2-time derby winner tommy weston.

​I have just finished reading ‘My Racing Life’, the autobiography of Tommy Weston, the 3-time Epsom Derby Winner.
If Tommy Weston had retired last year, and not in 1950, he would have been advised to start the first chapter with the controversy that he inadvertently (and innocently) got himself embroiled, with the rest of the book taking his life-story from cradle to retirement. But that was not the way of autobiographies back in the 1950’s, which is more the pity as the author used the case in the Central Criminal Court as a crowning point of his memoirs when in truth it was a bit of a damp squib as the case against two members of staff at a leading London bookmaker came to nothing. His name was mentioned; it was alleged he bet with the bookmaker in question, without there being any substantive proof. It was just his name pencilled into a clerk’s book.
He claims, perhaps quite rightly, that having his name associated with illegal betting activities ruined his reputation and hastened his decision to retire. Yet in the previous season, 1949, he only rode one significant winner and that was the now defunct and perhaps even obscure back then Wisteria Stakes.
Interestingly, in the final chapter he wrote ‘With thirty-years of continuous riding for great and small men behind me, I have saved sufficient to spare me the indignity of having to open motor-car doors in my old age’, a reference to a former famous jockey reduced to such an occupation through failing to spend the pennies and save the pounds. The former colleague was not named. Yet there is a comment about him ‘in later life he was a sad figure having spent all the money he made during a long successful career’.
He twice won the Epsom Derby. In 1924 on Sansovino and 1933 on Hyperion, perhaps the best horse he ever rode. Some, though, John Hislop for example, rated Fairway the better horse, winner of the 1928 St. Leger. He rode eleven classic winners in all and was champion jockey in 1926. Quintin Gilbey said of him ‘No jockey rode a more vigorous finish and his record showed that though inelegant he was most effective’. As backhanded a compliment as ever was given.
Where ‘My Racing Life’ succeeds is that Weston describes in detail the life of a jockey in the days between the World Wars. As far as I can know, the demands on a stable jockey – he was retained rider for Lord Derby, Sir Abe Bailey and J.V. Rank – was somewhat different to today, with Weston called upon, when not racing, to take an interest in the horses when stabled, giving his opinion to not only his employer but the trainer, too, and though racing was only a 6-day a week occupation back then, on Sundays he was expected on duty to ride work and to inspect the horses on an evening.
The book is awash with anecdotes, though as he is keen on anonymity for the colleagues he wrote about, the reader is kept at arms-length, suspicious that a certain amount of editing has accompanied the story-telling. One story he could not tell to its fullest concerned why Lord Derby sacked him as stable jockey. His Lordship, apparently, regretted the decision and his wording made it seem as if his arm was twisted. We will never know, as Weston never knew. George Lambton had retired due to ill health and College Leader had taken over as Lord Derby’s trainer and it was suggested Leader did not take to Weston and wanted to use a jockey of his own choice. And of course, and this might be a case of ‘no smoke without fire’, even at the height of his success perhaps there was talk of Tommy Weston being in league with bookmakers.
With few exceptions, I much prefer the autobiographies of long-dead jockeys and trainers as so much of their lives and careers are unknown to me and they lived a very different life to modern-day racing people. Say what you will but as interesting a life the likes of Ruby Walsh and A.P. McCoy have led neither of them were plucked from their careers to go serve in world wars. Tommy Weston was in the Royal Navy and twice survived a sinking. It puts the thrills and spills of the racecourse into perspective.
It may be just my memory receding but even with all his success as a jockey and a career that lasted for thirty-years, I had all but forgotten about Tommy Weston and would not have answered correctly in a quiz ‘Who rode Hyperion to win the 1933 Epsom Derby’. I suppose it might have something to do with Steve Donoghue dominating the early years of Weston’s career and Gordon Richards the middle and end of his jockeys’ life. I know more now, though, even if I am frustrated that Weston failed to flush out the incidents of his life with greater clarity and insight. A good book for all of that and one I would read again in the future.