William Clayton
William Clayton gained his greatest success when winning the 1895 Irish Derby aboard 5-2 on favourite Portmarnock, the first of six Irish Derby winners sired by the mighty Gallinule.
William was apprenticed to Captain James Machell (who part-owned Portmarnock) at Newmarket, before moving to Ireland, where he was immediately successful. He was on the crest of a wave at the time of his Irish Derby victory, Portmarnock being one of eight winners he rode during that three-day Curragh meeting.
Nor was that his only notable success of 1895, for he also won Ascot’s Wokingham Stakes on Hebron for trainer James Jewitt. Though based in Ireland, he did hold a British Flat jockey’s licence for one season in 1898.
For whatever reason, William’s popularity as a jockey declined rapidly at the start of the century, so much so that in 1904 his only placing from a handful of rides was when third on an unnamed Copestone filly at the Curragh in April. Whether it was the sight of the same filly winning the Irish Oaks under another jockey that proved the final straw is not known. However, just two days later, at the Curragh, the scene of his greatest triumph, William Clayton died by his own hand.
