Robert Clark

Robert Clark

Article by Alan Trout

National Hunt jockey Robert Clark began his career in the last few months before the outbreak of World War One, riding 18 winners between 1914 and 1921. He returned a few seasons later to add one more. 

His first success came at Windsor on January 31, 1914, when he narrowly won the Club Chase on Restitution by a short head from Frank Morgan on Meridian. The latter had won a chase at Newbury 10 days earlier and was carrying a hefty 13 stone burden, 35lb more than Restitution. 

Robert rode six more winners in the next three seasons and also had his first chance to ride over the Liverpool fences when partnering Wavylace in the 1915 Stanley Chase. Six started, only three finished, but Robert was one of them, albeit a distant third in a race won by the 1914 Grand National-winning jockey William Smith on Limerock. 

After the war. Robert moved north and struck up a useful partnership with the successful amateur rider Adam Scott. Robert’s next eight winners (including a double at Hexham in October 1919) were on horses owned and trained by Mr Scott. They included a rather unusual two wins in two days on a raiding party to Lingfield Park in December 1919. On the 3rd, Willy Wyn won the Covert Side Chase in a match, his sole rival, Shepherd, having fallen. On the 4th, Willy Wyn won the Year’s End Handicap Chase, also in a match. His one opponent, Cresley, fell but on this occasion was remounted by Ernie Piggott to finish a distant second. 

A few weeks earlier, Robert had taken part in a void race at Liverpool. There were only three starters in that year’s Becher Chase, and none of them, including Robert’s mount Command, managed to complete the course.

There was a better performance by Command when, on March 23, 1920, he won the Sedgefield Open Handicap Chase in yet another match. Robert’s next win was at Rothbury in April when Perforce won the Ladies’ Chase in a match. At least on this occasion not only did his rival get round, but Joe Kay, rider of sole opponent Warbine, lodged an unsuccessful objection on the grounds of foul riding. 

Robert won two more races on Command, both at Hexham, beating three opponents in the first of them and just one in the second. This meant that five of his six wins between December 1919 and May 1920 had been in match races. 

By far the best horse he rode was Red Splash, on whom he finished second, beaten 10 lengths, in the Compton Verney Chase at Banbury Hunt on April 11, 1923. Within a year of that race, Red Splash would win the inaugural running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, ridden by Dick Rees. Red Splash was only five years old when landing the Gold Cup and was winning his fifth race in succession. Though technically five, he was really a four-year-old, as he was a May foal. Although he looked all set for a successful career, he proved difficult to train thereafter. He ran only six times over the next five years and never won another race. 

Robert continued to hold a licence but eventually returned south and had one final success when Levantine won the Harford Chase at Stratford on October 1, 1927. Having been placed in all of his previous starts, Levantine did not race again, and Robert did not renew his licence for the following season. 

Robert Clark’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Restitution, Windsor, January 31, 1914

2. Goldthorpe, Banbury Hunt, April 3, 1914

3. Beaumanor, Uttoxeter, November 2, 1914

4. John Redmond, Sandown Park, February 27, 1915

5. Wee Pet, Hawthorn Hill, March 23, 1915

6. Restitution, Plumpton, April 3, 1915

7. Top Hole, Newbury, December 9, 1916

8. Perforce, Hexham, October 30, 1919

9. Willy Wyn, Hexham, October 30, 1919 

10. Willy Wyn, Lingfield Park, December 3, 1919

11. Willy Wyn, Lingfield Park, December 4, 1919

12. Command, Sedgefield, March 23, 1920

13. Perforce, Rothbury, April 14, 1920

14. Command, Hexham, May 6, 1920 

15. Command, Hexham, May 24, 1920 

16. Over There, Newport, November 11, 1920

17. St. Fanahan, Lingfield Park, March 9, 1921

18. Frizbury, Bungay, September 22, 1921

19. Levantine, Stratford-on-Avon, October 1, 1927