshire. 

That afternoon his father Tom Cannon won the one mile five furlongs Somersetshire Stakes at Bath riding a colt called Mornington, and decided to incorporate this name into his son’s. The horse Mornington had scraped home by just the shortest of short heads. 

Had he been beaten, Tom would have called his son after his second winner of the afternoon, The Duke.

Morny – as he came to be called – rode his first winner (Flint, in the City Bowl at Salisbury) on the eve of his fourteenth birthday. For this initial win he received a sovereign from grateful trainer Charles Morton to buy sweets. Just four years later he was champion jockey with 137 winners. He was to become champion on a further five occasions. His best season came in 1895 with 184 winners

He won the 1899 Triple Crown on Flying Fox. He could easily have landed a second Triple Crown the next season, but was savaged by the bad-tempered Diamond Jubilee on the gallops and replaced by an inexperienced nineteen-year-old jockey named Herbert Jones whom the horse had taken to. (Together, Diamond Jubilee and Jones galloped into turf history as they landed the Triple Crown.)

Cannon was not the first jockey to have been attacked by Diamond Jubilee. The horse positively loathed Jack Watts, trying to savage him before the Coventry Stakes at Ascot.

Cannon won a total of six classics, his last being in the 1903 Oaks on Our Lassie, trained by Charles Morton – the very trainer who had given Cannon sweet money some sixteen years earlier. His last big win came on Zinfandel in the 1905 Ascot Gold Cup. He did not renew his licence after 1907.

In March, 1894, aged 20, he married Nelly Gray Dennett, aged 25.

Cannon, one of the few totally honest jockeys, was a beautiful horseman whose main fault lay in an almost pathological inclination to leave his challenge until the last possible moment and win by as little as possible. His father Tom had the same weakness. Trainer John Porter thought that his runner in the 1901 Derby, William the Third, would have won the race had Cannon not employed such delaying tactics, but records show that the favourite, Volodyovski, won easily enough, despite swerving badly two furlongs out.

Comfortably off and with his weight increasing, he decided to give up riding in June 1909. Throughout his last years in the saddle he had suffered considerably from rheumatism which affected both his legs and arms.

He retired to Hove and survived long enough to see his great-nephew Lester Piggott follow in his footsteps as champion jockey. However, largely because of inflation, he became short of money at the end of his long life.

Mornington Cannon was a fine cricketer, a good boxer and took an active interest in athletics.

He died on June 1, 1962, a few days after his 89th birthday.

Speaking in January 1904, Mornington Cannon said:

“When I was fourteen, riding began in earnest and I was apprenticed to my father for seven years. I left school, but we were taught by a tutor each afternoon. At least four hours a day of horseback was the rule, and even after I had begun riding in public, and considered myself no end a big man, the lessons were kept up. Duke of Parma, winner of the Cesarewitch in 1875, was my schoolmaster, and the first thoroughbred I ever rode – only, of course, as a hack. The first trial I ever rode in was on Jolly Sir John. Those were well-filled days. Riding trials in the morning, study in the afternoon, and more riding after study. Moreover, we had got together a pack of basset hounds which fully occupied our leisure time. No end of fun did we have with that pack, which still survives in the New Forest under the care of Mr Heseltine, brother of the well-known cricketer. Coraline was my first mount in a race, a five-furlong scurry at Kempton Park in 1886. A number of punters backed Coraline thinking that my father would be sure to pick something good for my debut. Alas! I finished last for I had been put on the worst horse in the stable. There was a reason for my father’s action; he purposely selected ‘crocks’ for my first half-dozen races, arguing quite rightly that I must watch others win before I began winning myself. He also thought that jockeys who began by winning were rarely successful afterwards. For many years he forbade me to ride with whip or spurs. My worst fall came in 1887 in the Great Metropolitan Stakes. I was riding Kester and, at Tattenham Corner, was lying second when I struck into The Cob and fell. Woodburn came down on to the top of me and George Chaloner followed suit and landed on top of both of us. They both had something fairly soft to fall on but the unfortunate ‘cushion’ lay there half-stunned. Promptly a mounted policeman galloped, slung me over his shoulder, and took me into custody. Somehow I fell to the ground and into unconsciousness. Both my knees were put out and it was weeks before I rode again.’

Cannon’s two favourite horses were Derby-winning Flying Fox and Eager.

Cannon’s mother was Catherine Day, the daughter of the formidable John Barham Day. Mornington had two had two brothers, Walter Kempton (1871 – 1951) and Tom (1872 -1945).

Cannon’s Triple Crown winner, Flying Fox, was lucky to survive at birth. Its mother - the mare Vampire - was vicious-tempered: after attacking a stable hand she killed her first foal. 

Flying Fox’s luck continued in the 1899 Derby when, ridden by Mornington Cannon, he was strongly tackled by Holocauste who then stumbled, breaking a leg.

Flying Fox died at Haras de Jardy on 21 March 1911 at the age of fifteen. His skeleton is at the horse museum at Château de Saumur with a memorial at Eaton Stud in Cheshire, North West England.

Mornington had a particularly fine record in the City and Suburban, winning on Reve d’Or (1890), Nunthorpe (1891), Reminder (1895), Worcester (1896), Newhaven and The Grafter.

Mornington Cannon’s classic wins:

Two Thousand Guineas:  Flying Fox (1899)

The Derby:  Flying Fox (1899)

The Oaks:  La Roche (1900) and Our Lassie (1903)

Other big wins:

1887:  Stewards Cup - Upset

1889:  July Cup - Mephisto

1889:  Jersey Stakes - Cherry Bounce

1891:  Royal Hunt Cup:  Laureate ll

1892:  Coronation Stakes - Lady Hermit

1893:  Eclipse Stakes - Orme

1893:  Sussex Stakes - Harbinger

1893:  Coronation Stakes - Silene

1893:  Cork & Orrery Stakes - Shemer

1894:  Coronation Stakes - Throstle

1894:  Cork & Orrery Staks - Northhampton

1894:  Portland Handicap - Grey Leg

1895:  Royal Hunt Cup - Clorane

1895:  Cork & Orrery Stakes - Grey Leg

1895:  July Cup - Woolsthorpe

1896:  Sussex Stakes - Regret

1896:  Coronation Stakes - Helm

1896:  Jersey Stakes - Labrador

1896:  Lincoln Handicap - Clorane

1896:  Cork & Orrey Stakes - Speed

1896:  July Cup - Worcester

1896:  Champion Stakes - Labrador

1897:  Stewards Cup - Amphora

1897:  Lincoln Handicap - Winkfield's Pride

1898:  Cork & Orrey Stakes - St Lucia

1898:  Coronation Stakes - Lowood

1898:  Stewards Cup - Altesse

1899:  Eclipse Stakes - Flying Fox

1899:  Champion Stakes - Dieudonne

1899:  Sussex Stakes - Caiman

1899:  July Cup -Eager

1900:  Lincoln Handicap - Sir Geoffrey

1902:  Ascot Gold Cup - William the Third

1902:  July Cup - Sundridge

1903:  July Cup - Sundridge

1904:  Coronation Cup - Zinfandel

1904:  July Cup -Sundridge

1905:  Ascot Gold Cup - Zinfadndel

1905:  Jersey Stakes - Polymelus

Mornington rode a total of 1,881 winners.