Ray Reader

The son of a farmer, red-haired Raymond William Dennis Reader was born at Waterbeach, near Newmarket, on August 6, 1928.

On leaving school he tried his hand at horticulture but it did not take him long to realise that it was not the life for him. Luckily, his employer was a friend of Epsom trainer Walter Nightingall and, noting that Ray weighed just 6st 7lb, suggested a career as a jockey. 

Soon afterwards, Ray joined Nightingall, serving his apprenticeship between 1946 and 1950. He rode his first winner on October 25, 1948, aboard 20-1 shot Radio Star in the Apprentices’ Handicap at Alexandra Park.

‘Ally Pally’ became a lucky course for Ray. In 1949 he won the Autumn Cup there on Sylvain and invited the girl who led the horse round, Jean Goody, out for a celebratory dinner. That was the first step in what turned out to be a happy marriage. They married on September 7, 1953, and went on to have two daughters, Lois Ellen and Elaine Clare.

While still claiming 5lb in 1950, he won Sandown’s Esher Cup on Kelling, beating Eph Smith’s mount Ronnie by a short head. They then won that year’s Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Ray soon became one of the best and most popular lightweights in the business. He won a second Britannia Stakes in 1952 on Firstling. He also won the Rosebery Stakes twice, the Welsh Cesarewitch, the Queen Elizabeth Cup, and a second Esher Cup. 

In the winter of 1952-53, he rode in Singapore for Jack Spencer and had seven winners. He also rode occasionally in Belgium, Germany and Ireland. He won the Irish Cesarewitch only to discover later that the horse had been disqualified from all his races because of false ownership.

Probably the most famous horse he rode was Sir Winston Churchill’s popular grey Colonist II. Ray rode him just once, in the horse’s first season in Britain, when finishing third in the Southern Counties Handicap at Lingfield Park on November 19, 1949. He rated the highlight of his career as receiving a letter of congratulations from Sir Winston after he had recorded his 100th win on Churchill’s Pigeon Vole in the Robert Wilmot Stakes at Hurst Park on April 5, 1954.

Based in Epsom, his best season numerically was in 1950 with 29 winners. He rode 23 the next year and 20 in 1957. However, his scores dropped in the 1960s and after 11 wins in 1963 he failed to reach double figures again.

He achieved his biggest triumph aboard the Ron Smuth-trained Patient Constable in the 1966 Stewards Cup. Despite the shortage of winners, his ability to ride at 7st 2lb meant that he was still getting plenty of rides – around 150 to 200 a season – mostly on lightweights in handicaps.

He rode what would prove to be his last winner on Penumbra for Epsom trainer John Sutcliffe Jnr in the Dormonsland Three-Year-Old Handicap at Lingfield Park on July 12, 1974. By then, his number of rides had dropped considerably. 

The introduction of graded races, raised handicap weights and balloting out of bottom weights in the mid-1970s was the death knell for lightweight jockeys such as Ray Reader. He rode out each morning at Epsom and then went home in the hope that a trainer might ring with a spare ride. 

By the summer of 1975 he had had just five rides all season, whereas normally he would have had at least 60. After 27 years of race-riding he was virtually out of work. He struggled on for three more years, finally retiring in 1978.

Ray Reader died in April 2023, aged 94, predeceased by his wife and two daughters. 

Big winners:

1950: Esher Cup – Kelling 

1950: Britannia Stakes – Kelling

1952: Britannia Stakes – Firstling 

1952: Welsh Cesarewitch – Pyrgos 

1954: Esher Cup – Weymouth Bay 

1955: Queen Elizabeth Cup – Bronzamazon 

1957: Rosebery Stakes – Royal Chief 

1965: Rosebery Stakes – Noorose 

1966: Stewards Cup – Patient Constable