1928 - 1998
Irishman Raymond Featherstone Cross – known to all Barney Cross – was born on November 4, 1928. He came England aged 17 seeking work. He found it at the stables of Captain Jack Fawcus who trained horses at Middleham.
He began his racing career as an amateur and had three of his earliest rides on a chaser called Drumreagh, trained by Jack Ormston. Barney rode the horse three times during the 1946/47 season, finishing unplaced at Hexham and Carlisle in October 1946 but then coming third in an incident-packed race for the John Peel Cup Hunters’ Chase at Manchester’s 1947 Easter meeting, when just seven of the 23 runners completed the course, a dozen of them having fallen at various stages.
One of Barney’s first winners was Convalescent, owned and trained by Alex Greenshields, in a Manchester handicap hurdle on November 21, 1947.
The following season, 1948/49, he formed a successful association with Ripon trainer Bobby Renton and rode eight winners, beginning with Look Pleasant in an amateur riders’ handicap chase at Manchester on New Year’s Day 1949. He further advertised his skills by riding three winners at Doncaster’s two-day meeting in February, all of them trained by Renton. He won a pair of hurdle races in March and April on one of the best horses he would ride during his career, Little Yid, also trained by Renton. Little Yid would go on to win the 1953 Molyneux Chase at Liverpool with George Slack on board. Barney’s last two wins of that season came on Fine Fellow, owned and trained by Clifford Nicholson, most unusually in an amateur riders’ maiden hurdle and a hunter chase on consecutive days of Wetherby’s Easter meeting.
Barney turned professional at the start of the 1949/50 season and rode six winners that term. His victory on juvenile hurdler Irish Gift at Manchester on New Year’s Eve was the fifteenth of his career and resulted in him losing his right to claim an allowance, fifteen being all that was required in those days. He ended the campaign with a win on handicap hurdler Cripple Creek at Hexham’s Whitsun meeting.
He rode just three winners the following season, the last of them on novice hurdler Blue Spruce for trainer John Marshall. Barney joined Marshall’s Chatton Park, Alnwick, stable, where he went on to enjoy considerable success, recording numerically his best season in 1951/52 with ten winners, all of them trained by Marshall. They included three in a row on novice hurdler Barmbrack, and two each on juvenile hurdler Miss Eva and two-mile chaser Curransport.
Later that season, he rode Barmbrack when twice outrunning his odds in elevated company, finishing fifth in Cheltenham’s County Hurdle and in the Liverpool Hurdle. Barney rode the 100-1 outsider Sergeant Kelly in the 1952 Grand National – his only ride in the race – and completed the course last of the ten finishers after remounting.
John Marshall supplied all bar one of Barney’s five winners the following season and all five in the one after that. Three-mile handicap chaser Elseena was a stable stalwart, winning the Coronation Year running of Perthshire Challenge Cup and the John Eustace Smith Cup at Newcastle in the autumn of 1953. Another good friend was Kelso specialist Friar’s Heel, on whom Barney won seven races over hurdles and fences, five of them at Kelso.
When John Marshall gave up training to become a Jockey Club steward in August 1957, Barney took over the licence at the Chatton Park, Alnwick stables, although Marshall remained as one of his main owners. Barney continued to hold a jockey’s licence and rode many of his own horses. One which became a firm favourite was the mare Border Picture, whom he trained to win eleven races, five of them ridden by himself.
Border Picture was Barney’s last winner as a jockey when winning a Perth novices’ chase in April 1963. The closest he came to riding another was when finishing second on Solon Bay at Catterick in November that year. That was his last season as a jockey. His final ride was when finishing sixth on Jackanjon in a handicap hurdle at Sedgefield on May 30, 1964. He hung up his boots having ridden around 60 winners.
He continued to train and employed former National Hunt jockey Tommy Mallorie as his head lad. Border Picture won a nice race for the stable when landing the John Eustace Smith Trophy Handicap Chase at Newcastle in December 1964, ridden by George Milburn.
Barney gained his most important success with Wild Sunset in the 1967 Emblem Chase at Wetherby with Robin Langley on board.
Despite having a small string, he enjoyed a fair measure of success. The best horse that passed through his hands was subsequent Scottish Grand National winner and Grand National runner-up Sebastian V. Barney trained him to win two novice hurdles and three novice chases, partnered in all of them by David Moorhead, before the horse joined Scottish trainer Harry Bell.
Latterly, he did well with handicap hurdler Golden End, who won seven races in the late 1970s, ridden in all of them by Steve Charlton. Barney’s daughter Angela also rode him to win at Cartmel in August 1981.
An accomplished amateur rider, Angela, rode several of Barney’s winners while Michael, his son, a qualified farrier, shod the horses.
Another hurdling stalwart was Beau Brigg, who won seven races for the yard, five of them with Angela in the saddle. Their wins included the Colonel John McKie Memorial Challenge Cup at Hexham in August 1978 and the BBC Radio Cumbria Handicap Hurdle at Carlisle on Easter Monday, April 12, 1982. The latter success was one of Barney’s last. He retired in 1984.
Raymond Cross died in November 1998, aged 70, and was buried on Tuesday, November 24, in Chatton. He left a widow, Eileen (whom he had married in October 1946), two sons, one daughter and six grandchildren.
Raymond Cross’s winners included:
Convalescent, Manchester, November 21, 1947
Look Pleasant, Manchester, January 1, 1949
Q.E.D., Doncaster, February 23, 1949
Red Lodge, Doncaster, February 23, 1949
Look Pleasant, Doncaster, February 24, 1949
Little Yid, Catterick Bridge, March 19, 1949
Little Yid, Sedgefield, April 6, 1949
Fine Fellow, Wetherby, April 18, 1949
Fine Fellow, Wetherby, April 19, 1949
Masco, Catterick Bridge, November 5, 1949
Peaceful George, Catterick Bridge, November 10, 1949
Baskerville, Wetherby, December 3, 1949
Irish Gift, Manchester, December 31, 1949
Cripple Creek, Hexham, May 27, 1950
Woodland Tale, Kelso, March 3, 1951
Rope Trick. Wetherby, March 26, 1951
Blue Spruce, Sedgefield, March 31, 1951
Miss Eva, Southwell, October 15, 1951
Folly Hope, Carlisle, October 15, 1951
Miss Eva, Ayr, October 24, 1951
Curransport, Newcastle, October 27, 1951
Barmbrack, Haydock, November 30, 1951
Elseena, Newcastle, December 8, 1951
Barmbrack, Newcastle, December 10, 1951
Curransport, Sedgefield, December 26, 1951
Barmbrack, Sedgefield, December 26, 1951
Flying Over, Catterick Bridge, November 22, 1952 (dead-heat)
Tamdhu, Wetherby, January 17, 1953
Elseena, Catterick Bridge, January31, 1953
Mischievous Mac, Catterick Bridge, February 28, 1953
Friar’s Heel, Kelso, May 6, 1953
Elseena, Perth, September 24, 1953
Elseena, Wetherby, October 10, 1953
Friar’s Heel, Kelso, October 24, 1953
Elseena, Newcastle, October 31, 1953
Friar’s Heel, Perth, April 29, 1954
Whoopee, Sedgefield, September 18, 1954
Friar’s Heel, Kelso, October 23, 1954
Bala Sea, Catterick Bridge, January 1, 1955
Friar’s Heel, Kelso, October 21, 1955
Friar’s Heel, Wetherby, November 26, 1955
Ballyatom, Ayr, January 2, 1956
Ballyatom, Wetherby, January 7, 1956
Salvo D’Iran, Manchester, January 27, 1956
Friar’s Heel, Kelso, May 3, 1956
Ballyatom, Kelso, October 19, 1956
Merry Desmond, Catterick Bridge, November 10, 1956
The Romany, Kelso, May 1, 1957
Blue Hussar, Cartmel, June 8, 1957
Aldborough, Sedgefield, December 26, 1957
Linkylaw, Sedgefield, November 21, 1959
Border Picture, Hexham, September 30, 1961
Border Picture, Kelso, October 21, 1961
Border Picture, Catterick Bridge, November 4, 1961
Border Picture, Hexham, September 29, 1962
Border Picture, Perth, April 24, 1963
