Issi Alhassan

Ghanaian jockey Issi Alhassan was one of the leading riders in his home country during the 1960s. Around 1963 he travelled to England and worked as a stable lad for royal trainer Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort at Newmarket. His photo appeared in the Daily Express, albeit with his surname misspelt as ‘Allenson’.

Unfortunately, Issi was unable to obtain a jockey’s licence and therefore did not have any race rides during his stay.

Returning to Ghana, he was among the top names by the mid-1960s. However, in 1966 he, along with 54 other licensed jockeys were involved in a highly unusual incident.

The trouble started on Thursday, August 18, the second day of the two-week race meeting at Accra Racecourse. The jockeys invited senior officials of the Accra Turf Club to a meeting to express their concerns regarding a dangerous bend at the six-furlong mark. The bend had been the scene of 11 recent accidents, claiming the lives of two jockeys and two horses. The jockeys wanted some form of action to be taken to alleviate the danger.

What the jockeys suggested was the purchase of a sacrificial cow, which could be slaughtered at the six-furlong mark in order to purify the corner and prevent further bad fortune. The jockeys stated that they had collected 96 cedis (about £40) towards the cost of the cow and hoped the Accra Turf Club would contribute the rest.

The chairman of the Turf Club pointed out that a cow did not constitute ‘ordinary recurrent expenditure’ and therefore he could not allocate funds until the next stewards’ meeting, a week later. That, however, did not appease the jockeys. A week was too long to wait. They wanted action now.

The next day the jockeys met without Turf Club officials. Disappointed that no sacrificial cow was being made available immediately, the majority decided to boycott the next day of the meeting, the Saturday.

Fifty-five licensed jockeys joined the boycott. The first race was delayed by an hour while Turf Club officials desperately tried to persuade jockeys and apprentice jockeys at the track to ride. Eventually, enough riders were found to make racing possible and the meeting went ahead, albeit without many of the senior riders.

The 55 licensed jockeys were banned for the remainder of the two-week meeting and fined 60 cedis (about £30) each. They included Issi Alhassan plus leading riders Kantara Kamara and Seidu Alash.

The race meeting duly continued to its end, with many of the apprentice jockeys gaining welcome if unexpected race-riding experience.

• His name has been spelt in various ways including Isa or Issa Allassan, but we have chosen to go with Issi Alhassan for the purposes of this article.