Peter Armitage

Peter Armitage

Peter Armitage served a five-year apprenticeship with Dick Hern at East Ilsley where he looked after the good filly Highest Hopes amongst others and also rode out Brigadier Gerard on several occasions before the colt became such hot property as a three-year-old. 

Soon after completing his apprenticeship, he moved north and became jump jockey, head lad and main work rider for Clifford Watts’ small yard at Bridlington. 

He had 45 rides for Watts spread over ten years but did not manage to ride a winner. He admitted to “falling off twice” but apart from that he had got everything round and had a couple of third places. The most rides he ever had in one season was twelve, although he missed around a dozen in the 1985/86 season through abandoned meetings. However, his lack of success did not dampen his enthusiasm for the game. 

He held a licence for the 1986/87 campaign, but, unfortunately for him, the Jockey Club introduced a ruling which compromised his chances of being granted one for the following season. The Jockey Club’s criterion for granting jockeys licences stated: “Applications will not be considered from those who can expect only an occasional odd or chance mount and for whom there is no serious demand for their services to ride regularly in public.”

Peter had had only nine rides during the 1986/87 campaign, whereas the Jockey Club’s minimum was set at around 25. Hence, he was informed that he need not bother reapplying for his jump jockey’s licence the following season as they didn’t consider he’d had enough rides.

Frustrated by the ruling, Peter told the Sporting Life’s northern reporter James Lambie: “It shouldn’t matter how many rides you get. If the person you work for is prepared to put you up then you should be given a licence. Mr Watts doesn’t like having a lad in the yard who does all the work, then someone else gets the rides. He is keen for me to ride the horses and a small firm like ours couldn’t employ a stable jockey anyway. We might not have 25 runners in a season.

“This is a smashing place to work,” he added. “I was just a little cog in a big machine when I was with Major Hern, but you only start learning when you come to a small yard like this. There’s not a job I don’t do here, but if I’m not allowed to enjoy the finished product, I might as well do something else where I can earn twice as much.”

Sadly, the death of Clifford Watts soon after that interview appeared to have ended the riding career of Peter Armitage, aged 33, once and for all. Without the incentive of having the occasional ride, he looked set to leave racing, not that he wouldn’t miss it. It was yet another case of the little man being denied an opportunity to pursue his dream.