David Crossley Cooke

Article by Chris Pitt

Businessman amateur rider David Crossley Cooke was born on June 19, 1938. He rode 17 winners, eight in Britain and nine in Ireland, took part in three 1960s Grand Nationals and achieved his biggest win in the Kim Muir Chase at Cheltenham.

His first three seasons riding under National Hunt rules produced just four winners, the first coming on Double Crest at Wincanton on October 4, 1962. He had to wait nearly 18 months before his second, on Devon Squire at Plumpton’s 1964 Easter fixture. Double Crest then obliged again at Huntingdon over Whitsun, and Border Fury provided him with his only winner of the following campaign in December, 1964.

At his home in West Horsley, Surrey, which he shared with his wife, former British ski champion and debutante Elspeth Nicoll, whom he’d married in 1963, David and his family had 16 horses in training, all of them trained privately by John Dodd.

David was chairman of Patent Enamel Ltd, based in Selly Oak, Birmingham. He had bought a controlling interest in the company in 1964 and planned to expand the manufacturing of enamel and plastic signs at the Selly Oak factory, and also acquire other engineering companies that could make use of the ample space there. His intention was to build up an engineering group around Patent Enamel. He described business as his serious interest and riding as “merely a hobby”, alongside his other sporting exploits in skiing and squash.

Nonetheless, he took that racing hobby seriously. On October 30, 1964, he rode his mother-in-law’s 12-year-old veteran Blonde Warrior in the Becher Chase over the Grand National fences, completing the course, albeit last of the eight finishers. The horse had got round in the 1963 Grand National and looked the epitome of a safe conveyance, so it was no surprise when David announced that he would ride Blonde Warrior in the 1965 Grand National.

He warmed up for his debut in the world’s most famous steeplechase by riding two of his family’s horses, both 50-1 outsiders, on the opening day of the 1965 Cheltenham Festival. His wife’s five-year-old Mestengo (left) trailed in last of the 14 finishers in division one of the Gloucestershire Hurdle, surrounded by two riderless horses, Reaper’s Son and the blinkered Black King, who’d both departed at the first flight; then Move-em-Out was pulled up when well in arrears after a troubled run in the four-mile National Hunt Chase.

The late defection of Mill House from the 1965 Grand National made for an unusual situation whereby those at the bottom of the handicap would all carry 10st 13lb, rather than the usual 10st, about 7lb more than David’s normal riding weight, hence there would be no problems on that score. Blonde Warrior ran respectively enough for a 100-1 shot until being unluckily knocked over by a riderless horse at the third last, and thus prevented from finishing the race after jumping 27 of the 30 fences without mishap.

Twelve months later, David was back at Aintree to ride Supersweet in the 1966 Grand National. Supersweet had completed the course in 1964 and looked another safe conveyance. This time they got as far as Becher’s second time round.

During the autumn of 1966, David relocated to Ireland and partnered several winners for the legendary trainer P. P. Hogan, including two on his own Border Fury, at Limerick Junction (now renamed Tipperary) in September and at Limerick’s Christmas meeting.

Back in England, he finished second on Border Fury in the 1967 Kim Muir Memorial Challenge Cup Chase at Cheltenham and also rode that horse in the 1967 Grand National, falling at Becher’s first time round.

The 1967/68 campaign was numerically David’s best in Britain, with three wins from 16 rides, including the 1968 Kim Muir on Chu-Teh, a lucky spare ride after the usual pilot, Nick Gaselee, had opted to ride another horse. His other winners that season were Sabre Point, on whom he’d also won at Thurles the previous season, and Paddynoggin, who had previously given him an uncomfortable moment when falling in a Sandown hunter chase.

There was to be just one more winner, Paddynoggin in a Worcester amateur riders’ handicap chase in October 1968, before the riding career of David Crossley Cooke came to an end.

Alas, life did not go altogether smoothly afterwards. He was involved in varying capacities with a number of companies over the years. He had turned a £50,000 inheritance into a £1 million fortune and been a onetime Stock Exchange member, but his world came crashing down in 1996 when he was given a two-year jail sentence at Southwark Crown Court for defrauding three building societies of nearly £900,000. He was found guilty of obtaining loans by making false applications and sent first to Brixton and later Ford open prison.

Back in business, he joined Placeway Limited in 1999 and was with them until resigning in April 2003. He subsequently became director of Tapecrown Ltd, which owns Chowle Farm, a site off the A420 near Farringdon, Oxfordshire, also known as Faringdon Business Park

In January 2016, he was fined a total of £24,000 for illegally burning and storing waste. He was convicted of allowing illegal operations at Chowle Farm between 2010 and 2013, after the Environment Agency had prosecuted him and his firm for allowing illegal waste activities to be carried out.

David Crossley Cooke’s British winners were, in chronological order:

1. Double Crest, Wincanton, October 4, 1962

2. Devon Squire, Plumpton March 28, 1964

3. Double Crest, Huntingdon, May 18, 1964

4. Border Fury, Plumpton, December 16, 1964

5. Sabre Point, Wincanton, October 12, 1967

6. Chu-The, Cheltenham, March 20, 1968

7. Paddynoggin, Worcester, May 27, 1968

8. Paddynoggin, Worcester, October 24, 1968