Article by Chris Pitt
David Trevor Clayton held a National Hunt jockey’s licence from 1963 to 1967 and worked for Edward Courage. He was a contemporary of Grand National-winning jockey John Buckingham and was described in Buckingham’s book ‘Tales of the Weighing Room’ as “a nice chap and a promising young jockey who rode a winner for the stable at Towcester”.
That winner was on Woodcutters Samba, the 9/4 favourite, in the Rufford Handicap Chase on Saturday, May 16, 1964. It was one of just seven rides David had that season, most of them being on Woodcutters Samba. That was his sole success.
He rode Woodcutters Samba on several other occasions, over hurdles and over fences, and was in the frame a few times, including when finishing fourth in a Towcester novices’ hurdle on Easter Monday 1965.
Eventually, as John Buckingham’s book relates, “he later went out of the game when he began to have problems with his weight.”
David remained a close friend of Buckingham’s and continued to follow racing. He attended the meeting at Towcester on Wednesday, February 15, 2017. However, the following day he suffered a heart attack and died, aged 73.
