Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook

Article by Alan Trout

Jonathan Watkins Cook rode two winners on the Flat and two over jumps, although in the case of the latter they were ten years apart. 

He began his apprenticeship with Etienne de Mestre, for whom he finished second on his first ride in public on a horse named Mittagong, owned and trained by de Mestre, in the Apprentices’ Plate at Newmarket on April 13, 1932.    

When Etienne de Metre died in August that year, Jonathan joined the Winchester stable of Tom Smalley. He rode his first winner on a horse owned and trained by his new master when Joule landed the Aston Selling Plate at Birmingham on August 7, 1933. In a close finish, Joule was just half a length ahead of Westley Mill, ridden by Freddie Fox, with Dick Perryman on Copt a neck further away in third. Not a bad effort to beat two top jockeys.   

Jonathan’s second win was even closer, with just a head separating Time Keeper, the winner of the Fryston Nursery Handicap Plate at Pontefract on September 27, from the runner-up West Park, ridden by Arthur Wragg. 

Despite those two good efforts Jonathan had no further success on the Flat. He had to turn to the jumps for his next victory. This came at Hereford on Easter Monday, March 29, 1937, when Losalot won the Grand Stand Selling Handicap Hurdle by a length from Ben Lay’s mount Scenter. The eleven-year-old had not won a race for almost three years, and Jonathan was having his seventh ride on the gelding. 

He relinquished his licence after the 1938/39 season but came back eight years later to land a second win over jumps in the Keats Lane Novices’ Hurdle (Division 1) at Windsor on January 10, 1947. His mount, the five-year-old Esquimalt, won by 12 lengths. It was the only occasion the horse ever ran under National Hunt rules. 

Janathan’s return to race-riding was a brief one, as he did not renew his licence for the following season. 

Jonathan Cook’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Joule, Birmingham, August 7, 1933

2. Time Keeper, Pontefract, September 27, 1933

3. Losalot, Hereford, March 29, 1937 

4. Esquimalt, Windsor, January 10, 1947