Jack Barrett

Jack Barrett

John Joseph (Jack) Barrett was a successful Irish National Hunt jockey who rode half a dozen winners in England for trainer Jack Ormston between 1948 and 1949.

Before riding in Britain, he had recorded his greatest victory in the 1939 Galway Hurdle on Honor’s Choice for trainer J. J. Parkinson. During the summer of 1940, his association with Parkinson saw him win the Kildare Hunt Handicap Chase at Punchestown and the Powerstown Park Champion Chase at Clonmel on Spirit Level, along with the Mallow Chase and Limerick Junction’s Munster Chase on Free State. He recorded a double at that year’s Listowel meeting and, on October 2, registered a treble at Mullingar, again all on Parkinson-trained horses. 

In 1941 his wins included the Naas June Chase on Durbar, also for Parkinson. He finished fifth in the 1943 Irish Grand National on the previous year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Medoc II. 

He achieved his first British success on at Carlisle on October 16, 1948, when Philandros was a four-length winner of the Derwentwater Handicap Hurdle. He rode the same horse to victory in the Solihull Handicap Hurdle at Birmingham on January 18, 1949. 

On February 1, 1950, the Nottingham stewards questioned Ormston after Jack had won the Rufford Selling Handicap Hurdle on Unanimous, concerning the horse’s previous outing, but they accepted the trainer’s explanation. A year passed before Jack rode another winner, and again the stewards called in Ormston, asking him about the improved running of Shareholder, who took the Fingall Handicap Hurdle at Catterick on February 19, 1950. Once again, the explanation was accepted. Fortunately, there were no such problems the following day when Philandros came home a four-length winner of the Shakespeare Handicap Hurdle at Birmingham. 

Philandros also provided Jack with his sixth and final British success in the Novices’ Chase at Leicester on January 8, 1951, beating Tant Pis, the mount of that year’s Grand National winning jockey Johnny Bullock, by three lengths. 

John Barrett’s British winners were, in chronological order:

1. Philandros, Carlisle, October 16, 1948 

2. Philabdros, Birmingham, January 18, 1949

3. Unanimous, Nottingham, February 1, 1949

4. Shareholder, Catterick Bridge, February 19, 1950

5. Philandros, Birmingham, February 20, 1950

6. Philandros, Leicester, January 8, 1951