David Connors

David Connors

1906-1976

Born on April 11, 1906, David Connors hailed from Tramore, Co. Waterford, the son of an engineer with no connection to racing. He rode his first winner, aged 19, at Mallow on June 18, 1925, aboard Land Of Sun, trained by Senator J. J. Parkinson in the Rakes of Mallow Handicap Chase. 

With little money and fewer opportunities around in Ireland, he appears to have crossed the Irish Sea fairly soon after that first success, for he was riding for Yelverton, South Devon-based trainer Ralph Mitchell by the start of the 1926/27 season. 

David’s first British winner came on the Mitchell-trained Fair Avis, the evens favourite, at the Isle of Wight meeting on Wednesday, August 11, 1926, finishing alone in the two-mile Yafford Chase after their three rivals had fallen. The five-year-old mare was winning her first race.

His second British winner was Cheer Up, also trained by Mitchell, in the Winton Selling Chase at Bournemouth the following month. Selling chaser Cheer Up would provide David with six more victories over the next three seasons, including wins on successive days at Plymouth in September 1929. A particular highlight was landing a double at Buckfastleigh on Whit Monday, May28, 1928 on Cheer Up in the Licensed Victuallers’ Selling Handicap Chase and Breckia in the Dart Vale Selling Hurdle. 

David’s last British winner was something of an anti-climax, with Hybla Bee being handed a walkover for the South Hams Selling Chase at Totnes on September 12, 1929, a meeting where there were three walkovers, with the other three races attracting a total of 11 runners.

He relinquished his licence after the 1932/33 season and returned to Ireland, although he did return on at least occasion, when he rode Cabin Sign in the 1938 Grand Sefton Chase at Aintree, where they were among the fallers.  

Back in the land of his birth, David rode Kilbronan Pride, the 10-1 outsider of three, to win the Stayers’ Handicap Chase at Waterford & Tramore on August 14, 1933. This victory was gained in similar circumstances to his debut success in Britain, finishing alone after both his more fancied rivals had fallen. 

He rode for trainer Joe Mangan and had three winners for him in 1934: Toppy in the Claremont Handicap Hurdle at Baldoyle in April, and handicap chasers Pucka Shikhari at Baldoyle in May and Dark Rosaleen at Waterford & Tramore in August. 

David enjoyed a successful summer in 1936, landing the Ballybrit Chase at the Galway festival on Sahabelle, then scoring three times in two days at Waterford & Tramore’s festival meeting, winning on successive days on handicap hurdler Teafree, and the Waterford Handicap Chase on Pucka Shikhari. Then on September 12 he rode Pucka Shikhari to win Navan’s Webster Cup (nowadays a Grade 2 contest). 

He kicked off 1937 in style by winning the first two races on Baldoyle’s New Year’s Day card, the Feltrim Handicap Hurdle on Corrib Lady, and the Claremont Handicap Chase on Pukkeroo, both trained by Joe Mangan. Five days later he finished second in three successive races at Naas, beaten less than a length in two of them. Later that season he won the Drogheda Chase at the big Punchestown meeting on the Mangan-trained Swindon Lad, who he then rode to victory in the Corrib Hurdle at that year’s Galway festival. His other wins in that 1937/38 campaign included a Whit Monday success on Sawdust Caesar in the Stewards’ Handicap Chase at Waterford & Tramore.   

The highlight of the 1938/39 season was his association with Grey Quill for leading trainer Jack Ruttle. Having landed the valuable April Chase at Powerstown Park, better known today as Clonmel, they returned to that course the following month to win the Powerstown Park Champion Chase, beating Tim Hyde on the favourite Upshot by three-quarters of a length, giving David the biggest win of his career. 

He married in 1939 – his wife was much younger than him – and worked mostly for trainer Joe Osborne, based just outside Naas, Co. Kildare, living in the tied cottage, but he changed jobs and moved the family around quite a lot. 

There was another high-profile success in 1940 on Derrygrath for trainer Pat Kavanagh in the Maiden Chase on Irish Grand National day at Fairyhouse. His tally of winners dwindled thereafter, most likely as a result of injuries, but there was still one more of note, a second Drogheda Chase triumph, this time on Miss Chickadee, over the banks at Punchestown on April 25, 1944. 

In the 1948/49 season he finished fourth in the Troytown Chase at Navan on Derrinstown, who, in 1951, would finish a remounted last of three behind Nickel Coin in the Grand National. However, he then suffered a series of falls in chases: Brown Bess III at Mullingar in December; Cappagh at Navan in January; Derrinstown at Mullingar in February; and Derrinstown again at Leopardstown in March. 

He brushed himself off and walked away from all those, but there was no coming back from the fall he took from Cappagh in the Dunshaughlin Chase on the Tuesday of Fairyhouse’s Easter meeting, April 19, 1949. It left him with a broken back and he spent a year in a Dublin hospital.

Returning home unable to walk, his wife, with help from a neighbour, took the unscientific but determined approach of moving him around holding him up by an arm each. After another year he was walking and did go back to work and ride, but unsurprisingly was not granted a jockey’s licence. A severely deformed clavicle resulting from over 20 untreated breaks was another legacy of the injuries he had sustained along the way.

David Connors died in 1976. His brother Mick (Michael) Connors was a well-respected and successful jockey in Ireland, eventually relocating to America. His son, Paddy Connors, rode 22 winners over jumps in Britain between 1962 and 1974 including Mariner’s Signal in Wolverhampton’s Astbury Trophy Chase. He rode the mare Good Gracious in the 1963 Grand National. 

Another son, David, went on to train racehorses in Australia.

David Connors rode 14 British winners. Interestingly, only one of the racecourses survives today, and that one now has a slightly different name. They were, in chronological order:

1. Fair Avis, Isle of Wight, August 11, 1926

2. Cheer Up, Bournemouth, September 17, 1926 

3. Fair Avis, Hawthorn Hill, November 13, 1926

4. Glengarry II, Birmingham, January 10, 1927

5. Brown Pom, Glamorgan Hunt (Cowbridge), April 30, 1927

6. Cheer Up, Torquay, April 10, 1928

7. Cheer Up, Buckfastleigh, May 28, 1928

8. Breckia, Buckfastleigh, May 28, 1928

9. Cheer Up, Devon & Exeter, August 29, 1928

10. Cheer Up, Torquay, April 1, 1929

11. Bunbury Girl, Isle of Wight, August 5, 1929

12. Cheer Up, Plymouth, September 4, 1929

13. Cheer Up, Plymouth, September 5, 1929

14. Hybla Bee, Totnes, September 12, 1929