John Crowhurst

1932-2021

Born on February 27, 1932, Flat jockey John Maurice Crowhurst, known as Jack, served his apprenticeship with Towser Gosden, father of John Gosden, at Lewes, in Sussex, and rode his first winner on Gosden’s Rub-a-Dub in an apprentices’ race at Redcar on Whit Monday, May 25, 1953. He won a similar contest on Rub-a-Dub at Newmarket’s July Meeting.

He rode one more winner as an apprentice, Trentham Boy at Haydock, before coming out of his time in 1955. Trentham Boy gave Jack his first winner as a fully-fledged jockey when winning a mile-and-a-half handicap at Doncaster in October 1955. They followed up by winning the Farewell Handicap at Manchester’s end of season meeting in November.

Gosden’s handicapper Greenbatt proved a good friend to Jack, providing him with two of his three winners in 1956 and the first of his three in 1958, having drawn a blank in 1957. But his biggest winner in terms of monetary value was Dual Role in the £2,064 3s Daily Mirror Maiden for three-year-olds at Sandown richly-sponsored Variety Club meeting in August 1960.

He rode three winners in 1961, beginning with Gosden’s popular handicapper Damredub in Windsor’s Round Tower Handicap in April. His second came on a Gosden two-year-old named Barn Dance at Bogside. His final winner – the last of his career – was achieved on another Gosden-trained juvenile, Scandalize, in the Theale Maiden Plate at Newbury on October 19, 1961.

Jack remained with his Towser Gosden throughout his career as a jockey. All 16 of his winners were on horses trained by Gosden. He relinquished his licence at the end of 1965, coinciding with Gosden’s own retirement due to ill health, but resumed for one more season in 1967 before retiring from race riding altogether, although he continued to play an important role for Gosden’s successor Gordon Smyth as an experienced work rider.

John (Jack) Crowhurst died on October 16, 2021, aged 89.

His winners were in chronological order:

1. Rub-a-Dub, Redcar, May 25, 1953

2. Rub-a-Dub, Newmarket, July 16, 1953

3. Trentham Boy, Haydock, October 2, 1954

4. Trentham Boy, Doncaster, October 22, 1955

5. Trentham Boy, Manchester, November 10, 1955

6. Honey Slipper, Folkestone, July 24, 1956

7. Greenbatt, Lingfield, August 25, 1956

8. Greenbatt, Windsor, September 25, 1956

9. Greenbatt, Hurst Park, April 11, 1958

10. Damrida, Kempton, July 23, 1958

11. Donna Loll, Newbury, August 15, 1958

12. Sharp Wind, Lingfield, June 26, 1959

13. Dual Role, Sandown, August 27, 1960

14. Damredub, Windsor, April 1961

15. Barn Dance, Bogside, September 16, 1961

16. Scandalize, Newbury, October 19, 1961