Henry Jeffery 

A Season in the Life of Henry Jeffery

The son of a butcher, Henry Jeffery was born in Newmarket in November 1847. He reportedly rode over 600 winners during his career. 

He was a later starter, not joining a racing stable until aged sixteen: in those days, it was not unusual to find a nine-year-old boy aboard a winner. He first joined Lord Stamford's trainer, W. Smith, but stayed only a few months. Henry then joined the stables of Hickman and J. Godding, and for eighteen months did nothing but ride at exercise. So little was he rated that he was considered far below the standard of excellence likely to make a decent jockey. 

His luck changed for the better after being spotted by Captain James Machell. Henry's ability in the saddle was immediately recognised by the shrewd owner. Having made his racecourse debut on Bessie at Newmarket, Henry then rode his first winner on an unnamed colt by Topsail at the Newmarket Spring Meeting on 22 April 1867. By season's end, he had accumulated thirty-two winners, an amazing total for a first-season apprentice.

The defining moment for Henry that year, the ride that put him on the map, was his victory in the Royal Hunt Cup aboard Jasper. The Sportsman praised 'the artistic style in which he handled his horse and the collected manner in which he finished'. The race, run in 'umbrella weather' on Wednesday, June 5, 1867, attracted thirty runners, one more than the previous year, and, oddly, for such a number, bears little description. Henry, wearing the 'blue, yellow cap' colours of Baron Rothschild, bounced Jasper out of the gate to make every yard of the running, eventually winning easily by two lengths. So delighted was the Baron with the way the rookie apprentice had acquitted himself that he constantly engaged him thereafter. Mr Chaplin, the owner of Derby winner The Hermit and Bessie, Henry's debut mount, won over £5,000 on the 30-1 winner.

The Sportsman (January 6, 1869) added: 'Jeffery's great attention to his duties and general good conduct made him a general favourite, and conduced much to his achieving a position in as many months as it has taken most jockeys years to accomplish. The chief characteristic of Jeffrey's riding is remarkable coolness and determination, a total absence of anything approaching 'flashiness', and care to make the best use of any favourable opportunity which may offer itself in the course of a race. To see him finish one would at once suppose him to have been riding in public for years, and the style in which he comes with a rush, just when his opponent imagines him to be completely beaten, is brilliant and determined'.

High praise indeed, but much merited. During 1868, in which he rode 87 winners from 326 mounts, he won the Chester Cup on Paul Jones and a host of minor wins including the Leamington Stakes with Clemence, Warwick's County Members' Plate on Moonbeam, the Maiden Plate at Newmarket First October with Robespierre, the Autumn Flying Handicap at Worcester on Winifred and the Guy Stakes at Warwick on Bel Giorno. At Lincoln's Autumn Meeting on Friday, 30 October, Henry was booked to ride four horses for Mr Chaplin: Spider, Scout, Fairfax and Pearlfeather, plus, for Sir F. Johnstone, Bel Giorna. He won on all five.

What follows now is a detailed look at Henry Jeffery's coming-of-age season of 1868.

Henry's first mount of the new season, Problem, failed to sparkle in Lincoln's Brocklesby Trial Handicap, finishing third behind Indian Star (Sammy Kenyon). His Lincoln Handicap ride, Grey Stocking, finished seventh behind Indigestion, the first of jockey Charlie Maidment's record four wins in the race. Henry's luck changed in the first race the next day when, in the Blakeney Stakes, he forced De Vere over the line a nostril in front of the Daniel Butler-ridden Electricity. Henry then rode three consecutive losers before winning Nottingham's four-furlong Juvenile Selling Stakes on hot favourite Carlotta.

Then Henry hit a flat spell: his one mount at Liverpool, Chivalry in the Flying Stakes, ran unplaced whilst his next six rides, at Warwick, all lost. Then followed three unsuccessful rides at Epsom's Spring Meeting and one at Croxteth. He also had no luck at Northampton. When, on Monday, April 13, the opening day of the Newmarket Craven Meeting, he climbed aboard Mr Chaplain's Adamanthea, Henry had ridden fifteen consecutive losers: this did not stop his growing legion of backers snapping up the 20-1 on offer. They were counting their winnings a furlong out when Henry took up the running to win 'cleverly' from Ainsley. Henry struck again three days later when getting the 6-4 favourite Ottoman home in the Subscription Plate. He scored again on the last afternoon of the five-day meeting, winning a Handicap Plate on the heavily-backed Lymington. 

Then it was on to Lewes. On day one, he was third to Festival and Miss Gladiateur on Carlotta in the opening race before, the following afternoon, winning the Juvenile Stakes on Captain Machell's filly by Thormanby out of Tarragona.

Henry was seen at his very best when, at the Newmarket First Spring Meeting, he won on his first mount, Ottoman which refused to be passed by George Fordham on Ambition, holding on by a head. This was his only win from six rides at the fixture. However, after weighing in after Ottoman's victory, he was approached by Mr Hodgman, who offered Henry the ride on hot favourite Paul Jones in the upcoming Chester Cup. Immediately the announcement was made that Henry would have the mount, a flood of public money forced its odds down to 6-4.

Wednesday, May 6: the packed Rhodee was baked in sunshine as the seventeen jockeys were weighed out and their names hoisted on the telegraph board for the forty-fifth running of the Chester Cup. Henry tipped the scales at exactly six stone; if successful, Paul Jones would become the lowest weighted winner since St Albans shouldered 5st 1lb. to victory in 1860.

The Sportsman gave the best account of Henry's riding: 'The style in which he steered Paul Jones over the circuitous course justified the confidence reposed in him, and acting up to his instructions, he sent the horse to the front rank after they had passed the stand the first time, and ultimately won in a canter by a length from Goodwood. The cool, collected style in which Jeffrey rode in this difficult race stamped him as a jockey of the highest order.' Henry barely had time to acknowledge the plaudits received on his return to weigh in before winning the very next race, the Stand Stakes on Captain Machell's odds-on three-year-old, Festival. 

Henry then endured a poor York. Riding Affection in the wonderfully-named Consolation Scramble, he dead-heated with Dutch Admiral, which later won the run off. Other losing mounts included Geant des Batailles in the Great Northern Handicap, Miss Sellon in the Stand Stakes, Frolicsome in the Flying Dutchman's Handicap and Pero in the City Purse. His bad luck then followed him to Doncaster's Spring Meeting (May 15) where his two mounts, Curiosity in the Municipal Sakes and an unnamed filly, were both narrowly beaten.

His next winner came at Bath (May 20) on Mr Chaplin's two-year-old Sister To Veda, his only ride at the meeting. It was to be his last visit to the winner's enclosure for some time. His luck was out at both Croydon and Harpenden though he did well to finish fourth in the Epsom Derby on St Ronan (May 27). His other four rides at the meeting and his first eight at Croydon the following week all lost: his ninth ride, Avon in the Juvenile, won, breaking a run of 19 consecutive losers.