James Cash

James Cash

There was a lot of Cash around in Ireland during the late 1950s. Brothers James Cash and John Cash were both active in the amateur ranks, as was Edward Cash, who may also have been related. 

James Cash rode his first winner on 8-1 chance Banri in the Grange Maiden Plate – what is popularly known today as a bumper – on August 1, 1958, at the annual one-day fixture at Tuam, which always followed the far more prestigious Galway meeting. His brother John had his first win not long after, aboard Pactola in similar contest on September 30, the opening day of Listowel’s traditional three-day autumn festival meeting. 

John was the first to record a high-profile success, guiding Raylteen Geal to a six-length victory in the prestigious Tetratema Cup Hunters’ Chase at Gowran Park on June 4, 1959. 

The following month saw James open his account over jumps on Banri in the Ballindooly Maiden Hurdle on the first day of the Galway festival, July 26, almost a year to the day since Banri had given his first success in that Tuam bumper. They then won two handicap hurdles together, at Roscommon in September and Powerstown Park (known today as Clonmel) in October. 

While John Cash remained an amateur, James turned professional and enjoyed a productive start to the 1960/61 season with six wins between the first week of August and the last week of September, five of them courtesy of the versatile Banri, comprising a handle race at Mallow, a handicap chase at Mullingar, the Joe Cooney Memorial Challenge Cup Chase at Kilbeggan, a handicap hurdle at Gowran Park, and a handicap chase at Listowel.   

Banri failed to win again that season, nor did he win from 21 starts in the 1961/62 campaign, though he was quite often placed. James won a couple of handicap hurdles during the summer of 1962, at Mullingar and Gowran Park, but his tally of winners dwindled, leading to him relinquishing his Irish National Hunt jockey’s licence at the end of the 1963/64 season. 

In search of fresh opportunities, James crossed the Irish Sea and took out a British jump jockey’s licence for the 1964/65 campaign, claiming a 3lb allowance and basing himself with Linlithgow, West Lothian trainer John Craig Brown, who would provide him with five of his six winners that season. He gained the first at Sedgefield on September 11, when Borderline II won the Aldborough Novices’ Chase by a distance. 

His second British success was on the ten-year-old Piperton, a prolific winner on the northern courses, whose greatest moment had come when winning the 1962 Two Mile Champion Chase at Cheltenham, with Dave Dick on board, for Ripon-based owner-trainer Archie Thomlinson. Though no longer the force of old, Piperton retained enough ability to land the Headley Handicap Chase at Wetherby on October 17 by three lengths. 

James recorded a double at Sedgefield on November 21, landing the Teesdale Handicap Hurdle on Inglis Green and the Croxdale Novices’ Hurdle (Division 2) on Sweet Pasture. 

Sedgefield was again the venue for his fifth win, when Roborough took the Grove Novices’ Hurdle (Division 1) on March 20, 1965. Roborough also provided James with his sixth and final British winner when dead-heating for the Heiton Novices’ Hurdle (Division 2) at Kelso on April 3, sharing the honours with leading northern jockey George Milburn on the ten-year-old Charter Legend. 

He had his last two rides in Britain at Hexham on Whit Monday, June 7, 1965. Having trailed in the last of seven finishers on Inglis Green in the Summerrods Handicap Hurdle, he then fell on Bailiwick in the last race of the day, the Spital Chase. Whether that fall was sufficiently serious to curtail his career in the saddle is not known, but he did not renew his licence the following season. 

James Cash’s British winners were, in chronological order:

1. Borderline II, Sedgefield, September 11, 1964 

2. Piperton, Wetherby, October 17, 1964 

3. Inglis Green, Sedgefield, November 21, 1964

4. Sweet Pasture, Sedgefield, November 21, 1964

5. Roborough, Sedgefield, March 20, 1965

6. Roborough, Kelso, April 3, 1965 (dead-heat)