Amateur rider Derrick Garner rode 15 winners under National Hunt rules during the 1950s and 60s, all on horses owned by his mother and trained under permit by his father. The family’s racing colours were maroon, green hoop on body and armlets, black cap, green hoop.
Derrick Robert Garner was the son of Robert and Jane Garner of Hawkins Farm, Purleigh, near Chelmsford. Robert first took out a trainer’s permit at the start of 1952 and saddled his first winner, Deiriphore, ridden by Derrick, in division one of the Eastergate Novices’ Hurdle at Fontwell on February 17, 1953. They followed up at Plumpton and Wye and won again at Wye at the end of the season.
Although placed on several occasions, it would be almost six years before Derrick and Deiriphore visited the winner’s enclosure again, at Plumpton in January 1959. The following season they teamed up to win a pair of novice chases at Fontwell and Plumpton.
The family’s next good horse was Carolus Magnus, on whom Derrick won five hurdle races during the 1963/64 campaign, including one at Cheltenham. Unable to get their heads in front the following season, they managed one win in a Huntingdon selling hurdle on Easter Monday 1966. Derrick’s only other winner that season came on By Jupiter! in the High Dyke Amateur Riders’ Hurdle at Market Rasen.
Two years later, that same High Dyke Amateur Riders’ Hurdle was the occasion of Derrick’s last winner, a horse named Charge, owned, just like all the others, by his mother and trained by his father.
Derrick Garner’s winners under National Hunt rules were:
1. Deiriphore, Fontwell Park, February 17, 1953
2. Deiriphore, Plumpton, February 25, 1953
3. Deiriphore, Wye, March 9, 1953
4. Deiriphore, Wye, May 18, 1953
5. Deiriphore, Plumpton, January 7, 1959
6. Deiriphore, Fontwell Park, March 28, 1960
7. Deiriphore, Plumpton, April 16, 1960
8. Carolus Magnus Fontwell Park, September 3, 1963
9. Carolus Magnus, Wye, September 30, 1963
10. Carolus Magnus, Plumpton, October 8, 1963
11. Carolus Magnus, Cheltenham, October 17, 1963
12. Carolus Magnus, Huntingdon, May 18, 1964
13. Carolus Magnus, Huntingdon, April 11, 1966
14. By Jupiter!, Market Rasen, May 14, 1966
15. Charge, Market Rasen, May 11 1968