Article by Chris Pitt
National Hunt jockey Peter Collyer-Bristow rode for several seasons as an amateur before turning professional in the mid-1950s.
He rode his first winner on Ready Token in the Somerset Hunters’ Chase at Taunton on March 16, 1950. The following month he owned, trained and rode 100/6 chance Sherwood, below, to win a Taunton selling chase.
Peter rode just one winner in each of the next three seasons, selling chaser Duharra, below, at Taunton in 1950/51, Jim Ford’s handicap hurdler Blue Chip at Wincanton on Easter
Monday 1952, and Sid Warren’s maiden chaser Gun Music, at Chepstow in March 1953.
Despite the apparent lack of regular success, Peter turned professional the 1953/54 campaign and rode for Sid Warren’s East Ilsley stable. It proved a good move for he rode seven winners during the second half of that season, his first as a professional being on Tormond in a Worcester novices’ chase, left, on March 1, 1954.
He won him again at Hereford five days later, rode three more winners that month, then finished the season with a Fontwell Park double on selling chaser Golden Surprise and four-year-old hurdler Colombo Lad, all of them trained by Sid Warren
But just when things looked like taking off, his career was almost at an end. He didn’t ride a winner the following season and had just one the next, selling chaser Normandy III at Hereford on March 17, 1956, trained by Jim Lea at Wythall, on the outskirts of Birmingham.
That was the last winner he ever rode. He did not ride again after that season. His final ride appears to have been on Fancy Pants, unplaced in a hurdle race at Taunton on May 3, 1956.
Peter Collyer-Bristow’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Ready Token, Taunton, March 16, 1950
2. Sherwood, Taunton, April 22, 1950
3. Duharra, below, Taunton, February 17, 1951
4. Blue Chip, Wincanton, April 14, 1952
5. Gun Music, Chepstow, March 21, 1953
6. Tormond, Worcester, March 1, 1954
7. Tormond, Hereford, March 6, 1954
8. Hunting Gate, Wolverhampton, March 8, 1954
9. Noisy Pal, Newbury, March 19, 1954
10. Bodogat, Fontwell Park, March 31, 1954
11. Golden Surprise, Fontwell Park, June 7, 1954
12. Colombo Lad, Fontwell Park, June 7, 1954
13. Normandy III, Hereford, March 17, 1956
