John Wilkinson

John Wilkinson

John Wilkinson was born near Gateshead. Standing just 4ft 11ins, he decided on a career as a Flat jockey and moved south to join Jack Colling’s Berkshire stable. However, growing in height, putting on weight and unable to get rides, he returned north and moved to Scotland in 1966 to work for leading National Hunt trainer Ken Oliver, based at Hawick.

Along with another aspiring jump jockey, Ian Watkinson, John did much of the work on the home gallops but Barry Brogan was the stable jockey and ensured he kept the best rides for himself. Nonetheless, John managed five winners for Oliver in his initial season with a licence, the first of which was on Arctic Fury in the Braehead Four-Year-Old Hurdle at Ayr on November 4, 1967.

Two more wins quickly followed but then racing hit the buffers, with no meetings taking place between late November and early January due to the rampant spread of the foot and mouth epidemic. John soon picked up the wining thread when racing resumed, winning a handicap hurdle on Montabel and a novice hurdle on Port Verona, both at Newcastle, but, having ridden his first five winners in three months, matters took a downward turn.

He rode just three in the 1968/69 season and two in 1969/70. They included two on a horse named October in back-to-back renewals of the three-mile Stair Handicap at Ayr’s New Year meeting. They also included his only win over fences, aboard Denholm in the Robinson Crusoe Novices’ Chase at Catterick on New Year’s Eve 1969.

Frustrated, perhaps, by lack of opportunities, John left Oliver later that year and did not ride during the 1970/71 campaign. He renewed his licence the following season and rode for Bobby Hall’s stable. However, he had just one more winner, that coming on Easter Monday 1974 on Braw Lad, trained by Harry Bell, in the Cummersdale Opportunity Handicap Hurdle at Carlisle.

Twice married, John Wilkinson last held a licence in the 1975/76 season.

His winners were, in chronological order:

1. Arctic Fury, Ayr, November 4, 1967

2. Montabel, Newcastle, November 11, 1967

3. Shingle Bay, Sedgefield, November 25, 1967

4. Montabel, Newcastle, January 17, 1968

5. Port Verona, Newcastle, February 14, 1968

6. Shingle Bay, Kelso, October 26, 1968

7. Oliver’s Mount, Teesside Park (Stockton), November 27, 1968

8. October, Ayr, January 3, 1969

9. Denholm, Catterick Bridge, December 31, 1969

10. October, Ayr, January 3, 1970

11. Braw Lad, Carlisle, April 13, 1974