National Hunt jockey William Cosby rode for two seasons, 1968/69 and 1969/70, and managed a couple of placed efforts but no winners.
William was the long-serving head lad to former gold and bronze Olympic show-jumping medallist Wilf White, who trained a small string as a permit holder, based at Malpas, in Cheshire.
William took out a jump jockey’s licence in 1968 to ride some of White’s horse, or, more accurately, one of them, a novice hurdler called Dilaric. He rode her for the first time in division one of the Coronation Hurdle at Liverpool’s 1969 Grand National meeting. It was an ambitious start – today’s equivalent race is a Grade 1 contest – and they were in well over their heads, unsurprisingly finishing last of the 16 runners.
William rode Dilaric in six more races that spring without ever finishing closer the sixth.
He then rode Dilaric in all her four starts during the 1969/70 campaign, achieving third place finishes at Southwell on 16 March, beaten 11 lengths, and at Uttoxeter on 26 May, beaten 8¾ lengths.
That Uttoxeter effort appears to have been William Cosby’s last ride. He did not renew his licence the following season. As for Dilaric, she ran just three more times over the course of the next two seasons, ridden by a different jockey each time, without reaching the frame.
William & Dilaric finish third at Uttoxeter on 25 May 1970. This was William's last ride.
