Chris Waller

1854 -1930

Article by Alan Trout

Amateur rider Chris Waller was one of the leading National Hunt jockeys of the last quarter of the 19th century. In a career lasting over 20 years, he rode 268 winners, was twice runner-up in the jockeys’ championship and amateur riders’ championship, and in 1885 was overall champion jockey with 36 wins. 

Christopher William Waller was born at Digswell, Welwyn, in 1884, according to Charles Voigt’s book ‘Famous Gentlemen Riders’, which adds that he “no doubt inherited his taste for sport from his father”. Voigt continues: “An attempt was made to turn young Waller into a sailor. Early in his ’teens he was sent to sea, when he visited China, Japan and other distant lands”. However, Chris returned from the Far East observing that “horses and hounds were unknown out there”.   

He registered his racing colours of ‘crimson and white stripes, black cap’ and had his first ride in 1874 when partnering Neuchatel, unplaced in the Farmers’ Plate at the Herts Steeplechases meeting at Pulloxhill on April 8, 1974. His first success did not come until almost three years later when, on Easter Monday, April 2, 1877, he won the Local Hunters’ Plate at Enfield (one of 10 meetings held that day) by six lengths on his own horse Bachelor, the 10-1 outsider of the field.  

Progress after that first win was rather slow, and it was not until 1884 that he reached double figures for the first time. However, 21 wins in 1884 were followed by 36 from 132 mounts in 1885 – including 16 in April alone – which saw him crowned the year’s champion National Hunt jockey. He finished runner-up in the jockeys’ table in both 1886 with 33 wins, and again in 1887 with a career-best score of 41. 

He frequently rode in Germany and on the Continent. Although he rode no big winners, he did finish in third place in the 1885 National Hunt Chase, run that year at Lincoln, on his own horse Helmet. The horse who finished first, Rienzi, was disqualified for having gone the wrong side of a post, and the race awarded to the runner-up Lady Tempest, with Helmet being promoted to second place. 

Chris Waller had four rides in the Grand National, completing the course in three of them. His only failure to get round was at his first attempt on Jolly Sir John in 1886, falling a mile from the finish when going well. He finished fifth on Aladdin in 1888, then achieved his best placing when fourth in 1899 on Bellona, owned by the notorious George Alexander Baird, who used the racing pseudonym ‘Mr Abington’. He again reportedly completed the course on Lord Of The Glen on his final attempt in 1892 (although some sources list him among the fallers). He also finished second on Bellona in the 1889 Grand Sefton Chase.

Altogether, he rode seven trebles during a career that drew to a close in 1897, his only win that year being on Lindrick in the National Hunt Flat Race at Harpenden on May 29, with another amateur rider destined to be champion jockey, Herbert Sidney, finishing second on Boaster. 

Chris’s final ride was on Indian Chief in the Western National Hunt Flat Race at Ayr on September 15, 1897, finishing second to Chop, ridden by Jock Fergusson, another celebrated amateur rider of the period. 

Chris Waller then trained for some years. He died at Royston on February 15, 1930, leaving £896.