Thomas Leonard Gilbert Cannon was apprenticed to his father, the Classic-winning jockey Tom Cannon Senior, and rode his first winner on 2/1 favourite Red Cross in the Spring Nursery at Liverpool on March 25th 1887.
Young Tom’s biggest win came on the four-year-old Goldseeker in the 1889 City and Suburban at Epsom. It had been rumoured that Goldseeker would not run and be sent instead to contest Kempton’s Jubilee race: it was also put about that Goldseeker was palpably short of work. For these reasons, the horse was allowed to start virtually unbacked at 50/1. In the event, Tom made every yard of the running to win easily. It was not a popular result.
By the end of that year, he had ridden a total of 33 winners but his weight was rocketing. Having little option, Tom turned to training with reasonable success, sending out among others the winners of the Jockey Club Stakes, the Middle Park and the Gimcrack. He was also responsible for the popular handicapper Burnside, who won 11 races over 12 furlongs on the Rowley Mile.
Having trained a total of 288 winners, Tom retired in 1936.
He died on August 27, 1945, aged 73. He left £78,577.
