Edward Bishop

National Hunt jockey George Edward Bishop – who rode under his second christian name – had a total of 15 winners spanning six seasons from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. They were provided by just two trainers, Tom Yates and former jockey George Spann.

Granted a licence for the 1948/49 campaign, he did not have to wait long for his first success, which came at Newton Abbot on September 10 when the three-year-old First Information won the Lustleigh Juvenile Hurdle by half as length. Trained by Yates at Russley Park, the winner’s connections had to survive an objection by Fred Lewis, rider of the runner-up Monty IV, on the grounds of “pulling over to stop me coming through”. The objection was overruled and First Information duly kept the race, but he never won another despite racing on for three more seasons.

Edward – he may have been more popularly known as Ted – had to wait until Towcester’s 1949 Easter Monday meeting before for his second victory, and this rather set the tone for his career; the occasional winner but never more than four in a season.

His 7lb claim was reduced to 5lb after winning on two-mile chaser Happy Son at Uttoxeter on May 2, 1952. The pair followed up at Towcester eight days later. Those were the last two races he won for Tom Yates, who had supplied all his winners thus far.

He began the 1952/53 campaign based with Baydon, Wiltshire trainer George Spann and got off to a bright start with three wins by the end of October, two of them on novice chaser Ballyneety at Devon & Exeter in August and September.

However, it would be 18 months before he rode his next – and final – winner, that being Redemptor, trained by Spann, who won the Rubio Handicap Chase at Towcester’s 1954 Easter meeting.

The name of the race commemorated the 1908 Grand National winner who, having broken down badly after winning three minor races in 1903, was loaned by his owner, Major Frank Douglas-Pennant, to the proprietor of the Prospect Arms Hotel at Towcester with instructions that he should be used to pull the hotel bus that met the trains at the station each day. It apparently did the trick in building up the muscles because by the end of 1906 Rubio was back in full training.

Redemptor’s Towcester success was Edward’s 15th winner and, back in those days, meant that he had ridden out his claim. In May he and Redemptor finished third back at Towcester and then fourth at Stratford, before pulling up at Huntingdon on Whit Monday, June 7, 1954. That proved to be Edward’s last ride. He did not renew his licence for the 1954/55 season.

Edward Bishop’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. First Information, Newton Abbot, September 10, 1948

2. Merry Court, Towcester, April 18, 1949

3. Vol au Vent II, Devon & Exeter, September 15, 1949

4. Vol au Vent II, Taunton, November 3, 1949

5. Silver Spurs, Huntingdon, April 10, 1950

6. Rangers Lodge, Hereford, May 27, 1950

7. Merry April, Chepstow, October 18, 1950

8. Red Trump, Wincanton, November 2, 1950

9. Merry Court, Towcester, November 11, 1950

10. Happy Son, Uttoxeter, May 2, 1952

11. Happy Son, Towcester, May 10, 1952

12. Ballyneety, Devon & Exeter, August 20, 1952

13. Ballyneety, Devon & Exeter, September 10, 1952

14. Paul’s Hill, Ludlow, October 31, 1952

15. Redemptor, Towcester, April 17, 1954