National Hunt jockey Alan Walter Varey was born on October 12, 1952. He was based with Matt McCourt at Wantage and rode for five seasons during the first half of the 1970s. He notched five winners, all of them on McCourt’s hurdler/chaser Rock Eaton.
Rock Eaton was a firm ground specialist who was at his best in the early weeks of the season around the Devon circuits and further afield. Alan won on him for the first time when landing the Torbryan Selling Handicap Chase at Newton Abbot on August 5, 1974. Three days later they teamed up to win a novices’ selling hurdle at Devon & Exeter, following that with victory in a Huntingdon selling chase on August Bank Holiday Monday.
Those were Alan’s only three successes of that 1974/75 season, though he came close to a fourth when Super Mex, also trained by McCourt, finished second in a Devon & Exeter selling hurdle in March.
Rock Eaton provided Alan with both his wins the following season, landing a Newton Abbot selling hurdle and a Hereford handicap chase in early September 1975.
Rock Eaton was also Alan’s final ride, when finishing ninth in a big field of selling hurdlers at Stratford on June 4, 1976. Matt McCourt’s young amateur rider son Graham took over on Rock Eaton at the start of the 1976/77 season, winning the Parkin Memorial Cup Handicap Chase on him at Devon & Exeter.
Having retired from race-riding, Alan became involved with stud management. Together with his son Tim, he now runs Batsford Stud, near Moreton-in-Marsh.
Alan Varey’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Rock Eaton, Newton Abbot, August 5, 1974
2. Rock Eaton, Devon & Exeter, August 8, 1974
3. Rock Eaton, Huntingdon, August 26, 1974
4. Rock Eaton, Newton Abbot, September 2, 1975
5. Rock Eaton, Hereford, September 9, 1975