Eighteen-year-old William Henry Clay Jr., a lightweight jockey from Sussex, died in Berkshire Hospital at 10.45 pm. on Saturday, 29 August, 1874. He had received ultimately fatal injuries when his mount, Pucelle, having clipped the heels of the leader, fell in the five-furlong Forbury Stakes at Reading Racecourse the previous afternoon.
His mother, who had been summoned directly after the calamitous occurrence, was present; his father, William Clay Sr., the well-known and esteemed Jevington (Lewes) trainer, was unable to reach the hospital in time.
Clay's Fyfield stable was not a stranger to misfortune: on Tuesday, August 4, 1863, Eli Drewe, riding the stable's Pellucid for Mr Payne at Brighton, fell from his mount and, like William Clay Jr., died from his injuries the following evening. Eli was later buried at Fyfield Cemetery.
On the same day on which William expired, another jockey attached to the stable, Wycherley, who was thrown while steering Petition in the City & Suburban and, among other injuries, sustained a fracture of the left leg, left St George's Hospital, where he had been since May. Following this accident, Wycherley was maimed for life.
William Clay Jr. rode a total of 35 winners during his all-too-brief career.
He achieved his greatest success on Coventry in the 1874 Ascot Stakes.
