John McCall Jr

John McCall

John Pittillo McCall was born in 1883 and scored his biggest success on King’s Birthday in the 1904 Ayr Gold Cup.

His elder brother George McCall (1881-1948) also won the Ayr Gold Cup on Lovetin in 1902, along with the 1904 Royal Hunt Cup on Csardas and the 1905 1,000 Guineas on Cherry Lass. 

Their father, John McCall Sr (1859-1931), was born at Kelso on 16 June 1859 and spent his entire life in racing. He began training at the age of 25 and his first winner was an old horse called Number One. It was he who brought Dunbar into the limelight as a training centre. He moved into Tilton House Stables at West Barns, on the outskirts of the town, around 1880. Both his sons were apprenticed to him.

He bought Tilton out of a Musselburgh selling race for 25 guineas in 1892 and trained him to win both Hamilton's Ayrshire Handicap with a 14lb penalty and the Edinburgh Gold Cup. Tilton was later exported to South Africa where he was successful as a sire.

John Sr was also the trainer of White Bud, winner of the 1923 Lincolnshire Handicap. The winter that year was one of the worst on record, but John sent the mare out to train on the Dunbar sands when most other trainers were held up by the severe frost. Ridden by an unknown apprentice (J. Beasley), White Bud, the fittest horse in the race, won at 66-1, netting the stable a small fortune (£50,000). The six-year-old was sick three days before the race and John considered scratching him. Then he fed him with mugs of spiced ale and the horse quickly recovered.

In his younger days, John McCall Sr was a top-class athlete, winning the famous Powderhall Sprint Handicap in 1879. He died in 1931 and was buried at West Barns on 23 December. 

In 1901, George McCall finished third in the list of winning jockeys with 91 winners (behind Otto Madden and Danny Maher), while John McCall Jr rode 29 winners that year. 

Although primarily known as a Flat jockey, John Jr did ride occasionally under National Hunt rules and had three wins over hurdles. His first was at Haydock Park on 13 January 1904, when Proxime, trained by his father, won the Ashton Hurdle by a distance from Isabelle II, ridden by John Priestman, who was also better known as a Flat jockey.

On Monday, 16 December 1906, John was severely injured while exercising one of his father’s yearlings over the West Barns training ground. His mount slipped up and John was thrown heavily, breaking his left leg in two places below the knee. 

He was back in the saddle in 1907, in which season he was severely cautioned and fined £10 after Mr Willouby, the Ayr starter, reported him for foul riding. The allegation was that John, riding Porch Climber, recklessly struck into the Tragedy Queen gelding as the barrier was raised.

John recorded his second victory over hurdles on 1 April 1909, when Powder Puff landed the Maiden Hurdle at Bogside by three-quarters of a length from Maudburg, the mount of his owner Mr George Gunter. His third and last win over hurdles followed 14 days later at Catterick Bridge, where he landed the North Riding Selling Handicap Hurdle on Sir Hugo. He had his last mount over jumps later that month (29 April) on Country Dance in a match race for the Crofton Selling Hurdle at Carlisle. Country Dance refused, leaving the odds-on favourite Coal Sack to finish alone. 

At the 1909 summer meeting of the Dunbar Club, held over their course at East Lothian, John won the £80 Belton Cup.

John McCall rode his last winner on the Flat in 1921. 

He briefly held the trainer’s licence at Tilton House following the death of his father, before John Boyd took over, assisted by his sons Alec and George. Alec took over when his father died but moved south to Middleham in 1947, then George Boyd trained there until 1969, sending out several big race winners, notably Barnes Park (1951 Lincolnshire Handicap), Rexequus (1959 Cambridgeshire), Milesius (1966 Ayr Gold Cup) and the shock 1961 Two Thousand Guineas winner Rockavon.