Article by Chris Pitt
My first visit to Uttoxeter was on Whit Monday, May 18, 1964, the day when Steve Davenport rode a four-timer on the way to being crowned champion amateur rider for that season.
Davenport didn’t have a ride in the first race, the Whitsun Selling Hurdle over 2 miles 180 yards, but Joe Comerford did. He rode a 10-year-old mare of unknown parentage named Melody II, making her somewhat belated racecourse debut for Bill Clay. Unsurprisingly, Melody II and Joe trailed in last of the seven finishers. That was the first time I’d come across the name of her jockey.
Joseph Francis Comerford was born on October 1, 1936 in the Kilkenny village of Gowran, pretty much over the road from Gowran Park racecourse. At the age of 15 he became apprenticed to Dan Kirwan, who trained at Low Grange, just outside Gowran. His stable jockey at the time was Jimmy Morrissey, who later rode with success in Britain.
In 1956 Joe crossed the Irish Sea and joined the stable of Bill Brookes at Eaton Constantine, near Wellington, Shropshire. Brookes’ head lad was Sean Thompson, brother of dual Grand National-winning jockey Arthur Thompson.
Two years later, Joe went to work for Roy Whiston at Hodnet and stayed with him for the next 20 years. He had his first ride in public on a mare named Ripolina at Worcester on March 13, 1961, finishing a promising third. They then finished second, beaten a length, at Southwell on March 30, fourth at Stratford on April 6, seventh at Southwell on April 18, then third again, this time at Woore on May 20, behind Cope’s Cross and Jules Verne in the Tern Hill Handicap Hurdle. Those early rides on Ripolina in the spring of 1961 promised much but they were just about as close as Joe ever got to riding a winner. He twice finished third on Bill Brookes’ selling hurdler Lord Chief, at Hereford on October 29, 1964 and at Haydock on January 9, 1965, but by and large the horses he rode were either the inexperienced type that required educating or were being ‘saved for another day’.
With Stan Mellor being Roy Whiston’s first choice jockey, and the likes of Roy Edwards, Tim Brookshaw, Josh Gifford and Bobby Beasley all coming in for the occasional mount, as did Whiston’s claimer Mick Langford, Joe was fairly well down the pecking order when it came to rides. He rated Guinea Hunter, which won a host of races over fences and hurdles, and Santa Grand, which went on to win many times in the hands of his owner-rider Chris Collins, as the best two he rode. He partnered Guinea Hunter when finishing ninth in a Uttoxeter novice riders’ handicap hurdle on November 16, 1961, and finished unplaced on Santa Grand in a similar race at Uttoxeter on December 7, 1963.
Those were the good ones. There were also lesser lights, such as Woodcraft Lady, which gave him a fall at Wolverhampton on January 18, 1967. He was relatively lucky in staying injury-free on the racecourse, his worst injury coming in a schooling fall on the home gallops, in which he chipped a bone in his neck.
Joe had his last of “over 100” rides on a horse named David in the Redditch Handicap Chase at Stratford on May 4, 1967, finishing fifth. He relinquished his licence at the end of that season.
He left racing and, having spent ten weeks in a rehabilitation centre in Preston, followed by six months in a similar facility in Exeter, he joined agricultural engineering firm Burgess in Market Drayton and worked for them for seven years.
Having long ago retired, he lives in Hodnet, just down the road from the stables at which he spent 20 years, with his wife Glenys. They have two children, Tim, an electrical engineer, and Louise, who is associate dean at Bradford University.
Joe celebrated his eightieth birthday on October 1, 2016. He may not have ridden a winner during his six years as a jockey, but he was typical of those who carry on operating out of the limelight and who form the backbone of racing, without which the sport could not function.
