Chris Bourne

Chris Bourne

Article by Alan Trout

Jump jockey Christopher Bourne won two races in a career that lasted for the first half of the 1980s. 

A conditional jockey with Taunton-based trainer Tony Andrews, Chris had his first ride at Wincanton on March 6, 1980, when Drink Up was unplaced in the Portman Handicap Hurdle. 

He had his first success at Stratford on October 24, 1981, when Robin Hood finished strongly to overhaul the favourite Elsell on the run-in and land the Tiddington Handicap Hurdle by half a length. One fourth place was the best they managed in six subsequent starts. 

However, Chris did have a second winner, this time at his local course, Taunton, when his mount Regents Garden got the better of a battle with Lodges Fortune, ridden by Nigel Coleman, to take the Corfe Opportunity Handicap Chase on December 3, 1981 by a short head. It was Chris’s second ride on the nine-year-old and they had little success thereafter.

Chris rode for three more seasons without success, his final start coming at Taunton on December 28, 1984, when I Appeal, trained by Don Tucker, came home twelfth of 15 finishers in the Holly Tree Hurdle (Division 1).