J. S. Robins

By Chris Pitt

I first came across the name of Mr J. Robins on a photo caption in my late Uncle Stan’s scrapbook, which he’d compiled between 1942 and 1952 and gave to me as a Christmas present in 1964. It remains my most treasured possession. The picture shows a grey horse named Manrita clattering through a hurdle at Fontwell Park, with his rider, Mr J. Robins, being pitched high into the air.

A quick scan of the form book revealed that the race in question took place on February 6, 1950, with Manrita going on to finish tenth of the eleven finishers in the fourteen-runner field. As for the identity of his rider, Mr J. Robins, that proved more difficult.

Frustratingly, the official Steeplechase Calendar did not deign to give first names for amateur riders in days gone by. It was all a matter of class. And the Sporting Life's reports are of little help because, back in the time of reporters such as Len Thomas and Tom Nickalls, it was almost always assumed that jockeys did not have Christian names.

Therefore, I cannot say with any degree of certainty what the Christian name was of amateur rider Mr J. Robins. It could have been John, Jack, Joe, James, Jeremy, maybe something more exotic. What is known is that he rode his first winner on True Blue in a Wye hunters’ chase on April 4, 1938, but the outbreak of war the following year curtailed his riding career.

After the war, he rode mainly for his father, Victor Robins (trainers’ Christian names were listed in the Steeplechase Calendar) who trained under permit at Bedgebury, in Kent. The string included a handicap chaser called Reveal, on whom he won at

Fontwell in September and Wye in October 1946, and Simoon, whom he steered to victory at Fontwell on Whit Monday 1947.

Later that year, Victor Robins took out a full trainer’s licence and had a string of a dozen horses at Willowhyrst Manor, Golden Cross, near Hailsham, in Sussex. His son landed a double at Fontwell’s corresponding Whitsun meeting in 1948, dead-heating with hurdle race specialist Harry Sprague’s mount on his father’s novice hurdler Predominance and then winning an amateur riders’ handicap hurdle on Lochcado for Lewes trainer Harry Hannon.

He won novice hurdles at Wye in September and Fontwell in October 1948 on Borneo, trained by his father. He then won a juvenile hurdle at Kempton on December 3 aboard Harbottle, also for his father.

However, Mr Robins rode only one more winner under National Hunt rules, What’s That, trained by Ted Long, in a Huntingdon chase on Whit Monday 1949.

He rode his final winner, Legal Mission, in a one-mile amateur riders' handicap on the flat at Windsor on August 16, 1950.

Victor Robins’ string does not appear in the 1950 edition of Horses in Training or in the years thereafter, however he continued to train Manrita the following season. His son rode him for the final time when finishing fourth at Plumpton on Easter Monday 1951.

He took his final ride on board Sans Egal II at Folkestone on April 28, 1952, finishing last of nine in a novices' chase.

As for Manrita, although unsuccessful for the Robins family, he did finally win a race for his new connections, a Fontwell novices’ chase in February 1953 when ridden by Polish jockey Joseph Kurowski.