Stephen Melrose

Stephen Melrose

Article by Alan Trout

Stephen Melrose rode 14 winners under National Hunt rules in the 1990s, recording a best score of six in the 1995/96 season.  

A conditional with the successful Cornhill-on-Tweed trainer Dick Allen, he had his first winner at Sedgefield on September 28, 1994, when the six-year-old Briar’s Delight overcame a mistake at the last flight to take the George Bolam Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle by a length and a quarter. They scored again at Newcastle in November.

Before the season was over he had also won two races on the strangely-named four-year-old novice hurdler T O O Mama’s, trained by the great Ken Oliver.

Stephen rode the occasional winner over the next two seasons but drew a blank in 1997/98. He had one final success back at Sedgefield on February 16, 1999, when the six-year-old Mutasariff survived a bad blunder at the last flight to take the Levy Board Novices’ Handicap Hurdle by seven lengths. Three subsequent starts were disappointing and Stephen did not have any further success, although he continued to ride for at least one more season. 

Having taken out a permit in 2000 he ran a horse named Riverside Run in hunter chases. Following a gap of some ten years he had his final runner under rules on February 16, 2011, when Barry The Cracker was pulled up in a Musselburgh hunters’ chase.

Stephen Melrose’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Briar’s Delight, Sedgefield, September 28, 1994

2. Briar’s Delight, Newcastle, November 5, 1994

3. T O O Mama’s, Carlisle, April 17, 1995

4. T O O Mama’s, Sedgefield, May 11, 1995

5. Briar’s Delight, Kelso, October 14, 1995

6. Adamatic, Edinburgh, December 4, 1995 

7. Merry Mermaid, Hexham, March 25, 1996

8. Arctic Sandy, Carlisle, April 8, 1996

9. Triennium, Sedgefield, May 9, 1996

10. Bit O Magic, Perth, May 16, 1996

11. Latvian, Hexham, October 4, 1996

12. Kalisko, Musselburgh, January 10, 1997

13. Charlistona, Perth, April 24, 1997

14. Mutasarrif, Sedgefield, February 16, 1999