Michael Burke

Michael Burke

Article by Alan Trout

National Hunt jockey Michael Anthony Burke rode eight winners between 1929 and 1931. His first was at Torquay on Easter Monday, April 1, 1929, with an easy eight-length victory on Kilmoon in the Ladies’ Handicap Hurdle. The following day at the same course, Kilmoon won even more easily, this time by 30 lengths, in the Torre Handicap Hurdle. 

Kilmoon was trained by George Beeby, who was then based at Waltham-on-the-Wolds, near Melton Mowbray, but would later gain fame as the trainer of Lord Bicester’s fine chasers, most notably the 1951 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Silver Fame. 

Michael had two more wins, on Lord Presto in the Malvern Wells Maiden Hurdle at Colwall Park on April 22, and Battle Array in the Luddington Selling Handicap Hurdle at Stratford on May 4, before Kilmoon recorded his third victory, and Michael’s fifth, of the season, when winning the South Devon Handicap Hurdle at Buckfastleigh on Whit Monday, May 20, this time by three lengths.

He rode only three more winners during his career, all of them on the dependable Kilmoon. There was a 10-length success in the Lowdham Handicap Hurdle at Southwell on September 2, 1929, followed by a 20-length winning margin in the Market Handicap Hurdle at Market Rasen on September 29, but no more for the remainder of that campaign. 

Kilmoon had run nine times in the 1930/31 season without winning when he and Michael arrived for the two-day Whitsun meeting at Buckfastleigh. On Whit Monday, May 25, they were beaten three-quarters of a length in a match for the South Devon Handicap Hurdle, the race they had won two years earlier. On the Tuesday, Kilmoon again finished second, this time in the Dean Prior Selling Handicap Hurdle. Three races later that same afternoon, they lined up for the Buckfast Handicap Hurdle and forced a dead-heat with Golden Lyre, ridden by Robert Drinnan.

Of Michael Burke’s right victories, Kilmoon supplied six. The horse only won once more, when ridden by his owner, Mr T. Watt, at Market Rasen in October 1932. Michael held a licence until the 1935/36 season but rode no more winners. 

Michael Burke’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Kilmoon, Torquay, April 1, 1929

2. Kilmoon, Torquay, April 2, 1929

3. Lord Presto, Colwall Park, April 22, 1929

4. Battle Array, Stratford-on-Avon, May 4, 1929

5. Kilmoon, Buckfastleigh, May 20, 1929

6. Kilmoon, Southwell, September 2, 1929

7. Kilmoon, Market Rasen, September 29, 1929

8. Kilmoon, Buckfastleigh, May 26, 1931 (dead-heat)