National Hunt jockey George Thomas Clancy was born in Lancashire in 1883. His first ride under rules, at Woore on April 13, 1899, ended in a fall. However, four years later to the very day, Easter Monday, April 13, 1903, he rode his first winner, courtesy of Min in the Green Meadow Chase at Cardiff.
He enjoyed his most successful year in 1909 with 25 wins, placing him ninth in the National Hunt jockeys’ championship.
He went on to ride a total of 121 winners, retiring on a winning note when Prestissima walked over for the Railway Handicap Chase at the Isle of Wight meeting on October 5, 1921.
He rode in five Grand Nationals between 1906 and 1921, finishing third in on Shady Girl in 1911 after remounting.
There is a popular misconception regarding that 1911 Grand National, in which only four of the 26 starters completed the course, three of them having been remounted, with only the winner, the weary, one-eyed Glenside, completing a clear round. Some chroniclers, including noted Grand National historian Reg Green in his book ‘A Race Apart’, stated that the race was run in “torrential rain” and that “few could have imagined the dire effects the conditions were to have on the race.”
However, this was not the case. As the archive film footage shows, that year’s race was run in glorious sunshine. The reason for there being so many fallers was due to the race being run at a furiously fast pace, causing horses to fall like ninepins. After the race, the jockeys themselves reported this as being the case, that the falls were a consequence of the fast pace rather than the elements.
George Clancy’s five Grand National mounts were:
1906: Kiora (brought down)
1909: Shady Girl (7th)
1910: Shady Girl (fell)
1911: Shady Girl (3rd, remounted)
1921: Hackam (fell)
