Reg Hollinshead

1924 - 2013

Article by Chris Pitt

Far more famous as a highly successful trainer with a renowned apprentice academy which included Walter Swinburn, Kevin Darley, Willie Ryan, Steve Perks, Michael Wigham, Nicky Carlisle, Paul Eddery, Gary Hind, Tony Culhane, Fergal Lynch and Graham Gibbons, it is easy to forget that Reg Hollinshead was also a successful National Hunt jockey. He rode a total of 88 winners, 84 over jumps and four in amateur riders’ races on the Flat.

Reginald Hollinshead was born on January 3, 1924 in Upper Longdon, Staffordshire, where he would remain all of his life. He started out as an amateur, owning and training and riding his first winner, Shivalee, in division two of the Betton Novices’ Hurdle at Woore on May 12, 1949. They then followed up in a handicap hurdle at Huntingdon on Whit Monday.

He doubled his winning tally to four in the following season, beginning with a double on New Pipers and Winstaino at Wolverhampton on December 3, 1949, followed by another success on Shivalee at Leicester on February 14, and an Easter Monday novices’ hurdle at Hereford on Keel Way.

Shivalee accounted for both of Reg’s wins in 1950/51, scoring at Huntingdon on Easter Monday and at Stratford in May; and also for two of his five successes in 1951/52, obliging at Worcester on September 10 and Wolverhampton on March 10.

Reg took part in amateur riders’ races on the Flat, winning two such contests on Dessin, trained by Frank Hudson, at Lincoln on September 3 and Leicester on November 10, 1952. He also rode Dessin to win a novices’ hurdle at Wolverhampton on January 20, 1953. A few weeks later, Dessin won a division of the Gloucestershire Hurdle at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting, ridden on that occasion by Johnnie Gilbert. Reg was reunited with Dessin later that year to win another amateur riders’ Flat races, this one at Worcester on August 22.

There were to be no more amateur riders’ races for Reg, because he turned professional in the 1953/54 National Hunt season and rode six winners in the paid ranks. The first of these was, appropriately, Dessin in the Cubley Hurdle at Uttoxeter on December 19, 1953.

As well as training over jumps, he took out a Flat trainer’s licence in 1954 and sent out his first winner on the level when Orsogeno obliged at Doncaster on October 22, 1954. He combined training with riding over jumps and though he never reached double figures in number of winners ridden in a season, he nonetheless enjoyed plenty of success in the training department. He saddled a Cheltenham Festival winner in 1957 when Colonise won the National Hunt Juvenile Chase (no longer run), ridden by Peter Major.

In the saddle, his best seasons numerically were in 1955/56 and 1962/63, with nine winners apiece. The latter campaign began well with victories on Morayloon at Southwell on September 10, 1962. He then won three novice hurdles on Bradbury, at Ludlow on September 19, Uttoxeter on September 27, and Ludlow on October 17. Both Morayloon and Bradbury were owned by Dr Louis Glass, Lord Mayor of Birmingham.

By then, Reg had restricted himself to riding over hurdles. In the spring of 1963 he scored a 20/1 shock victory Nayfix in the Elkes Challenge Cup Hurdle at Uttoxeter, He rounded off the season by winning the last two races at the final meeting ever staged at Woore on June 1, 1963: the Tern Hill Handicap Hurdle on Red Apollo, and the Betton Novices’ Hurdle – the race in which he’d ridden his first winner 14 years earlier – on Ardent Ski.

Reg’s four winners for the 1963/64 season comprised Comedy Boy at Ludlow on September 18; Trialhound at Ludlow on February 27; Free of Charge at Warwick on March 2; and Nayfix at Haydock on March 6.

His six winners for 1964/65 were: Ashbyhill at Ludlow on October 22; juvenile hurdler Master Stephen at Worcester on November 21 and again at Birmingham on December 7; Rossdhu at Uttoxeter on March 20; Ledsam Lad – another owned by Dr Louis Glass – at Leicester on April 5; and Rossdhu again at Worcester on April 15.

Reg began to reduce his riding commitments from then on and only rode horses he trained himself. He had one winner – Ledsam Lad at Leicester on April 4, 1966 – from just seven rides the following season.

The 1966/67 campaign was his last as a jockey. He had 11 mounts and won on two of them. The first was Bellamour at Wolverhampton on November 1, 1966; the second, and final, win was on Ledsam Lad in the Waltham Handicap Hurdle at Leicester on November 15, 1966. Reg rode Ledsam Lad in the Imperial Cup at Sandown on March 18, 1967, only to fall at the fourth flight. That pretty much marked the end of his riding career.

However, his Lodge Farm, Upper Longdon, training operation went from strength to strength. His best horse was Remainder Man, who finished second in the Two Thousand Guineas and third in the Derby in 1978 and won the following year’s Ormonde Stakes at Chester. He scored a Royal Ascot victory when The Quiet Bidder won the 1981 Cork & Orrery Stakes.

Reg trained many big handicap winners, including Spanish Gold (1972 Great St Wilfrid Handicap), Oh Simmie (1979 Portland Handicap), Regal Steel (1983 Old Newton Cup), Royal Cavalier (2001 November Handicap) and Tominator (2011 Northumberland Plate).

Over jumps, his best horse was Out Of The Gloom, who won the 1985 Fighting Fifth Hurdle and the 1986 Long Walk Hurdle. He won a second Long Walk Hurdle with Bluff Cove in 1987.

Altogether, Reg Hollinshead trained 1,970 winners (1,614 on the Flat, 356 over jumps). His last winner was Sewn Up at Southwell on March 19, 2013.

He died in Burton-on-Trent on May 6, 2013, aged 89.