Roger Hoad

Article by Chris Pitt

National Hunt jockey Roger Peter Charles Hoad was born on February 24, 1944, and served his apprenticeship with Bob Moore at Lewes. He became Moore’s head lad and rode his first winner on selling hurdler Scottsdore at Fontwell on October 25, 1966, his only success that season. He rode two winners the following season, both of them for Moore, both of them at Ascot, both of them on a juvenile hurdler named Early Settler, who would go on to be the best he rode during his career.

Roger rode nine winners in the 1968/69 campaign, three of them on the grey mare Early Settler, beginning at Ascot on November 22, followed by two at Kempton including the Rendlesham Hurdle on March 1, 1969. Although those wins had come at two-and-a-half and three miles, Early Settler was then dropped back in trip for an ambitious tilt at the 1969 Champion Hurdle, for which she started at 33-1 but ran a highly respectable race. Roger had her well in contention until the latter stages of the races, eventually fading to finish a creditable eighth of the seventeen runners.

Roger continued riding for the next five years, achieving his best score of ten in 1971/72, four of which came on Ben Wise’s hurdler Moison. His last four winners were in 1973/74, the first three of them being gained on Pat Haslam’s novice hurdler Westfield at Bangor and Wye in October and Lingfield in November. His final winner was Mexico Bay for Toby Balding at Cheltenham on April 18, 1974.

He began training the following season with a small mixed string, mainly jumpers, at Windmill Lodge Stables, Lewes. He operated at the lower level but certainly knew the time of day and was adept at placing his horses in the right races. He enjoyed plenty of success with horses such as Celair, Head For Heaven, Bash Street Kid and, notably, Carfax, who ran in 63 hurdle races between 1988 and 1995, winning eight times, mostly at decent prices, and would invariably “win when wanted”.

However, Roger’s training career was dogged by controversy. Over the years he was found to be in breach of racing on a dozen occasions, including passport irregularities, double declarations and improper ownership registration. In April 1996 he received a one-year ban, having his licence withdrawn by the Jockey Club for misleading officials over a positive dope test returned by one of his horses, Elburg, which had won at Pontefract in May 1995.

The ban came at an inopportune time as he was in possession of potentially his best horse, Splendid Thyne, who’d won a Newbury bumper early in 1996. Terry Casey took over as the trainer of Splendid Thyne, who went on to confirm his early promise, including when finishing runner-up in the 1998 Stayers’ (now World) Hurdle at Cheltenham.

In August 2000, aged 56, Roger quit training and handed over to his son, former jump jockey Mark Hoad, who was granted a licence to take over the 16-box Windmill Lodge yard. Born in March 1966, Mark had ridden his first winner when aged sixteen on his father’s Bash Street Kid at Lingfield on October 15, 1982.

Roger, who had also run a car business alongside his training operation, had done well for himself, owning four houses including a small farm in France. It was to the south of France that Roger and his wife then retired. However, they returned to Lewes after only a year.

During that year in France, Roger had struck up an acquaintance with top trainer Guillaume Macaire, whom he’d met at Pompadour racecourse, near Limoges. From then on, whenever Macaire’s horses travelled across the Channel – he was a regular challenger in Britain for several years – they were housed at the Hoads’ Windmill Lodge yard.