Peter Cullis

The photo (above) shows Peter Cullis returning to the winner's enclosure after winning on May Gate at Taunton on May 9, 1975.

He announced his retirement immediately after the race.

His career began at Salisbury on Saturday, April 7, 1945, riding Weathercock in The Wiltshire Handicap. D Power had originally been booked to ride, but was replaced by Peter. The horse carried 6 st 7 lb.

Twenty-four days after his fifteenth birthday, Peter was back in the saddle, once again at Salisbury. 

The Sporting Life described the race as follows: 'The opening event in the programme, a race for apprentice jockeys, was won so easily by Weathercock, ridden by young Cullis, that it does not call for any description except to remark that this small boy kept his mount going steadily once he had taken the lead'.

Thus Peter rode his first winner.

Born in Southampton on 17 September 1930, Peter Thomas Harland Cullis was apprenticed to the tyrannical Major Sneyd who kept him and other young riders short of food and provided them with just coal-holes as their accommodation. Joe Mercer and Doug Smith both went through the same regime at Sparsholt (Wantage) in their early days.

At the start of his career, Cullis was tiny, with a riding weight of 6 stone.

When he rode for the last time - on Friday, May 9, 1975 - the weight his mount, May Gate, carried was 11-7. Peter won his last race.

Every growing young man puts on weight and for Peter, any Flat ambitions he may have held ceased in 1948, but not before he had ridden in a classic. He rode Special Scotch in the Oaks won by Masaka. He was last away of the 25 runners, and always trailed, eventually finishing last.

After completing his National Service in the King's Troop, he found work with trainer George Spann, whose stables stood in Russley Park, Marlborough. Spann's best horse was probably Polar Flight who had finished second in the 1958 Cheltenham Gold Cup. 

Peter won on him at Stratford but, after falling at the first in Haydock's Emblem Chase, he was immediately replaced by the horse's owner.

Peter broke his neck in a fall from Curling Iron at Kempton's Boxing Day Meeting in 1960 and his career was virtually over. He rode just six winners during the following ten years and took the logical, if belated, decision to retire, but the lull of the turf was too strong and he rode again.

Pirodome gave Peter his first win in four years.

Peter waited 28 years for his first ride in the Grand National. It came in 1973, the year Red Rum collared Crisp on the run-in. Back in seventeenth and last place came Peter riding Mill Door. 

Then, aged 43, it had been a personal ambition to complete the National course.

The ride had not come without its moments. The previous day Peter had been struck in the face by a horse on the training ground. Waking up on Grand National morning, Peter was in agony, unable to open one eye. A visit to the doctor's solved the problem. A horse hair was found in it and extracted.

When he finally retired, he worked for BP as control supervisor on a pipeline.

On leaving BP, he retired to Wolferlowe, near Bromyard.

Peter Cullis died on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, aged 87.

Peter Cullis rode 12 winners as an apprentice on the Flat and 29 over jumps. 

His National Hunt winners were, in chronological order:

1. Amy’s Last, Wye, March 30, 1953

2. Bobbie Atkins, Manchester, December 31, 1954

3. Candlelight, Wye, October 31, 1955

4. Candlelight, Stratford-on-Avon, November 17, 1955

5. Unprepared, Towcester, March 31, 1956

6. River Charmer, Bangor-on-Dee, April 6, 1956

7. Fall Guy, Woore, September 13, 1956

8. Los Zicales, Kelso, October 19, 1956

9. Coiffure, Haydock Park, January 12, 1957

10. Our Choice, Ludlow, April 23, 1957

11. Our Choice, Market Rasen, May 11, 1957

12. Polar Flight, Stratford-on-Avon, November 7, 1957

13. Persirain, Chepstow, October 25, 1958

14. Irish Paddy, Wincanton, March 12, 1959

15. Longreign, Wolverhampton, November 20, 1962

16. Scarlet Raider, Huntingdon, June 3, 1963

17. Tilsworth Lad, Nottingham, October 28, 1963

18. Scarron, Worcester, March 27, 1965

19. Raymond’s Folly, Fakenham, June 7, 1965

20. Admiral Benbow, Wolverhampton, December 26, 1966

21. Pirodome, Stratford-on-Avon, June 4, 1971

22. Pirodome, Towcester, November 29, 1971

23. Pirodome, Stratford-on-Avon, October 21, 1972

24. Pirolace, Uttoxeter, April 24, 1973

25. Mick’s Worry, Southwell, May 26, 1973

26. On Parade, Nottingham, November 13, 1973

27. May Gate, Plumpton, January 9, 1974

28. May Gate, Taunton, March 21, 1974

29. May Gate, Taunton, May 9, 1975