National Hunt jockey Anthony Douglas Romeril was born on July 10, 1946. He served his apprenticeship with David Gandolfo and made his racecourse debut in a handicap hurdle at Market Rasen on August 5, 1967, the opening day of the new National Hunt season, aboard Mon Bon Homme. They finished unplaced.
Mon Bon Homme was far better known for his exploits over fences but was a perfect schoolmaster to provide his inexperienced jockey with his first taste of race-riding. Eleven days after his Market Rasen debut, Tony was reunited with Mon Bon Homme in the Wombat Challenge Cup Handicap Hurdle at Newton Abbot, finishing sixth of the 14 runners. Tony later rated Mon Bon Homme as the best horse he rode in public.
He had to wait more than a year before riding his first winner, that coming on Djebway owned and trained by Tim Finch at Hapton Hall, Norwich, in a Market Rasen selling hurdle on Saturday, October 19, 1968.
He would ride just one more, on Lady Upham in a three-mile one-furlong novice riders’ handicap hurdle at Taunton on November 27, 1969.
Tony continued to hold a licence until the 1972/73 season but had few rides and no further successes to add to those two wins at Market Rasen and Taunton.