Was better than the rest, just a little luckier’

a couple of outings before but never managed to get into the placings, but when I rode my first winner in a bumper race it was a great feeling, especially since my parents were present’.

The newspaper reports at the time talked of a promising young rider from Dundalk getting his maiden win in fine style.

Having made such an impact from the start of his riding career why then did Benny not turn professional ?.

He explained that during an interview many years later when he revealed ‘ my father wasn’t very keen on the idea of me turning professional, besides it was thought at the time that I would put on too much weight and therefore couldn’t make a career out of riding’.

His successes all over Ireland and Ireland on family trained horses such as ‘Quita Que’ and ‘Little Trix’ began to attract attention and it wasn’t long before restrictions were placed on the number of rides he could take.

Unfortunately for Bunny World War II intervened when he was at the height of his success as a rider which badly restricted the number of race meetings, especially in England, for he was unable to travel to some meetings.

When he retired in 1972 from riding because of a back injury Bunny reflected ‘i have no real regrets, for I enjoyed my career as a rider’.

He rode for over 30 years and recalled that he couldn’t really complain about injuries, for apart from the odd shoulder injury he had no serious mishaps.

National hunt racing was where Bunny made his mark, especially at meetings such as the Galway Festival where he won the Galway Plate a number of times.

Surprisingly Bunny only got one ride in the most famous steeplechase of them all the Grand National at Aintree in 1955 when ‘Quare Times’ was the winner, but ironically few knew at the time that Bunny had passed up the chance to ride the Vincent O’Brien trained winner some time before the National.

‘I turned Vincent down when he asked me because I didn’t think that I would make the weight,’ Bunny recalled some years later.

He did make the weight and the horse he rode in that National was ‘Mr. Linnett’ trained by Charlie Rogers, which was pulled up before the finish, allowing Bunny see Pat Taaffe ride ‘Quare Times’ to a famous victory.

‘Of course I was disappointed at the time, but you have to get over these disappointments for there is always the next race meeting’ he said after the race.

Described by the celebrated Martin Molony as ‘the best amateur rider I saw’, Cox won the National Hunt Chase in successive years at Cheltenham on Pontage (1953) and ‘ Quare Times’ the following year and in total rode four winners at the famous meeting.

In 1949, Cox rode four winners on the same day at the Punchestown Festival, a feat that wasn’t equalled until 1990 when Tommy Carmody emulated it.

‘Little Trix’ and ‘Highland Trout’ were among his bestknown mounts and he enjoyed regular visits to the winner’s enclosure in point-to-points on behalf of Paddy Sleator.

Bunny also won the 1958 Cathcart on Quita Que (a horse he was twice runner-up on in the Champion Hurdle) and doubled up on the same horse when winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase 12 months later.

Most of Bunny’s rides were over the jumps, but in the latter stages of his career he confined his rides to the flat.

As with every jockey or racing figure there are many stories that they remember best and in Bunny’s case it concerned a horse called ‘Edenagrena’, which was owned by his uncle, Jack Bell.

It was destined for the knacker’s yard because the owner considered it had no future as a racer, but Bunny who was only 15 at the time disagreed and gathered together all his savings to rescue the horse from the knacker.

The horse repaid Bunny for the gesture, for it went on to win a number of races for him and later bred renowned steeplechasers such as ‘Prince of

Grena’, ‘Goldgrena’, ‘Ashville’ which was favourite for the National, and ‘Edenacan’ which was Bunny’s present to his wife, Sally.

‘Edenacan’ went on to win many races at Navan and Dundalk and was eventually retired for breeding to continue the blood strain that was saved from the knacker’s yard by a resourceful boy.

Bunny’s real name was John Richard, but he got the name Bunny in his childhood because of his rather chubby appearance and the name remained with him for the rest of his life.

When he retired from racing he took out his trainer’s licence in 1970 and achieved many notable successes as a trainer, most prominent being ‘Atone ‘which won the Ladbroke Hurdle at Leopardstown in 1994.

Other good horses through Bunny hands from his stables at Lisnaville House off Mount Avenue were ‘Highway View’ and ‘Fort Fox’.

At times Bunny had upwards of twenty horses in his yard, but he discontinued a tradition started by his family of using the sands along the shore at Blackrock for training his horses for he felt that over the years the sand got too hard.

‘I became almost as hard as the road’ he said, adding that they had to end the tradition.

He died in 2006 at the age of 81.