c1886 - 1945
Born circa 1886, John Charters rode 32 winners under National Hunt rules during a short period as an amateur rider. He enjoyed one banner year which saw him finish runner-up in the amateur riders’ table.
He rode under NH rules for the first time when finishing unplaced on Ronald II in the Hunters’ Hurdle Race at Woodbridge on April 12, 1907. He achieved his first success on Kilsby in the Open Hunters’ Hurdle at Chelmsford on April 2, 1908 and finished the year with a tally of six wins.
In 1909 he rode 21 winners, ending the year in second place in the amateur riders’ championship. Six of those wins came courtesy of Kilsby in two novice hurdles, a chase and three National Hunt Flat races. Six more were provided by handicap hurdler St Canon, the first of which came at Cardiff on April 12. They followed up the very next day at the same venue in the Tredegar Handicap Hurdle. That second success was also the second leg of a double, for John had also won the Penllyn Selling Handicap Hurdle on Arizona II earlier on the card.
John had two more doubles that year, winning twice on St Cannon on the same afternoon at Bungay on April 21; then at Colwall Park on May 31 aboard Arizona II in the Ledbury Selling Hurdle and St Cannon in the Three Miles Hurdle.
He appears to have reduced his riding commitments after that stellar year, for he managed only four wins in 1910. He rode just one the following year – the last of his brief career – on his old standby Kilsby, who started 9-4 on favourite and won by eight lengths in the National Hunt Flat Race at Harpenden on May 4, 1911.
Nine days later, Kilsby also became John’s final mount when finishing third in the Ladies’ National Hunt Flat Race at Cardiff on May 13, 1911. Thus ended a fleeting four-year period as an amateur rider and an even briefer spell among the top rank. It happened during the most carefree days of the Edwardian era, before the dark shadows of war engulfed the country, so it is perfectly possible that he turned his attention to other sporting pursuits.
John Charters died in 1945.
