Joe Vowels

Joe Vowles

1911 - 1995

Article by Alan Trout

Joseph Henry Vowles had plenty of rides before and after the Second World War and recorded 22 wins altogether, achieving a best score of nine in the 1938/39 season. He would almost certainly have enjoyed greater success but for his career being compromised by the war. 

His first ride was on Carmon, unplaced in the Shottesbrooke Novices’ Hurdle at Hawthorn Hill on November 10, 1936. He registered his first victory at Cardiff on Easter Monday, March 29, 1937, when Blue Pencil won the Club Juvenile Selling Handicap Hurdle. Trained by Joseph Hall at Russley Park, Blue Pencil beat Mrs Hopkins, the mount of Keith Piggott, by a length. 

Joe added four more before the end of the season, including two on Blue Pencil. The same horse gave him his only two victories for the 1937/38 campaign, then did even better in 1938/39, being responsible for five of the nine races Joe won that season. 

Joe notched a double for Joseph Hall at Cardiff on Easter Monday 1939. By that time, however, rumblings of possible war with Germany were beginning to circulate and, like so many other jockeys, Joe’s career was brought to a temporary halt, although he continued to ride until May 1940.  

He resumed riding in January 1946 and went on to record six more wins, including a Whit Monday double at Buckfastleigh in 1947. Hie last was gained in somewhat controversial circumstances. At Ludlow on October 1, 1947, Impeller, ridden by George Moore, won the County Handicap Hurdle, beating Joe on Prince Igor by two lengths. However, Prince Igor’s trainer, Harry Wightman, who had been responsible for all Joe’s wins since the war, objected to the winner on a technicality, resulting in Impeller being disqualified. 

Prince Igor ran next at Newport 10 days later, again with Joe aboard, and won in the Tredegar Handicap Hurdle. But the owner of the runner-up objected on grounds of carrying the wrong weight. Prince Igor was disqualified and Harry Wightman was fined for not having made himself sufficiently acquainted with the rules. 

Joe therefore lost his 23rd and what would have been his final winner. He battled on for five years without further success, having his last ride at Cheltenham on October 15, 1952, when Chewton was brought down in the Gotherington Novices’ Hurdle. Of the 22 winners he rode, 11 came courtesy of Blue Pencil. 

Joe Vowles’s  winners were, in chronological order.

1. Blue Pencil, Cardiff, March 29, 1937

2. Blue Pencil, Pershore, May 4, 1937

3. Blue Pencil, Wenlock Hunt, May 7, 1937

4. Roundhead, Towcester, May 17, 1937

5. Russlestone, Shirley Park, May 31, 1937

6. Blue Pencil, Sandown Park, January 13, 1938

7. Blue Pencil, Worcester, April 29, 1938

8. Blue Pencil, Devon & Exeter, August 25, 1928

9. Blue Pencil, Totnes, August 31, 1938 (dead heat)

10. Blue Pencil, Southwell, September 24, 1938

11. Pendragon, Gatwick, February 1, 1939

12. Balagny, Cardiff, April 10, 1939

13. Blue Pencil, Cardiff, April 10, 1939

14. Blue Pencil, Cardiff, April 27, 1939

15. Magic Island, Oswestry & Llanymynech, April 29, 1939

16. Blue Pencil, Newport, May 29, 1939

17. Magic Artist, Sandown Park, October 28, 1946

18. Winco, Leicester, December 3, 1946

19. Bulo Boda, Buckfastleigh, June 7, 1947

20. Mount Robert, Buckfastleigh, June 7, 1947

21. Bulo Boda, Newton Abbot, August 2, 1947

22. Prince Igor, Ludlow, October 1, 1947