Harry Wookey Sharland started out as an amateur jockey and rode seven winners. He then joined the professional ranks and added seven more. Twelve of those 14 wins were gained on just two horses, both owned by Sir David Llewellyn, namely Tormore, on which Harry was successful eight times, and Wallace.
Born in 1910, his first win was at Cheltenham on November 15, 1933, when Sigari beat Craftsman by two lengths to land the Amateur Riders’ Handicap Hurdle. Fulke Walwyn, Edward Paget and Anthony (later Lord) Mildmay were among the leading amateur riders behind him that day.
He added the first two of his wins on Tormore before the end of the season, then added three on the hurdler Wallace in the 1934/35 campaign. He turned professional in February 1936 and won four wins on Tormore in just over a month, including on successive days at Cardiff’s Whitsun meeting.
Harry won two more races on Tormore the following season and registered his final victory on Wallace when beating four rivals in the Caerleon Selling Handicap Hurdle at Newport on May 17, 1937.
He continued for another season and had his last ride on Hot Stuff, a faller in the Cardiff Novices’ Selling Chase at that course on Whit Monday, June 6, 1938. It is not known whether that fall ended his career prematurely.
Harry Sharland died in 1979.
His winners were, in chronological order:
1. Sigari, Cheltenham, November 15, 1933
2. Tormore, Stratford-on-Avon, May 12, 1934
3. Tormore, Colwall Park, May 28, 1934
4. Wallace, Ludlow, March 7, 1935
5. Wallace, Cheltenham, April 11, 1935
6. Wallace, Cardiff, April 23, 1935
7. Grecian Gift, Cardiff, October 16, 1935
8. Tormore, Glamorgan Hunt (Cowbridge), April 30, 1936
9. Tormore, Colwall Park, May 23, 1936
10. Tormore, Cardiff, June 1, 1936
11. Tormore, Cardiff, June 2, 1936
12. Tormore, Newton Abbot, September 10, 1936
13. Tormore, Glamorgan Hunt (Cowbridge), May 6, 1937
14. Wallace, Newport, May 17, 1937
Tormore, Cardiff, June 1, 1936
Tormore, Cardiff, June 2, 1936