John Oaksey

Last updated • 9 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

John Oaksey
Occupation Jockey, journalist, commentator
Born21 March 1929
Died5 September 2012 (aged 83)
Career wins200
Major racing wins
Hennessy Gold Cup
CGA Foxhunter Chase
Kim Muir Challenge Cup
Racing awards
Racing Journalist of the Year, 1968
Daily Telegraph Order of Merit, 2003
Peter O'Sullevan Award for Services to Racing, 2008
Honours
OBE
Honorary Member of the Jockey Club
Significant horses
Carrickbeg, Carruthers

John Geoffrey Tristram Lawrence, 4th Baron Trevethin and 2nd Baron Oaksey OBE (21 March 1929 – 5 September 2012) was a British aristocrat, horse racing journalist, television commentator and former amateur jockey. He was twice British Champion Amateur Jump Jockey, before becoming a celebrated journalist and recognisable racing personality both on television and through his charitable work for the Injured Jockeys Fund, which he helped establish. He has been described as "quite possibly the outstanding racing figure of modern times, touching so many via his compelling writing, broadcasting, race-riding and tireless fund-raising". [1]

Contents

Early life

Quadrangle at Eton College, Oaksey's alma mater Eton College quadrangle.jpg
Quadrangle at Eton College, Oaksey's alma mater

He was the son of the noted jurist Geoffrey Lawrence, 1st Baron Oaksey, and his wife Marjorie, daughter of Commander Charles Robinson, RN. He preferred to be called Oaksey, although Trevethin is the longer-established title. In his broadcasting career, he was initially known as John Lawrence before adopting the name John Oaksey when he succeeded to the baronies on the death of his father in 1971. The Oaksey family seat is the parish of Oaksey in the extreme north of Wiltshire, between Malmesbury and Cirencester. [2]

He was educated at Eton College, where he was captain of the boxing team. [3] At age 16 he spent the summer attending the Nuremberg trials at which his father was officiating, the family diaries and memoirs of which are on permanent loan to the National Justice Museum in Nottingham. [4]

After Eton, he undertook National Service at Catterick and was commissioned as second lieutenant [5] with the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers. He then went up to New College, Oxford, to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. On graduating, he took law at Yale University and, at that point, looked destined to follow his father into the profession.

Career

Jockey

Oaksey had learned to ride on an old pony called Mince Pie, which later gave rise to the title of his autobiography, Mince Pie For Starters [6] A photo of him being ejected from Mince Pie during the 1935 Purton pony trials appeared on the front page of the Daily Express . [3] He began competitive riding in point-to-points, starting with a ride on a horse called Paula at Siddington, Gloucestershire, in April 1950. He pulled up after six fences. He had his first winner the following year on board Next of Kin at the Pegasus Club meeting at Kimble, a meeting confined to lawyers and their families. When he started running under rules, his first win came on Pyrene in a hunter chase at Sandown Park on 16 March 1956. He also had his first major victory at the same track: Flaming East in the 1958 Imperial Cup. [7]

The horse with which he was most closely associated, though, was the staying chaser, Taxidermist. On this horse, he was second in the Kim Muir Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, beat stablemate Mandarin in the 1958 Whitbread Gold Cup and then in November of that year, produced the performance of his career in the Hennessy Gold Cup, then run at Cheltenham rather than Newbury. [8] Passing four horses after the final fence, he got up to win on the line by a short head.

Cheltenham Festival wins then followed – on Bob Turnell's Sabaria in the 1959 National Hunt Chase, Jimmy Scot in the 1966 Kim Muir, Black Baize in the 1971 Kim Muir, and Bullocks Horn in the 1973 Foxhunters' Chase. In 1963, he went very close to winning the Grand National too. Riding Carrickbeg, he was beaten only by three-quarters of a length. [9]

In total, he rode in the Grand National eleven times, completing the course in four of them. Once in the race, he was unseated by his horse and knocked unconscious, but still insisted on filing his copy to the Sunday Telegraph before being taken away by stretcher. [6]

As his riding career entered its later years, he nearly won a second Whitbread Gold Cup in 1974 on board Proud Tarquin. He passed the post first, but was demoted to second after it was ruled he had interfered with The Dikler. He thought this immensely unfair, saying later, "The passing of time has done nothing to diminish my feeling that a great injustice was done". [10] It was to be his last major race performance. He retired from racing after being injured in a fall at Folkestone in 1975.

As a jockey, he rode as John Lawrence and won 200 races. Although the majority of these were over fences, 20 of his wins came on the flat, including the first three runnings of the Amateurs Derby at Epsom (1963–1965), and again in 1973. He had been Champion Amateur Jump Jockey in 1957–58 and 1970–71. Despite this, he was not noted as a particularly talented rider. He has been called "more effective than stylish in the saddle", [11] or, in the words of fellow broadcaster Peter O'Sullevan, "He did not have any natural ability riding, it was pure application, but he did become most successful." [12]

His connection with the Hennessy Gold Cup was revived in 2011, when Carruthers, a horse he bred and partially owned, won an emotional renewal of the race at a time when Oaksey himself was seriously ill. [8]

Broadcasting

Oaksey began his broadcasting career while still active in the saddle. The BBC booked him four days before his Grand National ride on Carrickbeg to tour the site by helicopter and talk the audience through the fences. [13] This was followed by his first regular television work which was with Pay-TV, a short-lived pay-as-you-view experiment set up by the boxing promoter Jarvis Astaire in 1965. For a time, they held the contract to broadcast from Kempton races. [13]

He joined ITV's World of Sport in 1969, and was regularly seen and heard on The ITV Seven and later Channel 4 Racing, where he was invariably referred to by John McCririck as "My Noble Lord". On the retirement of John Rickman in 1978 he became the lead presenter for ITV's racing coverage. In the 1980s he also appeared on BBC Radio alongside Peter Bromley, and together they covered Bob Champion's famous win in the 1981 Grand National. Oaksey remarked afterwards: "If an imaginative novelist had dreamt up that result everybody would have called him a very silly imaginative novelist." He retired from regular broadcasting at the end of 1999, though he still appeared occasionally for a while after that.

Journalism

In order to ride as an amateur jockey, rules required Oaksey to have another job. Therefore, he took up journalism as a career. He wrote for the Daily Telegraph , as the paper's racing correspondent "Marlborough" for over 30 years. [14] [15] He wrote for the Sunday Telegraph during the first 28 years of its existence and for a similar length of time he was the "Audax" columnist in Horse & Hound . His most celebrated piece of writing was his account of the 1963 Grand National he rode on Carrickbeg. This started life as a section of dialogue from his BBC preview [13] and when that description was replicated by events on the day it was adapted for his newspaper column. [6] The piece is most familiar within racing circles for its description of the closing stages:

Round the last elbow into the straight … the final dregs of stamina are draining fast for horse and man alike. A hundred yards to go and then Ayala’s head appeared like Nemesis at my knee.

This has been described by fellow racing journalist, Brough Scott as "the greatest single piece of first-person big sporting event narrative in the English language". [12] His commitment to his journalism was described thus by Peter Michell, the Telegraph's sports editor: "Oaksey would gallop for four miles, nip up Mount Kilamanjaro for a spot of exercise and then dictate a thousand words." [16]

He is also noted for his account of Fred Winter's win in the 1962 Grand Steeplechase de Paris on Mandarin. [12] Other works include a biography of Mill Reef and the script for a film called Something To Brighten The Morning.

Injured Jockeys Fund

His lasting legacy to the racing industry is the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF). This started life as the Farrell-Brookshaw Fund, a charitable foundation started in 1964, after Oaksey's fellow jockeys, Tim Brookshaw and Paddy Farrell, broke their backs in falls at Liverpool. This later became the Injured National Hunt Jockeys' Fund, and ultimately, the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF), embracing all areas of the sport. Oaksey became its president and figurehead. In 2004, he stated that the IJF had given him "more pride than any of the other activities in my racing life". [13]

In 2009, the IJF retirement complex in Lambourn was named Oaksey House in his honour. There is a statue of him in the grounds. [17]

Awards

His work with the IJF led to his appointment as OBE in 1985. [18] Other awards he received during his lifetime include Racing Journalist of the Year in 1968, [3] the Daily Telegraph Order of Merit in 2003 [19] and the Peter O'Sullevan Award for Services to Racing in 2008. [20] He was elected honorary member of the Jockey Club in 2001. [3]

The 2013 running of the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival (a race he won in 1959) was named in his honour. In 2014, Sandown named a new 2-mile 6 furlong Listed Chase at their end of season finale, the Oaksey Chase, after him. [7]

Personal life

In 1959 he married John Betjeman's former secretary, Victoria ("Tory") Dennistoun, whose father John ("Ginger") Dennistoun was a racehorse trainer. They had two children:

The couple split in public fashion when Victoria started a relationship with artist Maggi Hambling. [6]

Oaksey married again, in 1988, to "Chicky" Crocker (née Hunter), who had been married to a family friend. This provoked newspaper headlines and widespread disapproval from his circle as an uncharacteristic act of ungentlemanly behaviour. [13]

In later years, Oaksey suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died in September 2012 at the age of 83. He was survived by his second wife and the children from his first marriage. Memorial services were held for him at Oaksey Parish Church, Wiltshire, and at St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, attended by the Princess Royal, amongst others. Addresses were read by Sir Edward Cazalet and Brough Scott. [22]

Arms

Coat of arms of John Oaksey
Coronet of a British Baron.svg
Trevethin Escutcheon.png
Crest
A dragon's head erased Sable between two bugle horns counter-embowed Or.
Escutcheon
Per chevron Argent and Gules two crosses raguly in chief of the last and a lamb in base holding with the dexter foreleg a banner and staff all of the first the banner charged with a cross couped Azure.
Supporters
On either side a dragon Sable winged and charged on the shoulder with a fasces Or.
Motto
Pur Fel Dur [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horse racing in Great Britain</span>

Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport in Great Britain, and one of the longest established, with a history dating back many centuries. According to a report by the British Horseracing Authority it generates £3.39 billion total direct and indirect expenditure in the British economy, of which £1.05 billion is from core racing industry expenditure, and the major horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival are important dates in the British and international sporting and society calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Lawrence, 1st Baron Oaksey</span> British judge (1880–1971)

Geoffrey Lawrence, 3rd Baron Trevethin, 1st Baron Oaksey, was the lead British judge during the Nuremberg trials after Second World War, and President of the International Military Tribunal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Trevethin and Oaksey</span> Barony in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Baron Trevethin, of Blaengawney in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1921 for the prominent judge Sir Alfred Lawrence, Lord Chief Justice of England from 1921 to 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony McCoy</span> Northern Irish jockey (born 1974)

Sir Anthony Peter McCoy, commonly known as AP McCoy or Tony McCoy, is a Northern Irish former National Hunt horse racing jockey. Based in Ireland and Britain, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners, and was Champion Jockey a record 20 consecutive times, every year that he was a professional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruby Walsh</span> Irish jockey

Rupert "Ruby" Walsh is an Irish former jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen. Widely regarded as one of the greatest National Hunt jockeys of all time, Walsh is the third most prolific winner in British and Irish jump racing history behind only Sir Anthony McCoy and Richard Johnson.

John Francome is a retired seven-time British Champion jump jockey. He was previously a racing trainer and broadcaster with Channel 4, and is an author.

Foinavon (1958–1971) was an Irish racehorse. He won the Grand National in 1967 at odds of 100/1 after the rest of the field fell, refused or were hampered or brought down in a mêlée at the 23rd fence. The fence was officially named after Foinavon in 1984.

Sir Peter O'Sullevan was an Irish-British horse racing commentator for the BBC, and a correspondent for the Press Association, the Daily Express, and Today. He was the BBC's leading horse racing commentator from 1947 to 1997, during which time he described some of the greatest moments in the history of the Grand National.

Crisp was a champion steeplechase horse. He was a bay Thoroughbred gelding that was foaled in 1963 in Australia. In his native country, he won many important jumping races, particularly two-milers, including the Hiskens Steeplechase in 1969 and 1970. So well did he jump, he was nicknamed "The Black Kangaroo". However, Crisp is probably best remembered for his epic contest with Red Rum in the 1973 Grand National in England.

The National Hunt Challenge Cup is a National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run on the Old Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 3 miles 6 furlongs, and during its running there are twenty-three fences to be jumped. The race is a handicap race for novice chasers, and it is scheduled to take place each year during the Cheltenham Festival in March.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neptune Collonges</span> French racehorse

Neptune Collonges is a retired AQPS racehorse. He was bred in France as an AQPS and trained in Great Britain. His most noted success came when winning the Grand National on 14 April 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 Grand National</span> English steeplechase horse race

The 1996 Grand National was the 149th official renewal of the world-famous Grand National steeplechase that took place at Aintree on 30 March 1996. It was the first national to run since 3 time winner Red Rum was buried at the winning post following his death the previous October.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1995 Grand National</span> English steeplechase horse race

The 1995 Grand National was the 148th official renewal of the famous Grand National steeplechase that took place at Aintree near Liverpool, England, on 8 April 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1992 Grand National</span> Horse race held in 1992

The 1992 Grand National was the 146th renewal of the world-famous Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 4 April 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1990 Grand National</span> English steeplechase horse race

The 1990 Grand National was the 144th renewal of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 7 April 1990. The off time was 3.20pm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1989 Grand National</span> English steeplechase horse race

The 1989 Grand National was the 143rd renewal of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 8 April 1989.

The 1982 Grand National was the 136th running of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 3 April 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coneygree</span> British-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Coneygree is a retired British Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt races. In a career which ran from November 2010 to February 2019 he ran in eighteen races, winning nine times. In March 2015, he became the first novice chaser to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup for more than forty years. His subsequent career was hampered by injury and he did not run again in the Cheltenham Gold Cup after winning it.

Tim Brookshaw was a National Hunt jockey who was champion jockey in 1958/1959.

Hewick is an Irish-bred and trained Thoroughbred racehorse who races under National Hunt rules. He is a specialist long-distance steeplechaser known for his victories in the 2022 American Grand National and 2023 King George VI Chase.

References

  1. ↑ "Former jockey and BBC broadcaster Lord Oaksey dies". BBC Sport. 5 September 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  2. ↑ "Oaksey Thumbnail History". Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Magee, Sean (19 March 2009). "80 things you should know about John Oaksey at 80". Racing Post . London . Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  4. ↑ "Nottingham". Antiques Roadshow . Series 24. Episode 8. London. 26 February 2013. BBC One. Nottingham Antiques Roadshow . Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  5. ↑ "No. 38886". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 April 1950. pp. 1833–1833.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Obituary: Lord Oaksey". The Daily Telegraph . London. 5 September 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  7. 1 2 "Lord Oaksey remembered at Bet365 Jump Finale". Sandown Racecourse. 26 March 2014. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Carruthers claims Hennessy Gold Cup victory at Newbury". BBC Sport. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  9. ↑ "1963 Grand National Result". sportingchronicle.com. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  10. ↑ Oaksey 2003.
  11. ↑ Montgomery, Sue (6 September 2012). "Turf mourns jockey, journalist and 'gentleman' Lord Oaksey" . The Guardian . London. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 Cook, Chris (5 September 2012). "Lord Oaksey, the Injured Jockeys Fund founder, dies after long illness". The Guardian . London . Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Wilson, Julian (5 September 2012). "Lord Oaksey obituary". The Guardian . London . Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  14. ↑ "Bookbites: John Oaksey". meettheauthor.co.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  15. ↑ Barrett, Norman, ed. (1995). The Daily Telegraph Chronicle of Horse Racing. Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Publishing.
  16. ↑ Reason, Mark (5 February 2011). "Sunday Telegraph 50th Anniversary: 50 Years of Sport". The Sunday Telegraph . London . Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  17. ↑ "Oaksey House Official Opening". Lambourn Website. 21 September 2009. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  18. ↑ "No. 50154". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1985. p. 11.
  19. ↑ "Dalakhani scoops award". BBC Sport. 13 November 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  20. ↑ McGrath, J A (27 November 2008). "Lord Oaksey receives annual Peter O'Sullevan Award for services to racing". The Daily Telegraph . London . Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  21. ↑ "List of Barristers". 4 New Square. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  22. ↑ Singleton-Hoare, Fuchsia (12 November 2012). "Hundreds gather in Oaksey for thanksgiving service to Lord Oaksey". thisiswiltshire.co.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  23. ↑ Debrett's Peerage. 1936.

Bibliography

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Baron Trevethin
1971 – 2012		Succeeded by
Baron Oaksey
1971 – 2012
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.