Riding ‘in a masterly Yorkshire style’, Collinson was the jockey aboard rank outsider Pan when that horse won the 1808 Derby by half-a-length at odds of 20/1.
Vandyke, at 2/1, and the Prince of Wales’ horse Rubens, at 7/2, had both been the medium of frenzied betting: Vandyke finished second, Rubens fourth.
The son of a Yorkshire farmer and born in Catterick, Collinson had joined the Middleham stables of Christopher Jackson as a lad and became a highly competent jockey, but his win on Pan was to cost him his life.
Travelling down to Epsom he had taken shelter at a cheap inn and was given a damp bed to sleep on. There he contracted a disease which, after a long illness, caused his death on 3 April, 1812. He was 39.
Pan was a fortunate winner of the Derby as the jockey on the runner-up, William Clift, failed to notice the challenge of Collinson’s mount until it was too late for his colt to respond.
The 1808 Derby was run on Thursday, 2nd June. Ten ran from an initial entry of thirty-eight. The first prize was for £1,260, the equivalent of £970,000 today.
His jockey brother William died circa 1827 when falling from a horse.
