Jessica Charles-Jones

Jessica Charles-Jones

1965-2010

Born on May 16, 1965, Jessica Kate Charles-Jones (née Turner) was the daughter of Bill Turner who trained at Tavistock in Devon. Together with her elder sister Tracy, she started out as a conditional jockey riding for her father. 

One of her first mounts was at Newton Abbot on August 3, 1981, when Blinding Light was last of seven finishers in the Rugantino Challenge Cup Opportunity Handicap Hurdle. Just over a year later she returned to the Devon track to ride her first winner when Penny Debt, trained by her father, comfortably landed the Moretonhampstead Novices’ Hurdle, taking the lead two flights out and beating Royal Blaze with ease. 

Jessica had around three dozen rides that season without adding to her score, but thereafter made progress, including winning four races confined to lady jockeys, three of them on horses trained by Mary Reveley. 

In August 1986 she married jump jockey Gareth Charles-Jones. Gareth became second jockey to Lambourn trainer Stan Mellor, while Jessica rode as conditional jockey to another Lambourn trainer, Rod Simpson. They once hit the headlines when they each rode a winner at the same meeting.

Jessica rode her last winner on September 24, 1988 at Stratford, where despite hitting the last flight, Cedar Run proved far too good for her four opponents, beating The Bachelor by 25 lengths to land the Michaelmas Selling Hurdle. 

However, just nine days later, October 3, 1988, Jessica, aged 23, broke her back in a fall from 33/1 outsider St Anlo in a conditional jockeys’ hurdle at Southwell, leaving her paralysed from the chest down. The doctors at the spinal unit at Odstock Hospital, near Salisbury, told her she would never walk again. 

Having spent two months on her back, she was allowed to sit up in bed for the first time just before Christmas. Her spirits were lifted when she received hand-written letters from Hollywood superstars Clint Eastwood and Mickey Rooney. Ironically, her sister Tracy had had her race-riding career cut short earlier that year due to a head injury.  

Together with husband Gareth, Jessica started a training operation with a string of a dozen horses at Letcombe Regis, near Wantage. They celebrated their first win on the Flat when Shirl landed a 33/1 shock victory in the Pepper Pot Selling Handicap at Brighton on August 25, 1992. 

Sadly, Jessica Charles-Jones passed away peacefully at home in Bridestowe, Devon, on September 8, 2010, aged 45. Her memorial service was held on September 20 at St Mary’s Church.

Jessica Charles-Jones’ winners were, in chronological order:

1. Penny Debt, Newton Abbot, August 30, 1982

2. Keep Sauntering, Stratford-on-Avon, February 22, 1984

3. Inspired, Devon & Exeter, March 30, 1984

4. Rugby Excavation, Devon & Exeter, August 9, 1984

5. Liquidate, Stratford-on-Avon, September 8, 1984

6. Bold Deception, Newton Abbot, September 12, 1986

7. Bold Deception, Wincanton, September 18, 1986

8. Bronze Effigy, Hereford, November 11, 1986

9. Holly Buoy, Hexham, September 7, 1987

10. Burnditch Boy, Nottingham, November 20, 1987

11. Ishkhara, Edinburgh, December 21, 1987

12. Plaza Toro, Newton Abbot, August 1, 1988

13. Plaza Toro, Newton Abbot, August 29, 1988

14. Shikabell, Huntingdon, September 16, 1988

15. Cedar Run, Stratford-on-Avon, September 4, 1988