John Bosley

John Bosley

1930-2008

Article by Alan Trout

John Reed Bosley was one of the leading amateur riders in the decade after the Second World War. He rode 47 winners altogether, had a ride in the Grand National, and was successful over the Liverpool fences.

Born on September 15, 1930, he had his first ride at Fontwell Park on March 29, 1946, when finishing second on Poet’s Theme in the Felpham Hurdle, beaten six lengths by Lord Mildmay aboard the 11/4 on favourite Fisherman’s Yarn. However, when John won his first race, on Osberstown in the Windsor Amateur Riders’ Handicap Hurdle at that Berkshire venue on January 10, 1947, it was Lord Mildmay who finished behind, in third place, with another top amateur, Dicky Black, separating them. 

John rode his second winner the following day, again at Windsor, although this time he had to share the prize.. It was with one of the greatest professional jockeys of his day, in the Keats Lane Novices’ Hurdle (Division 3). John, on Bambino II, had a long battle up the straight with Miss Dorothy Paget’s Endless, trained by Fulke Walwyn and ridden by future champion jockey Bryan Marshall, a dead heat being the verdict. 

In the years that followed, John had a steady stream of winners, although his best season’s total was just eight. He won on horses trained by Frenchie Nicholson, Fred Rimell and Peter Cazalet among others, and it was on the latter’s Hill Breeze that he won Newton Abbot’s Bulpin Challenge Cup, a chase, for three consecutive years.

He twice finished second in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham, on both occasion when the National Hunt meeting had been postponed from its traditional March slot because of bad weather. On April 12, 1947, Soda II was beaten ten lengths by Maltese Wanderer, but on April 26, 1951 he was a little closer when Royal Mond finished six lengths behind Cushenden and was found to be lame after the race.

John’s greatest success came on March 25, 1954, when Dark Stranger took the lead three fences out and ran on to take the Liverpool Foxhunters’ Chase by three lengths. It was John’s first ride on the nine-year-old. They teamed up again on March 26 the following year to contest the 1955 Grand National. John had to put up 4lb overweight and they were well behind when falling at the eleventh fence.

John’s other two rides in the Liverpool Foxhunters were not so successful. Clare Dragoon was a faller in 1948, while Dark Stranger was lying second, albeit well behind the clear leader, when unseating his rider four out. 

John’s last three wins were on Middlegate, the final one coming in the Fairyland Hunters’ Chase at Wincanton on March 12, 1959, with a six length victory over Rokos.

He began training, based at Lower Haddon Farm, Bampton, in Oxfordshire, and his career as a jockey virtually ended in the summer of 1961, although he made a brief comeback for a couple of rides in 1969, the second of them at Stratford on May 30, when pulling up on Parkness in the John Corbett Cup Novice Hunters’ Chase. 

Arguably the most popular horse he trained was the mare Eyecatcher, third behind Rag Trade and Red Rum respectively in the 1976 and 1977 Grand Nationals. Eventually his son Martin took over the training licence. 

John Bosley died in 2008.

His winners were, in chronological order:

1. Osberstown, Windsor, January 10, 1947

2. Bambino II, Windsor, January 11, 1947 (dead heat)

3. Knight’s Cap, Cartmel, May 24, 1947

4. Jubilant, Sandown Park, March 12, 1948

5. Bridgehead, Newton Abbot, May 8, 1948

6. Hoptoy, Towcester, April 16, 1949

7. Ivan Louis de Belford, Towcester, April 16, 1949

8. Still Hoping, Southwell, September 5, 1949

9. Still Hoping, Newton Abbot, September 9, 1949

10. Still Hoping, Hereford, October 6, 1949

11. Don Kerry, Wincanton, November 24, 1949

12. Ivan Louis de Belford, Birmingham, December 13, 1949

13. Ivan Louis de Belford, Wincanton, December 26, 1949

14. Casablanca, Lingfield Park, January 13, 1950

15. Ivan Louis de Belford, Birmingham, January 17, 1950

16. Providential, Wye, September 18, 1950

17. Providential, Ludlow, September 27, 1950

18. Le Jacobin, Kempton Park, November 24, 1950

19. Providential, Birmingham, December 12, 1950

20. Merry Matt, Ludlow, April 18, 1951

21. Hill Breeze, Newton Abbot, August 4, 1951

22. Mannason, Newton Abbot, August 6, 1951

23. Broad Meadow, Windsor, January 4, 1952

24. Ivan Louis de Belford, Towcester, May 31, 1952

25. Hill Breeze, Newton Abbot, August 2, 1952

26. Brown Alligator, Newton Abbot, August 15, 1952

27. Diego Rubio, Devon & Exeter, August 20, 1952

28. Kid Berg, Warwick, December 13, 1952

29. Hill Breeze, Newton Abbot, August 1, 1953

30. Tantivy, Newbury, December 12, 1953

31. Tantivy, Wincanton, December 26, 1953

32. Tantivy, Newbury, January 21, 1954

33. Wavehigh, Taunton, February 20, 1954

34. Dark Stranger, Liverpool, March 25, 1954

35. Wild Wisdom, Folkestone, April 26, 1954

36. Diego Rubio, Newton Abbot, August 13, 1954

37. Diego Rubio, Devon & Exeter, August 18, 1954

38. Duo II, Devon & Exeter, August 24, 1954

39. Rose Park, Sandown Park, December 15, 1955

40. Dark Stranger, Towcester, March 31, 1956

41. Greyspot, Towcester, June 10, 1957

42. Perifield, Folkestone, September 10, 1957

43. Inspiration, Fontwell Park, December 26, 1957

44. Felhampton, Cheltenham, April 3, 1958

45. Middlegate, Buckfastleigh, May 26, 1958

46. Middlegate, Chepstow, March 7, 1959

47. Middlegate, Wincanton, March 12, 1959