Thomas Bond

Thomas Bond

Article by Alan Trout

Thomas Augustus Bond rode for five seasons around the time of World War One but failed to register a win. 

He was apprenticed to Newmarket trainer Harry Powney and made a promising start to his career when finishing third on Macsherry in the Apprentices’ Plate at Lingfield Park on April 25, 1912. Macsherry won three races later in the year but it was another apprentice, Ralph Watson, who was in the saddle on each occasion. 

Thomas made an even better start to the following season, finishing second on Renown in the Apprentices’ Plate at Leicester on March 27, 1913. The winner, Wavebird, was ridden by Fred Cheshire, later to be killed in a fall over hurdles. This was the closest that Thomas ever came to riding a winner.

He was not seen in action at all in 1915, his final ride coming at Newmarket on September 27, 1917 when Tar Baby finished seventh of eight runners in the Long-Course Selling Plate won by George Hulme on Horatio Bottomley’s three-year-old gelding Corydon. 

His apprenticeship at an end, Thomas Bond held a professional jockey’s licence for one season in 1918 but does not appear to have had any mounts that year.