Jack Stanbridge

Jack Stanbridge

Article by Alan Trout

National Hunt jockey Jack Stanbridge rode for over a decade and registered 21 wins with a best score of six in the 1931/32 season.

His first ride, on Manor in the Rugeley Chase at Derby on December 16, 1924, ended in a fall. It was not until the annual Quorn Hunt meeting on April 19, 1926 that he finally opened his account when Tons Of Money, trained at Leamington by Syd McGregor, won the Charnwood Handicap Hurdle, beating Ted Leader aboard the odds-on favourite Aubretia by five lengths.

Twelve months elapsed before his second success, and over the next three years he never won more than two races in a season, although he did win the Charnwood Handicap Hurdle twice more on a horse named Richard Slingsby, on which he won four times altogether. However, he became a more regular visitor to the winner’s enclosure during the early 1930s, thanks in part to five wins on the hurdler Honey-Lomond. 

Jack scored for the final time at Warwick on February 3, 1936, when Song o’ My Heart easily beat Oliver Cromwell, ridden by champion jockey Gerry Wilson, in the Chandler Handicap Chase at Warwick. His career finished as it had started, with a fall, this time it was from Effective in the Lighthouse Selling Hurdle at Warwick on February 7, 1938. 

Interestingly, only the last two of his career victories were in steeplechases, all the first 19 being over hurdles.

Jack Stanbridge’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Tons Of Money, Quorn Hunt (Loughborough), April 19, 1926

2. Richard Slingsby, Ludlow, April 22, 1927

3. Richard Slingsby, Quorn Hunt (Loughborough), April 25, 1927

4. Richard Slingsby, Catterick Bridge, March 13, 1929

5, Richard Slingsby, Quorn Hunt (Loughborough), April 22, 1929

6. Gamefellow, Uttoxeter, May 26, 1930

7. Gamefellow, Huntingdon, June 9, 1930

8. Honey-Lomond, Warwick, February 2, 1931

9. Honey-Lomond, Sandown Park, March 19, 1931

10. Artabanus, Worcester, April 23, 1931

11. Honey-Lomond, Wolverhampton, November 9, 1931

12. Honey-Lomond, Nottingham, December 15, 1931

13. Longmynd Lad, Nottingham, February 9, 1932

14. Longmynd Lad, Stratford-on-Avon, April 2, 1932

15. Honey-Lomond, Shirley Park, April 25, 1932

16. Longmynd Lad, Uttoxeter, May 10, 1932

17. Perthshire Lad, Wolverhampton, March 14, 1933

18. Perthshire Lad, Worcester, April 22, 1933

19. King’s Writ, Pershore, May 2, 1933

20. Zag, Market Rasen, April 2, 1934

21. Song o’ My Heart, Warwick, February 3, 1936