Tom Cannon Sr

Tom Cannon, the elder son of a Windsor horse-dealer, was born on St George’s Day 1846 at Eton, Buckinghamshire, where his parents Thomas H. Cannon and Harriett Townsend later kept the George Hotel.

At thirteen, Tom became apprenticed to a Mr Sextie, who ran a small training stable in Wiltshire. His first ride came a year later in 1861. Riding Mavourneen at Plymouth, he was catapulted into the turf when the horse struck into the heels of Tame Deer, knocking him unconscious. He recovered sufficiently to a come second to Miss Eleanor in the Tradesmen’s Plate later.

The next day he climbed aboard Lord Portsmouth’s My Uncle. It became the first of the 1,544 winners that he would ride throughout his career. His prowess in the saddle was quickly recognised with the astute owner Mr Brayley first in line. Tom also fell under the watchful eye of top Danebury trainer John Day, who appreciated the youngster’s personal qualities as well as his professional ones. Tom fell in love with Day’s daughter Kate, and, on the 13th December 1865, married her with the trainer’s full approval.

In 1866, against a field of nine, he rode his first Classic winner - the bay filly Repulse in the One Thousand Guineas. In 1872, he became champion jockey for the first - and only - time, riding 87 winners. Tom was to spend thirty-two years in the saddle winning a total of thirteen English classics plus a host of major victories in France. He won the English Derby once, in 1882, on the powerfully-built chestnut Shotover, a filly that he’d already ridden to victory in the Two Thousand Guineas.

Tom’s younger brother Joseph managed the Bedford Cottage Yard Stables at Newmarket. From here, in 1878, Tom steered Pilgrimage to victory in both the One and Two Thousand Guineas for Lord Lonsdale. He also rode for the ill-fated Scottish millionaire George Baird whose best horse was the small, but exceptionally good-looking Busybody, on whom Tom won the 1884 One Thousand Guineas and Oaks. Before agreeing to ride for the notoriously fickle Baird he had demanded – and got – three years’ salary in advance. At £3,000 per season, Baird, after considerable negotiation (because nearly everyone wanted Tom) had been forced to come up with £9,000.

Tom’s honesty and integrity were never challenged and, because of this, was one of the few professional jockeys allowed to own as well as ride racehorses. He also owned several horses in partnership with Tom Robinson of High Wycombe.

After Fred Archer’s shocking death, it was to Tom that trainer John Porter (another Tom Cannon devotee) turned for Ormonde’s new jockey. Ormonde – along with Minting, Bendigo and Phil - was entered for the 1887 Hardwicke Stakes at Ascot. It turned out a titanic struggle. Minting and Bendigo led into the straight, but the real drama was unfolding behind. George Barrett, riding Phil and incensed at having not inherited the ride on Ormonde, bored his horse into the favourite as they came round the bend. Ormonde was sent crashing into solid rails and four-inch flaps of skin were torn from its near hind. Tom managed to straighten the horse and, in an epic rally, got up to defeat Minting on the line. It was one of the few occasions on which the mild-mannered Tom lost his temper as he tore into the errant Barrett.

After a remarkable riding career, Tom retired from the saddle and began training, taking over the lease of the Danebury stables from his father-in-law, John Day, in 1879. It was a massive operation - at any one time he could have over eighty horses in his care. Despite his delicate manner and politeness, Tom turned out to be a shrewd and ruthless businessman, so like his father before him. Just before Humewood won the 1887 Cesarewitch, he sold the horse to Lord Rodney. When asked why he had sold him so cheaply, Tom replied “The horse was cheap but look at the advertisement. Everyone who wants a horse will come now and buy another cheap one from me.”

Tom sent out Reminder to finish third in the 1894 Derby and Curzon, who finished second a year later. His greatest training triumph came in 1888 when he sent out Playfair to win the Grand National - yet many insisted that he was a better trainer of jockeys than horses. Leading jockeys John Watts, Sam Loates and Jack Robinson all served their apprenticeships at Danebury. Tom was also responsible for influencing the career of the outstanding gentleman rider Arthur Coventry, as well as his own sons, Kempton and Mornington. A third son, Charles, also a jockey, rode for 17 years without quite reaching the prominence of his brothers.

Tom’s own mentor had been George Fordham who, when attached to the Danebury stable, had taught Tom the advantage to be gained by steadying a horse before its final effort. Tom, a fine horseman as well as a splendid jockey, added his own gentle touch: he rarely used the whip or spurs, particularly on highly-strung two-year-olds, preferring instead to coax the best from them with his considerable ability. A rider of tremendous patience and judgement, his one fault – in common with other top jockeys – was his habit of trying to win by the narrowest of margins in an attempt to deceive the handicapper. This did not always work out, though it cost him fewer races than most.

Tom trained the winners of the two great jumping races at Auteuil in France – Redpath and Aladdin. (He also rode the French Derby winner twice and won the Grand Prize of Paris on five occasions.)

Part of the Danebury training grounds passed into the hands of a lady who refused to allow racehorses on her land and Tom was forced to relinquish training. He became clerk of the course at Stockbridge Races from 1892 to 1898 until the course was forced to close for the same reason.

In the later years of his life, Tom bought the Grosvenor Hotel in Stockbridge. He had a fine tenor voice and would often entertain his customers with the song of the day. Though he rarely smiled on the racecourse, he had a sense of humour: as a trainer he had often allowed visitors to the stable to mount Duke of Parma, informing them that they could rightly claim to have ridden the winner of the Cambridgeshire.

For the last twenty years of his life, Tom suffered recurrent ill-health and after a long, final illness in which dropsy supervened on serious heart trouble, Tom died on Friday 13th July 1917 at Springfield House, Stockbridge, his Hampshire residence.

He left an estate valued at £5,306.

The family.

Tom and Kate had eleven children: Alice Mary (born 1866), Florence (1869), Letitia Maude (1870), Thomas Leonard (1872), Herbert Mornington (1873), Agnes Mable (1875), Margaret Kate (1877), Blanch (1878), Walter Kempton (1879), Ethel Cecelia (1882) and Charles Edward (1884).

Margaret married Ernest Piggott and their son Keith was the father of Lester Piggott.

Tom Junior became a jockey and lost by a length to his father in the 1888 Eclipse Stakes. Kempton (named after the racecourse) also became a jockey and, in strict contrast to his father, became a pioneer of the crouched, Tod Sloan style of riding. Mornington, yet another to take to the saddle, won a Derby as well as the Hanworth Plate at Kempton in 1891 in which his father, riding in his last-ever race, finished third. Charles also became a jockey.

Joseph, Tom’s brother, rode the (then) youngest ever winner of the Grand National, scoring on the five-year-old Regal in1876. He turned to training – among his patrons were Lord Roseberry and George Baird for whom he won many good races including a second Two Thousand Guineas with Petronel in 1880. He retired in 1919 and handed over to his son Joseph ‘Boxer’ Cannon. Joseph died in 1933.

Tom’s wife Kate predeceased him. He remarried, but his second wife also predeceased him.

Martin Cannon, the great-grandson of Thomas Cannon, has contacted Jockeypedia: he points out that Charles Cannon came out of WW1 suffering severely with shell shock, being buried alive, and having been gassed. He was unable to continue in the saddle.

Whilst riding, he was somewhat overshadowed by his three brothers: being the youngest he was riding alone as all the others had retired.

Classic winners:

1866: One Thousand Guineas - Repulse

1869: The Oaks - Brigatine

1873: The Oaks - Marie Stuart

1878: Two Thousand Guineas - Pilgrimage

1878: One Thousand Guineas - Pilgrimage

1880: St Leger - Robert the Devil

1882: The Oaks - Geheimniss

1882: Two Thousand Guineas - Shotover

1882: The Derby - Shotover

1884: One Thousand Guineas - Busybody

1884: The Oaks - Busybody

1887: Two Thousand Guineas - Enterprise

1899: Two Thousand Guineas - Enthusiast

Other big wins:

1864: Cambridgeshire - Ackworth

1867: Ayr Gold Cup -Miss Havelock

1868: Ascot Gold Cup - Blue Gown

1877: Ascot Gold Cup - Petrarch

1877: Champion Stakes - Springfield

1878: Chester Cup - Pageant

1879: Ebor Handicap - Isonomy

1879: Ascot Gold Cup - Isonomy

1880: Sussex Stakes - Mask

1880: Ascot Gold Cup - Isonomy

1880: Cesarewitch - Robert the Devil

1881: Ascot Gold Cup - Robert the Devil

1882: Ascot Gold Cup - Foxhall

1883: July Cup - Clairvaux

1884: Stewards Cup -Sweetbread

1886: Ascot Gold Cup - Althorp

1886: Eclipse Stakes - Bendigo

1877: July Cup - Ormonde

1888: Eclipse Stakes - Orbit

1888: Cesarewitch - Tenebreuse

1890: Champion Stakes - Amphion

1891: Sussex Stakes -Orvieto

1891: Coventry Stakes - Danure

He also won the Grand Prix de Paris five times.