Stanley Threadwell

When the Stanley Threadwell Memorial Maiden Fillies Stakes was run at Yarmouth on July 24, 2012, it is doubtful whether any of the jockeys competing in the race would have recognised the name.

Stanley Manning Threadwell was born in West Ham in February 1929. In 1943, Stanley Threadwell was just 14, starting out on the precarious and much elusive path of making a living out of riding horses.

So many fail, but Stanley was well placed: his riding weight at that time was seven stone, two: he was retained by Lambourn trainer C. Pratt and lived at 3, Walkers Close, Lambourn, just a stone's throw from his place of work.

He had as much chance as any other apprentice of making it big time.

Would he make it?

That magical first winner came on Saturday, August 19, 1944, the day that apprentice Mickey Greening had a bad accident in the paddock when his mount, Quality, fell on him. Jokes about quality control fell flat on Greening.

Riding Moemen at Windsor (transferred from Salisbury), 15-year-old Stanley got home by a neck on the 6/1 chance.

Moemen had been the horse on which he had made his racecourse debut on August 28 the previous year.

It was not until October 1945, that he rode his second winner, also at Windsor, Du-bon-air.

That year, he rode Castle Blarney in the Cambridgeshire and Forester in the Cesarewitch.

In 1946, Stanley won the City Handicap on Colophon (5/1). He also won at Wolverhampton on Artfulness.

On Saturday, November 16, 1946, he climbed aboard Legendary Maid for the Backend Selling Nursery Handicap at Lingfield.

It was to be his last ride. He rode 20 winners.

Records show that he never rode again - but why remains a mystery.

He was still a young man, just 17: was he disenchanted with racing?

We just don’t know.

What we do know, however, is that after leaving racing he set up a business owning amusement arcades and seaside piers along the east coast of England. He died on July 15, 1997, aged 68. His family still controls the business.

Thus, the Stanley Threadwell Memorial Stakes was so named to commemorate the man who, following his fleeting appearance as a jockey, became an owner and a successful businessman.