Jeremy Hindley

1943 - 2013

Article by Chris Pitt

Born on December 24, 1943, John Jeremy Hindley – he was always known by his second Christian name – is best remembered as a successful Classic-winning Newmarket trainer. However, before embarking on a training career, he was a talented amateur rider who rode 18 winners – 17 over jumps, one on the Flat – in the late 1960s.

Initially, the Hindley family’s horses were trained by Tim Forster at Letcombe Bassett. Wearing their colours of cerise, Cambridge blue sleeves and cap with cerise spots, Jeremy rode his first winner on Juno Moneta in the Swaffham Handicap Hurdle at Fakenham on September 10, 1966. He won four more races that season, all of them in the spring of 1967 on his 13-year-old selling chaser Miserable Monk, the first at Fontwell, the other three at Towcester.

The following season he purchased the grey hunter chaser Tam Kiss, who had been successful for his previous owner-rider Edward Hollister-Owen. Jeremy rode him to win first time out at Wincanton in October. Soon afterwards he moved to Newmarket as pupil assistant to Harry Thomson Jones, who took over the training of Jeremy’s horses. He also purchased the former useful chaser Packed Home and rode him to win in the Beaumont Challenge Cup Chase for amateur riders at Fontwell in May 1968, then won on him again at Towcester’s Whitsun meeting.

Jeremy enjoyed his most successful season in 1968/69 with seven winners from 22 mounts. Three of those victories were gained on his hurdler Scamp, beginning with division two of the St Ivo Novices’ Hurdle on Huntingdon’s Boxing Day card. That was his tenth winner, resulting in his claim being reduced from 7lb to 5lb. He and Scamp then landed the Beeches Farm Handicap Hurdle at Haydock in February, after which they performed well at the Cheltenham National Hunt meeting, finishing fourth in a division of the Gloucestershire Hurdle. Following that useful effort, Jeremy rode Scamp to victory in division one of the Coronation Hurdle on the Friday of Liverpool’s Grand National meeting.

Twenty-four hours later, he partnered Tam Kiss, on whom he’d won a Doncaster hunter chase earlier that month, in the 1969 Grand National. Setting off as 50-1 shots, they were still in contention when being unluckily brought down by the falling Kilburn at Becher’s on the second circuit.

Returning to Cheltenham in April, Jeremy rode another of his horses, Rock Venture, to win the Duke of Beaufort’s Hunters’ Chase. Later that month he steered Tam Kiss to victory in the United Hunts Open Champion Hunters’ Chase at Folkestone. Later that same year, he achieved his sole success on the Flat aboard the John Dunlop-trained Karpathos in a one-mile four-furlong amateur riders’ race at Beverley.

Tam Kiss provided him with what proved to be his final winning ride, in a hunter chase at Fakenham – the course where he’d ridden his first winner – on February 27, 1970.

After spending time as a pupil trainer with Noel Murless, Jeremy took out a National Hunt trainer’s licence in September 1970, then a Flat licence in 1971. His first really good horse was The Go-Between who won 11 races including the 1972 Cornwallis Stakes. Other early stable stars were Crash Course, winner of the 1975 Doncaster Cup, and He Loves Me, who in 1977 landed a hat-trick of big race victories comprising the Greenham Stakes, the Cork and Orrery Stakes and the Hungerford Stakes.

Probably the best horse he ever trained was Protection Racket, who, within a two-month period in 1981, won the Ebor Handicap, the Doncaster Cup and the Irish St Leger, giving his trainer his sole Classic victory.

Other notable horses he trained included Northern Princess (1974 Ribblesdale Stakes), Be Tuneful (1975 Challenge Stakes), Swell Fellow (1976 Geoffrey Freer Stakes), Sin Timon (1977 Cambridgeshire Handicap), Muscatite (1983 Craven Stakes) and Orojoya (1985 Vernons Sprint Cup). His best two-year-old was Huntingdale, who gave him a Group 1 success when winning the 1985 Dewhurst Stakes.

Jeremy saddled around 700 winners during a 17-year career, retiring at the end of the 1987 Flat season. He was one race short of ending on a winner as the last but one runner he saddled, Iran Scam, won the Royston Stakes at Newmarket on October 31, 1987. His final runner, Kentucky Wildcat, finished unplaced in the next race on the card.

When he gave up training, he leased Moulton Paddocks Stables, where he had been training for his final two years, to Arat Investments, an operation with which Sheikh Mohammed was closely connected.

In retirement, Jeremy lived in Hermanus, South Africa, where he died on January 7, 2013, at the age of 69. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease since 2001. He was survived by his second wife and three daughters, Rebecca Jane, Victoria Mary and Martha Elizabeth.