George Abdale

(c1832 -1859)

George Abdale was born in Richmond, Yorkshire, circa 1830. He enjoyed a fair measure of success as a jockey and gained his biggest win on Cawrouch in the 1847 Cesarewitch. He was just fifteen at the time.

A year earlier, at Richmond in September 1846, George rode the favourite, Cranebrook,  (a chestnut colt by Lord John), in the Gold Cup. It was the same horse on which he had won the Great Yorkshire Handicap the previous week at Doncaster. In a pulsating finish, George just got Cranebrook home ahead of an old (but popular) mare called Inheritress.

George also won the 1851 Cumberland Plate on the grey mare Lady Hylda.

This was the year he last rode in Britain in 1851. 

When he became too heavy for the saddle, George became trainer to Lord Zetland. The brilliant Vedette was just one of a number of good horses he sent out. Vedette was perhaps almost as good a horse as Voltigeur, but because of chronic rheumatism, he became very difficult to manage.

 George married Sarah Osborne, eldest daughter of the jockey  John Osborne. She gave him a son, John George Abdale, who became a solicitor. A second daughter of John Osborne married the jockey Tom Challoner, a third wed Harry Grimshaw. 

George, aged 27,  died on July 11, 1859, of inflammation of the lungs, occasioned by getting soaked to the skin at Newcastle. He was buried at Coverham Churchyard, just under Middleham Moor, and lies in company with Harry Grimshaw, Ben Smith, John Osborne and Bob Johnson. The graveyard is somewhat odd; owing to the nature of the ground you may be in the churchyard and not see the church nor hear the bell.

His elder brother William (Bill) Abdale (1825-1902) was also a successful jockey.

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