William Broadwood

William Broadwood was among the most successful apprentices in the first decade of the 20th century. Apprenticed to William Jarvis at Winterwitch House at Newmarket, he rode his first winner on the three-year-old Vi, trained by his boss, in the Apprentices’ Handicap at Newmarket on 17 April 1907. Vi carried just 6 stone that day and young William’s ability to ride around that weight would stand him in good stead.

His second win came eight days later aboard odds-on favourite Lady Forfar for trainer William I’Anson in the Park Apprentice Plate at Pontefract. At Lingfield on Monday 10 June he rode Vi to win the day’s richest race, the High-Class Selling Handicap. On 23 July he won another valuable seller, the Prince of Wales’s Handicap at Leicester, a race worth a healthy £467 to the winner, getting up in the last stride on Fakir to score by a head.  

On 2 September he won the Great Midland Handicap at Birmingham on Kiosque, the odds-on favourite. That win kicked off a golden autumn in which William rode some 20 winners before the end of the season, including doubles at Warwick and Gatwick. 

By far the most interesting winner he rode during that spell was the two-year-old Signorinetta in the Criterion Nursery at Newmarket on 1 November. It was the first win of the filly’s career on her sixth start. Bred, owned and trained by the Chevalier Ginistrelli, who had come to England from Italy and settled in Newmarket, she went on to become one of the most remarkable Derby winners in the long history of the race. 

By the unfashionably-bred stallion Chaleureux, whose fee was just 9 guineas, Signorinetta was out of the mare Signorina, a mating which Ginistrelli reckoned, was based “on the boundless laws of sympathy and love”, having noticed that the two appeared to have formed an attachment every time Chaleureux passed the mare’s stable when led out for his morning’s exercise. Signorinetta, the offspring of this unlikely mating, went on not only to win the 1908 Derby at 100/1 but, two days later, also won the Oaks. The King sent for the Chevalier after the race and appeared with him at the front of the Royal Box where they were both greeted with Tumultuous cheering.  

William rode a total of 27 winners in 1907, the last of them on Damage, trained by Alfred Sadler, in a Warwick nursery on 18 November. 

He began the 1908 season with victory in the Liverpool Spring Cup on 26 March on St Savin for the King’s trainer Richard Marsh, scoring by three-quarters of a length. He rode a double at Leicester five days later and continued in good form, recording a treble at Manchester in June. 

Later that month he rode out his claim when winning his 40th race, the Bull Ring Handicap at Birmingham on Torch. Devoid of an apprentice allowance, he found the transition difficult, winning just half a dozen more races before the end of the season and finishing it with a score of 19 victories. 

The fall was rapid. He rode just one winner early the following season, on Gnome, trained by William Jarvis, in the Chaddesdon Handicap at Derby on 3 April 1909. 

Once his apprenticeship ended he did not take out a professional jockey’s licence in either 1910 or 1911, choosing to ply his trade abroad instead. 

He returned to Britain in 1912 and had around 70 rides, recording eight wins, the last of which was in the Badminton Plate for two-year-olds at York on 27 August, when Zara II beat 19 rivals, winning by a length and a half. The Sporting Life noted that William, “who has been performing with credit abroad, rode a good race”.

Despite that successful comeback, he does not appear to have ridden in Britain again after 1912, presumably electing to continue his career on foreign shores, although the outbreak of war in 1916 may have foreshortened his activities.