Gus Mackey

Gus Mackey 

Augustine (Gus) Mackey had plenty of opportunities over jumps and recorded 19 victories between 1924 and 1931. 

He finished fourth on his first ride aboard Corkscrew in the Charlton Handicap Hurdle at Manchester on New Year's Day 1924. His first win came 14 days later at Derby when the six-year-old Buggy, trained by former champion amateur rider Herbert Harrison, narrowly won the Byrkley Handicap Chase by a head from Rathmore, ridden by top jockey Michael Tighe. 

Gus rode four more winners that season, followed by single successes in each of the next two, before enjoying his most successful campaign with seven victories in 1926/27. 

He won four races on the chaser Royal Toy, two of which were gained with the help of the stewards. At Shirley Park on September 6, 1926, Gus successfully objected to the winner of the Earlswood Handicap Chase, Loblolly, on grounds of ‘crossing at the last fence’; and at Bangor-on-Dee on April 8, 1927, he objected to future Grand National-winning amateur rider Bill Dutton, who had just won the Maelor Handicap Chase on Smokeless Diamond, also for ‘crossing’, and again the winner was disqualified. 

Royal Toy remains one of the forgotten heroines from the inter-war period. Foaled in 1918 by Ardoon out of Santoi’s Queen, her racing career spanned four months short of 13 years. She made her debut when unplaced in a Ludlow maiden hurdle in October 1922 and finished second in her final race, a Huntingdon selling chase, at the grand old age of 17 in June 1935.

She ran in a total of 137 races, winning 34, finishing second 17 times, third 26 times, and 14 times fourth. She was a course specialist at Shirley Park, running there 15 times, winning seven, finishing second three times and third once. Her most valuable victories were achieved in the 1927 and 1929 runnings of the Wetherby Handicap Chase, worth £492 to the winner, which in those days was a big prize indeed for a National Hunt race. She also finished third, fourth (when ridden by Gus) and sixth in three renewals of the Molyneux Chase over part of the Grand National course. There was surely no more game and consistent performer than Royal Toy. Her 1927 Wetherby Handicap Chase victory was the most valuable of Gus’s career. 

In addition to finishing fourth on her in the 1926 Molyneux Chase, Gus had three other rides over the Aintree fences. However, unlike Royal Toy, they all ended in falls: on Fairfield in the 1928 Grand Sefton Chase, Sultan Of Wicken in the 1929 Molyneux Chase, and on Sultan Of Wicken again in the1930 Stanley Chase.

Gus registered the only double of his career at Haydock Park aboard Billy Savage in the Makerfield Handicap Chase and Ardaile in the Wigan Chase, both for leading trainer Fred Withington. 

He finished down the field on seven-year-old The Black Fellow in the 1931 Welsh Grand National at Cardiff. Nine days later, April 15, he had what proved to be his final winner when 10-1 chance Mistletoi won the Stroud Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, beating Ponorogo, the mount of Danny Morgan, by ten lengths. He continued riding for another season but had no further success.

Gus Mackey’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Buggy, Derby, January 15, 1924

2. Rossieny, Uttoxeter, April 16, 1924

3. Southern Girl, Tanat Side Hunt (Oswestry & Llanymynech), April 26, 1924

4. Kerameicos, Ludlow, May 1, 1924

5. Rossieny, Uttoxeter, May 19, 1924

6. Socrates, Uttoxeter, April 28, 1925

7. Royal Toy, Shirley Park, May 31, 1926

8. Royal Toy, Shirley Park, September 6, 1926

9. Greenogue, Ludlow, October 14, 1926

10, Hairpin II, Uttoxeter, October 19, 1926

11. Hairpin II, Haydock Park, December 4, 1926

12. Royal Toy, Bangor-on-Dee, April 8, 1927

13. Royal Toy, Wetherby, April 18, 1927 

14. Lady Oakenclough, Oswestry & Llanymynech, May 7, 1927

15. Bicester, Ludlow, October 17, 1929

16. Billy Savage, Haydock Park, November 29, 1929

17. Araile, Haydock Park, November 29, 1929

18, General Advance, Wolverhampton, December 26, 1929

19. Mistletoi, Cheltenham, April 15, 1931