A brother of jockey Harvey Covey, James Covey finished second to Blink Bonny in the 1857 Derby on Black Tommy at 200-1.
He lived in France for forty years before returning to England to live with his daughter and son-in-law on the outbreak of war.
James was still in receipt of a pension from the French Jockey Club when he died in Birmingham at the age of 84. He was buried at Lickey End Cemetery, Birmingham, on Monday, 13 March 1916.
