John Henry Baybut was apprenticed to Norah Wilmot at Binfield, Berkshire in the mid-1950s. He had his first ride on Final Gift in an apprentices’ handicap at Sandown on April 22, 1955, finishing ninth of the twelve runners.
When rising weight became an issue, he switched to riding over jumps, taking out a National Hunt jockey’s licence in 1962. He moved north and joined Charlie Hall’s stable at Tadcaster, near Wetherby, and remained with him thereafter.
He relinquished his licence in 1963 but renewed it for the 1967/68 season and had seven mounts, one of whom, the Charlie Hall-trained Old Gold, provided him with the sole winner of his career when winning the Springs Handicap Hurdle for novice riders on the second day of Wetherby’s Easter meeting, April 16, 1968.
It appears John Baybut ended his race-riding career on a winner because he had no further mounts during that 1967/68 campaign and did not renew his licence the following season.
