John Curant

John Arthur Curant was born on August 10, 1951 and brought up at 1, The Pleasance, Parsons Green, SW15.  At the age of fifteen in 1966, joined Boggy Whelan as an apprentice.

He rode his first winner, Off Beat, at Kempton Park's evening fixture on Tuesday, 16 July 1968. Owned by Jack Ramsden, Off Beat was trained by Bill Marshall.

John then enjoyed two good years, the highlight of which was being retained by Sir Gordon Richards.

Unfortunately, John suffered a bad fall at Warwick which damaged his back. Then Sir Gordon quit training to become manager to Lady Beverbook. Suddenly John was facing an uncertain end to his five years' apprenticeship.

He was then approached by Ken Payne, offering him the job as stable jockey. By then, John had nearly ridden out his 3 lb claiming allowance; to continue claiming, he would have to sign on for a minimum three years, which he did. It was his only chance of continuing to ride in England. It was to be a tumultuous three years.

John kicked home some seventy winners for the stable, albeit mainly in sellers, though in their first season together they landed the 1974 Brocklesby Stakes with Alexben from Viv-Y-Voo and and the grey Talk of the Town. John was unlucky on Kitharion, probably the best horse he rode for Payne. In the July Stakes, John very nearly caught Lester Piggott napping, being beaten by just a short head. 

Other good horses John rode included Gay Charmaine - 5th in the Irish Guineas - and Dance All Night, on which John won a six-furlong race before Payne, insisting that he horse required further, entered it in the Oaks. It ran unplaced.

Ken Payne, says, John, could sell sand to the Arabs - he had an uncanny ability to make the unlikeliest story believable. His wild stories finally caught up with him, and the bailiff's arrived.

John then had the good fortune to become stable jockey for Toby Balding whom John describe as 'a gent to the core' - unfortunately, he wasn't able to repay the trainer's trust with a great number of winners. John said: 'The truth was, I hadn't learnt enough in the previous eight years. I would have been able to help with the young horses, but at the time I was riding second to Richard Hannon and the knowledge I picked up there was too late to help Toby.'

After riding about ten winners in a quiet season, John managed to get a job in Ireland with trainer  Richard Annesley, taking over from Walter Swinburn. Again, John found himself up against it; due to a virus, the horses were in terrible form and for a while the stable virtually closed down. When things got back to normal, two horses were sent to Sligo. John won on them both, but generally winners were hard to come by. 

Regal Ray was a bad-tempered, but talented, filly which had put her normal work rider in hospital; however, John got on well with the filly and sh gave him his only Listed Race winner in Europe when winning the Moyglare at the Curragh, beating a Vincent O'Brien hot-pot.

From Ireland, John went back to Toby Balding who was arranging a job for him in Germany. John first spent the winter of 1976 in India. In those three months, riding in Bangalore and Madras, John accumulated 27 winners, a healthy figure considering racing was only held at the weekends. He rode o ride the Bangalore Gold Cup winner andf the Gold Cup winner in Madras.

John arrived in Germany in early 1978, landing a double on his first racecourse appearance.

After a short spell in Bremen, John went to Müheim Ruhr before travelling on to Dusseldorf. Though he rode into double figures each season, he never properly broke through so, at the end of 1982, he headed for Kenya. This became John's favourite place. He found the people friendly and their great life style to his taste. Averaging about twenty winners a season over the next five years, John won the Guineas and most of the of the races.

In 1988, John returned to England. His mother had died the previous July and he knew that his father could do with some company. John resolved not to ride abroad again, but an offer from Tony Ingham to spend a year helping out in Macau proved too tempting.

Macau was a real eye-opener for John. A work in progress, it was a building site on which 600 horses from all over the world toiled incessantly. £8,000 was paid for each animal which passed the vet. Many were mentally unsound but put to work regardless. There were no proper stables, all yet to be built, and the racecourse was still on somebody's drawing board. Yet the Chinese are nothing if not tenacious: within six months they were ready to race and did so with great success. John had arranged to stay for just a year and, in that first season, he rode about twelve winners. 

Back in the UK once more, John became a partner with his partner in the clothing trade, with a mobile unit going to all the main events, plus four main racecourses, in England. For a couple more years, John continued to ride, notching up a few winners, but not enough to make it pay. He stopped riding until, two years later, an owner asked him to ride a two-year-old he had in training with Colin Williams at Newmarket, where John was then living. The filly, Tinker Osmaston, was good fun, winning a couple of races. She was then sold at the end of the season.

Aged 50, having ridden about 500 winners in six countries, John finally settled down, buying a barn to renovate in Middleham. Now, looking back  some twenty years later, he reflects: 'I managed to hold my own wherever I rode and very much enjoyed my career.'

A fitting summing up of an interesting life.

He was crowned champion apprentice in 1973 with 26 winners.

John Curant died in November 2020, aged 69, following a long struggle with cancer. He had been diagnosed seven years earlier and only given a couple of years to live, but he defied the doctors' predictions by lasting for a further five. He is survived by his elder brother and former jockey Bob, younger brother Les and his sister Sue.