Alan Nixon

Article by Chris Pitt

Boxing Day was a Sunday in 1965. As there was no Sunday racing in those days, all the traditional Boxing Day race meetings took place on Monday, December 27 – or at least they should have. Kempton and Newton Abbot were the only survivors of the eight scheduled fixtures, a combination of frost and waterlogging forcing the abandonments of Huntingdon, Market Rasen, Sedgefield, Wetherby, Wincanton and Wolverhampton.

By 12.35 that Monday lunchtime, 7lb claimer Alan Nixon could have been forgiven for wishing Newton Abbot had joined the list of casualties.

An hour and a half before Arkle cruised to an effortless victory in racing’s Christmas highlight, the King George VI Chase, down at Newton Abbot young Alan Nixon, who’d had just a handful of rides, thought he’d ridden his first winner, Sweet Saffron in the opening race, the South Devon Handicap Hurdle, easing his mount up as he passed the post in triumph. Unfortunately for him, there was still another circuit left to go, and by the time he realised his error and got going again, the race was gone beyond recall. Sweet Saffron could finish only eighth. It made front page news in the following day’s Sporting Life, although thankfully for Alan it merited only a few sentences in the bottom corner, the headline reflecting another imperious performance by steeplechasing’s greatest equine star.

Twelve months later, virtually to the day, Alan finally rode his first ‘real’ winner, French Dawn, owner-trained by Stan Roberts, at Taunton on December 28, 1966. But it was almost two and a half years before his next, the Jack Cann-trained River Dee in the Lord Mildmay Memorial Challenge Cup in May 1969. (Incidentally, this is now the most valuable race run at Newton Abbot throughout year.) Having waited so long, another winning mount turned up the next month, on John Thorne’s Robert’s Carol at Devon & Exeter.

There were just two the following season, both at Devon & Exeter for Cullompton, Devon-based trainer Jack Cann, namely novice hurdler Pandoric and River Dee, the latter beating his sole rival by a distance to land the Twysden Challenge Cup Chase.

Another barren spell of 17 months passed before Alan’s next winner in March 1971, Beta Rose, again at Devon & Exeter, but then at Newton Abbot on Easter Monday he teamed up with Les Kennard’s useful chaser Nova Light to win the Washington Singer Memorial Challenge Cup. He came within a neck of notching an Easter Monday double, being denied by just a neck on Lord Atika in division one of the novices’ hurdle. Alan then kept the ride on Nova Light and won two more races on him, on successive days, on the Friday and Saturday of Stratford’s end of season fixture.

Back in Devon, Nova Light gave Alan a quick start to the 1971/72 campaign, winning the Parkin Memorial Cup Handicap Chase at Devon & Exeter on August 5, a win which resulted in his claim being reduced to 5lb. The partnership then gained a repeat course and distance victory, landing the Viscountess Petersham Trophy Handicap Chase on September 2. However, Nova Light was then beaten on his next three starts, two of which were over hurdles, and Alan had lost the ride by the time the horse reappeared in the spring.

Les Kennard’s Riparian, again at Devon & Exeter, on September 22, was Alan’s only other winner that term, and it wasn’t until the corresponding Devon & Exeter fixture 12 months later that he rode his next, on selling hurdler Acrovat, trained by Reg Keenor at Chulmleigh in North Devon.

There was to be just one more, on another Keenor-trained selling hurdler, True Boy, who started the 4-1 outsider of three in a poor race at Fontwell on Monday, October 16, 1972.

He continued to ride for three more seasons but no further successes came his way. One of his last rides was on the Tony Pipe-trained Border Queen in a Newton Abbot selling hurdle, on August 14, 1975, almost ten years on from his error of judgment there, when he thought he’d ridden his first winner.

Interestingly, he numbered no less than five trophy or cup race victories, albeit of a minor nature, among his 14-winner haul.

Alan Nixon’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. French Dawn, Taunton, December 28, 1966

2. River Dee, Newton Abbot, May 7, 1969

3. Robert’s Carol, Devon & Exeter, June 11, 1969

4. Pandoric, Devon & Exeter, August 6, 1969

5. River Dee, Devon & Exeter, October 4, 1969

6. Beta Rose, Devon & Exeter, March 27, 1971

7. Nova Light, Newton Abbot, April 12, 1971

8. Nova Light, Stratford-on-Avon, June 4, 1971

9. Nova Light, Stratford-on-Avon, June 5, 1971

10. Nova Light, Devon & Exeter, August 5, 1971

11. Nova Light, Devon & Exeter, September 2, 1971

12. Riparian, Devon & Exeter, September 22, 1971

13. Acrovat, Devon & Exeter, September 21, 1972

14. True Boy, Fontwell Park, October 16, 1972