In a career disrupted by the Second World War, Ernest Street had nine wins over jumps following some unsuccessful efforts on the Flat.
Born in 1908, he was apprenticed to Percy Peck and had his first ride on Lord Durham’s filly Anchusa in the Grand Stand Three-Year-Old Handicap Plate at Ripon on August 5, 1924. The pair were unplaced. Although Ernest continued to take rides until 1926, there was no breakthrough. He nominated Gorsebrook as the best horse he'd partnered on the level.
His first appearance over jumps did not go well as Buenamigo was a faller in the Oakside Handicap Hurdle at Windsor on December 12, 1934. However, he persevered and finally rode a winner when High Flight landed the Dean Prior Selling Handicap Hurdle at Buckfastleigh on June 2, 1936, the last day of the season.
A win on the same horse at the annual Totnes & Bridgetown fixture three months later was not a precursor for a successful season, only a barren period of more than 30 months without a winner, but then came three in 15 days in March 1939, by which time he had relocated from the south-west to Yorkshire.
The outbreak of war six months later compromised Ernest’s career just when it appeared to have gained momentum. He spent three and a half years during the war in the Royal Army Service Corps..
By the time National Hunt racing resumed at the start of 1945 he had taken out a trainer’s licence and the appropriately named Victory provided him with three wins within a year as both trainer and jockey. The last of those three, at Nottingham on Saturday, February 9, 1946, was an occasion which, when asked in later years to recall the highlight of his career in the saddle, Ernest replied: “Winning a handicap hurdle at Nottingham where I won by a short head which was the medium of a gamble.”
The race to which he was referring was the Carlton Handicap Hurdle (Division 2), the last of the day. Ernest, by then aged 37, forced the 10/1 shot up on the line to win by the shortest of margins.
His final success was on the four-year-old Wintersmoon, a horse which, like Victory, he also trained, beating 30 rivals to land the Warwick Novices’ Hurdle on the Saturday of Carlisle’s Easter meeting on April 5, 1947. A fall on the same horse in the Bilton Hurdle at Wetherby two days later ended his career in the saddle.
He continued to train, based at Malton. His racing colours being brown, yellow cross-belts, white cap.
However, his licence was withdrawn in the 1951/52 season and he was warned off from November 1951 until March 1953. Subsequent applications from 1961 onwards to renew his trainer’s licence all met with refusal.
Ernest Street’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. High Flight, Buckfastleigh, June 2, 1936
2. High Flight, Totnes & Bridgetown, September 3, 1936
3. Rosechafer, Catterick Bridge, March 3, 1939
4. Rosechafer, Haydock Park, March 16, 1939
5. Tickle, Southwell, March 18, 1939
6. Victory, Wetherby, February 17, 1945
7. Victory, Wetherby, November 3, 1945
8. Victory, Nottingham, February 9, 1946
9. Wintersmoon, Carlisle, April 5, 1947