Bob McCreery

1930 - 2016

Bob was born in Wincanton on November 10, 1930.

When, as a child, Bob had a kidney removed, he was not to know that, years later, it would prevent him from joining up in the Army.

Failing his medical, he was, he recalled, 'not greatly disappointed'.

His father, Dick - who, at that time was working for the United Nations in New York - had been a first-class amateur rider, having twice won Sandown's Military Gold Cup.

Major Derek Schreiber, Dick's close friend, owned a point-to-point yard near Salisbury, and it was to him that Bob went for alternative employment.

Having commanded the Eighth Army in Vienna, Bob's father returned to England, bringing with him an Austrian steeplechaser called Jumbo, the winner of many races in Austria and Italy.

Dick sent him to Major Schreiber and Bob quickly qualified it for point-to-points. Jumbo was Bob's first-ever ride in public. Together they ran away with a point-to-point at Larkhill.

At Major Schreiber's, Bob met up with George Bowden, who, as a jockey, had won the Welsh Grand National but was since struggling as a trainer. They became friends and Bob started riding out for him. One of his horses was Alacrity, which was entered in a race at Taunton. Bob took the ride, his first under Rules. 

There was to be no happy ending, as the near seventeen-year-old Alacrity fell.

Two weeks later, at Wolverhampton, it was a different story with the 18-year-old jockey gaining his first win as the old horse held on for a short head victory.

Within a year, Bob had secured his first victory at the Cheltenham Festival, winning the 1951 United Hunts Challenge Cup on Coral Boy.

It was that year that Bob got his first ride in the Grand National.

On board Stalbridge Rock, he came down, with a dozen others, at the first in one of the biggest pile-ups ever seen at Liverpool.

Happier times awaited when, in 1953 - just like his old friend George Bowden - he won the Welsh Grand National on the same horse.

Bob only had one more ride in the National, parting company with Cloncarrig in 1953. In falling that year, Cloncarrig became the only horse to have done so in six consecutive Nationals.

With 23 winners, Bob became champion amateur rider in the 1956/57 season having dead-heated for the title with Danny Moralee the previous season.

He won three races on Granville for Ryan Price, but the win which gave him the greatest pleasure was his victory in the Queen Mother's colours on Young Rajah in January, 1962.

Bob, who owned a magnificent crop of butter-coloured hair, once shared digs with John Oaksey in Queen's Gate Mews: the two were great friends and would drive to the races together in Bob's light blue Austin Healey. They had first met at Eton as fifteen-year-olds.

Bob's girl friend at that time was Margaret Gilder. (When they split up she married an American and died giving birth to twins.) He later married Jeanette Wright: they would invite John Oaksey for dinner when they would discuss 'the old days'.

In partnership with Chesney Allen of the Crazy Gang, Bob owned a marvellous steeplechaser called Gold Wire which won races for them in five different countries.

Bob McCreery died on Dedember 24, 2016.

Big winners:

1951: United Hunts’ Challenge Cup Chase – Coral Boy 

1953: Lord Stalbridge Memorial Gold Cup – Stalbridge Rock 

1953: Welsh Grand National – Stalbridge Rock

1957: Cotswold Chase – Ballyatom  

1962: Henry VIII Chase – Granville