Article by Chris Pitt
National Hunt jockey Lawrence Campbell Corbett first held a jumps jockey’s licence between 1952 and 1954 but did not ride a winner during that time. He returned to the fray in 1959/60 and his luck changed almost immediately, for he rode three winners that season, beginning with Hugh Sumner’s Eire’s Flame in the Walsall Handicap Hurdle at Wolverhampton on Monday, December 28, 1959.
Sumner’s Newbawn Lace – who would carry on racing for another 11 years before being retired aged 17 – was Lawrence’s second winner, in the Prestbury Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham’s April meeting in 1960, following up five days later on the Tuesday of Chepstow’s Easter fixture.
Newbawn Lace was Lawrence’s sole success of the 1960/61 campaign, winning on heavy ground at Chepstow in October. He then had to wait four and a half years before his next, Wood Spirit in a novices’ chase at Hereford on Easter Monday, 1965.
There was then another two years’ wait for his sixth success, again on Easter Monday, this being Ina’s Last in the Raynham Chase at Fakenham.
A further wait of over three years ensued before a hurdler named Potash gave him a brace of wins at Newton Abbot in August and September 1970. Lawrence and Potash bookended that 1970/71 campaign by winning at Stratford on the penultimate day of the season. That was his final ride, for he did not renew his licence the following season.
Lawrence Corbett may have been an infrequent visitor to the winner’s enclosure but at least he went out on a high note.
Lawrence died in 2015.
His nine winners were, in chronological order:
1. Eire’s Flame, Wolverhampton, December 28, 1959
2. Newbawn Lace, Cheltenham, April 13, 1960
3. Newbawn Lace, Chepstow, April 18, 1960
4. Newbawn Lace, Chepstow, October 29, 1960
5. Wood Spirit, Hereford, April 19, 1965
6. Ina’s Lad, Fakenham, March 27, 1967
7. Potash, Newton Abbot, August 25, 1970
8. Potash, Newton Abbot, September 12, 1970
9. Potash, Stratford-on-Avon, June 4, 1971
