James Boyce
Article by Alan Trout
Apprentice James Boyce had just one winner in the four years he rode on the Flat before the outbreak of World War One. He was apprenticed to Sam Loates, a former champion jockey and classic-winning rider who had turned successfully to training after retirement from the saddle in 1903.
James appeared for the first time in public at Newmarket on September 26, 1911 when his mount, Delusion, finished unplaced in the Trial Selling Stakes won by Mr J. B. Joel’s Waterwillow, ridden by ‘Skeets’ Martin.
Sam Loates often put up his apprentices on horses owned by himself, and it was on one of these that James recorded his only success when Aboukir won the Kesteven Plate at Lincoln’s season-opening meeting by three lengths on March 25, 1914. Aboukir won twice more in the next fortnight but on both occasions was ridden by Reg Stokes.
James had his final ride as an apprentice at Newmarket on July 3, 1914 when still only weighing 6st 1lb. He finished unplaced on Watermark in the Waterbeach Handicap won by Nathan Spear on San Stefano.
Although he would have been something of a veteran by then, it is possible, particularly given the wartime conditions and shortage of riders, that he may have been the same James Boyce who held a full jockey’s licence between 1942 and 1946 and again between 1952 and 1953, although he did not ride a winner during either of those periods.
