Bobby Renton

Far better known as a Grand National-winning trainer, Robert (Bobby) Renton was also a successful amateur rider and holds the record for being the oldest person to ride in a race under National Hunt rules in Britain, certainly during the modern era. 

Born on January 31,in 1888, the son of a parson, his family owned Oxclose Farm, near Ripon, and Bobby was brought up to run it. As a young man he hunted, point-to-pointed, broke in young horses and rode as an amateur both on the Flat and over fences. He began training in a small way in 1919.

He rode successfully on the Flat and over jumps during the 1920s. Two of his earliest successes were gained at Sedgefield’s two-day fixture in March 1923, when he won the first day’s Londonderry Memorial Cup Chase on Blue Garter and the Sheraton Hurdle on the second day aboard Little Buffet. At Wetherby on Easter Monday that year, he won the Wilstrop Hurdle for amateur riders on Major II, following up with victory on him in another amateur riders’ contest, the Corbridge Hurdle, at Hexham in May, then adding novice chase at Wetherby in September. 

His successes in 1924 included the Lambton Amateur Riders’ Handicap Hurdle at Sedgefield in February on Snake Ash. He then made the perfect start to 1925 by riding Beautiful Maud to win a maiden hurdle at Bogside on New Year’s Day. On the Saturday of Carlisle’s 1925 Easter meeting he landed the Spring Handicap Hurdle on Little Buffet. On April 29, he won Hexham’s Corbridge Hurdle for the second year running, this time on the seven-year-old Sanla. That was Bobby’s 15th winner and resulted in him losing the right to claim an allowance. 

He enjoyed a good run during the Easter week of 1926, winning Carlisle’s Border Counties Hunts’ Challenge Cup Hurdle on Sternmarch (below) on the Saturday and Wetherby’s Wilstrop Hurdle on Odin on Easter Monday, followed by the Simonside Hurdle at Rothbury two days later. His successes in 1927 included the Kirby Fleetham Handicap Hurdle at Catterick in March on Baby’s Bottle. 

Bobby cut down on his riding commitments in the 1930s to focus on training. By 1937, still based at Oxclose Farm, where he would remain for his entire training career, he had steadily built his string up to around 20 horses. 

It was the arrival after the war of owners Mrs Lurline Brotherton and Mrs Edna Truelove that brought him to the fore in the training ranks. Throughout the 1950s his stable was one of the most successful in the country. He favoured big, old-fashioned steeplechasers, typical of them being Mrs Brotherton’s Aintree specialist Freebooter, whose victories over the Grand National fences comprised the Grand National (1950), Champion Chase (1949) and two Grand Sefton Chases (1949 & 1951). 

Bobby went close to a second Grand National triumph in 1954 when Mrs Truelove’s Tudor Line was outbattled close home by Royal Tan. He finished second again the following year, this time to Quare Times. Another good chaser he trained for Mrs Truelove was Little Yid, one of the few twins to make a successful racehorse. Like Freebooter, he was a true Aintree specialist, winning the Molyneux Chase three times as well as finishing first and second in the Topham Trophy. Bobby won the Topham Trophy again in 1962 with Mrs Brotherton’s Dagmar Gittell. 

Despite the pressures associated with training a large string of horses, Bobby continued to take the occasional race ride right up until his mid-70s. At Wetherby in October 1960, aged 72, he finished third on Devon Peter in a novices’ hurdle, beaten a head and three lengths. He rode for the final time at Hexham on September 30, 1963, when aged 75, finishing seventh of nine on Devon Peter in a two-mile selling hurdle. 

The last good horse he trained was none other than Red Rum, who had passed into the ownership of Mrs Lurline Brotherton. Bobby acquired him from his previous trainer, Tim Molony, as a four-year-old and managed to win six races with him, beginning with three within the space of three weeks in April 1969: the Bilton Hurdle at Wetherby, the Bradmore Handicap Hurdle at Nottingham, and the Teesside Celebration Handicap Hurdle at Teesside Park, ridden each time by Paddy Broderick. Switched to fences, Bobby trained Red Rum to win three chases during the 1970/71 season: the Town Moor Novices’ Chase at Doncaster, the Hope Inn Chase at Sedgefield, and the Girvan Handicap Chase at Ayr, partnered on all three occasions by stable jockey Tommy Stack, whose subsequent association with Red Rum would create Grand National history. 

Bobby retired at the end of that 1970/71 campaign. Anthony Gillam took over as Red Rum’s trainer the following season and saddled him to win two extended three-mile handicap chases at Catterick before he became part of Mrs Brotherton’s annual consignment of horses for sale. Ginger McCain bought Red Rum at Doncaster Bloodstock Sales in 1972 for £6,000 on behalf of owner Noel Le Mare. It was to prove one of the bargains of all time. 

Bobby Renton died in 1975. A handicap chase is run in his name annually at Wetherby. His grandson, Ian Renton, is Regional Managing Director of the Jockey Club’s Racecourses and the man in charge of the Cheltenham Festival. 

Bobby Renton’s major training successes were:

Grand National: Freebooter (1950)

Scottish Grand National: Flagrant Mac (1952), Bar Point (1955)

Lancashire Chase: Q.E.D. (1951), Tudor Line (1955)

Champion Chase: Freebooter (1949)

Grand Sefton Chase: Freebooter (1949, 1951), Ernest (1960)

Molyneux Chase: Little Yid (1952, 1953, 1954)

Champion Novices’ Chase: Glorious Twelfth (1956)

Topham Trophy Chase: Little Yid (1954), Dagmar Gittell (1962)