Dick Christian 

Born at Cottesmore in 1778, Dick Christian could perhaps be described as the first professional steeplechase jockey, although Captain Martin Becher was among his contemporaries and was also paid for his services. Both men trained horses for owners but the extent of their work was probably more akin to schooling. 

A well-known Leicestershire horse dealer who also excelled in the hunting field with the Quorn and Cottesmore hunts, Dick Christian was among the finest steeplechase jockeys in the sport’s early years, along with George ‘Squire’ Osbaldeston and the aforementioned Captain Becher. 

In 1826, Dick and the ‘Squire’ rode in a famous match race over four miles in Cheshire, the former on his own horse Clasher, the latter on Captain Horatio Ross’s Clinker for an amount which varies according to different accounts of the race but was supposedly not less than 1,000 guineas. Osbaldeston won the race. 

Dick took part in the 1836 Liverpool Grand Steeple Chase, a race which can legitimately be recognized as the first Grand National, finishing second on Polyanthus. It is thus appropriate to refer to the race’s foremost historian John Pinfold for an accurate portrait of the life of Dick Christian. The following is an extract from John’s comprehensive and assiduously-researched 1999 book ‘Gallant Sport: The Authentic History of Liverpool Races and the Grand National’.

“After spending his early years as a groom and Second Whip to the Cottesmore Hunt, he turned to regular ‘rough riding’ and training in 1817. His first patron was Lord Plymouth, by whom he was retained for £21 and 15/- a horse; later he also trained for Berkeley Craven and Lord Forester, and in 1820 he was working for Matt Milton, a well-known horse dealer, for £5 5s a week, plus his keep and clothes.

“He is reckoned to have taken part in most of the major steeplechases between 1809 and 1841 (by which time he was over 60). He finished second on Polyanthus in the first ‘Liverpool Grand Steeple Chase’ in 1836, and rode The Augean in 1840 when he failed to finish.

“At the age of 61 he went as Stud Groom to Lord Scarborough at Rufford and remained there until Scarborough died in 1856. Sadly, he was left in poverty in his old age, until the sporting Henry Hall Dixon (‘The Druid’) started a Fund on his behalf. He suffered a severe stroke on Christmas Day 1860 from which he never recovered; he died on 5 June 1862, aged 84, and was buried in the Dissenters’ Burial Ground, Melton Mowbray. 

“Christian was widely regarded as one of the finest steeplechase riders of his day, and this despite the fact that he was lame, riding two holes shorter on his left stirrup leather than his right, and using only one spur.

“Despite all his successes, he is said to have been ‘the perfect servant who knew his own place and respected it as he did that of his superiors’, a trait which no doubt endeared him to his aristocratic employers. He was a deeply religious man, but one who was also prey to superstition, believing that there were witches who could turn themselves into hares or black foxes. 

“Although a grave man, who did not laugh a lot, like Becher he liked a good joke and was something of a prankster. He married three times, on the last occasion to a Belgian tight rope dancer from Sanger’s Circus, and had twenty-one children.” 

His name is recalled today by the Dick Christian Novices’ Chase, held at Leicester in January.