Martin Windsor

Northern apprentice Martin Windsor gained his biggest success on a three-year-old filly named Mexicali Rose in the £1,259 to the winner Perkins Memorial Handicap at Newcastle in 1961, despite putting up 6lb overweight to ride at 6st 13lb.

Martin Leonard Windsor was born on May 23, 1943 and was apprenticed initially to Tommy Dent, who trained at Rufforth, near York, and later to Tommy Shedden at Wetherby. He rode his first winner on Dent’s Doctor Bother in six-furlong apprentices’ race at Hamilton Park on May 23, 1960.

His second winner, also for Dent, came on Royal Course in a Hamilton seller on September 26.

In the summer of 1961 he was the ‘go-to’ apprentice as several northern trainers were quick to take advantage of his 7lb claim. In addition to landing the Perkins Memorial Handicap for Tommy Dent on Mexicali Rose, Buster Fenningworth, Harry Peacock, George Boyd and Mick Easterby all put him up on winners.

Sadly, the success didn’t last. He rode four winners in 1962, three of them for Tommy Dent, but none at all in 1963. In 1964 he joined Tommy Shedden, who supplied him with the remainder of his winners, just one in each of the next three seasons. Martin’s sole success of 1964 was on Vahine in the Saxty Way Maiden Stakes at Thirsk. Troopers Valley, at Ripon in May, was his only winner of 1965, with the last winner of his career being 50-1 shot Highfield Lass in a two-year-old seller at Thirsk on April 16, 1966.

He completed his apprenticeship a month after that final winner and rode for the remainder of the year as a fully-fledged jockey. He continued to hold a licence until 1971 but rides became fewer and farther between. However, he went on to become a highly valued member of stable staff and was rewarded with a race named in his honour, the Martin Windsor – A Lifetime in Racing Maiden Stakes at Pontefract on July 10, 2007.

Martin Windsor’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Doctor Bother, Hamilton Park, May 23, 1960

2. Royal Course, Hamilton Park, September 26, 1960

3. Little Dominic, Catterick Bridge, April 20, 1961

4. Solarco, Bogside, 3 June 1961

5. More Brilliant, Catterick Bridge, June 21, 1961

6. Mexicali Rose, Newcastle, June 22, 1961

7. Old Wine, Stockton, July 1, 1961

8. No Myth, Edinburgh, July 3, 1961

9. Sprack, Ripon, July 15, 1961

10. Silver, Hamilton Park, April 28, 1962

11. Royal Jester, Birmingham, May 22, 1962

12. Maurice, Lincoln, September 19, 1962

13. Society Club, Stockton, October 6, 1962

14. Vahine, Thirsk, September 19, 1964

15. Troopers Valley, Ripon, May 15, 1965

16. Highfield Lass, Thirsk, April 16, 1966