Lady racer who pipped a princess to the post
Today’s Turf Talk Questionnaire guest is farmer’s daughter and seven-times ladies’ champion rider Elain Mellor, wife of Stan Mellor, one of the greatest post-war National Hunt stars and the first National Hunt jockey to ride 1,000 winners.
Horses have always played a big part in Elain’s life. The first horse she can remember was called Bob, who pulled a float “delivering our milk around Barry.” When Bob died her father borrowed a horse from a neighbouring farm and she remembers riding him bareback with her father leading them up the hill from Cwm Ciddy towards Rhoose.
She said: “We were lucky to have ponies around and had years of fun competing at shows, gymkhanas, pony club events and hunter trials.”
The late Rose Harry, nee Walters, of Dinas Powis, who owned, rode and trained many point-to-point winners, was Elain’s “pin-up and inspiration”, but she says her short and unsuccessful point-to-point riding career didn’t satisfy her yearning to ride, so when the Jockey Club agreed to license female riders in 1972 she couldn’t wait to get on the track.
“Stan had just started training so he gave me the opportunity to fulfil my ambition,” she said.
Their daughters Linz and Dana, both excellent lightweight work riders, were a great help to their father during his training career.
Elain, who rode around 60 winners, the first on Montanello at Carlisle in 1973 and the last in Norway aboard Baby’s Rambo in 1993, won the ladies’ jockeys’ championship seven times, She says winning at Epsom over the Derby course on No U Turn the day the Princess Royal had her first ride on the flat was a memorable occasion. The next day a Cookson cartoon appeared in the Daily Mail showing the heads of the three riders who beat the Princess – Elain herself, Jo Winter and Malcolm Wallace – on spikes outside Buckingham Palace!
“I have the signed original hanging in our loo!” she said.
Another memorable moment was riding in a men-only Fegentri race at Chepstow for Richard Hannon, who insisted to officials that the race rules nowhere said jockeys must be male.
“Just a pity I didn’t win, as it would have made a much better story,” she said. “The loophole was closed promptly after that.”
As for her favourite horses, she says there are too many to name but she would have to mention Misty Halo because “she gave me plenty of winning rides.”
Q. Where were you born? A. Barry in 1943. Q. How did you become involved in horse-racing? A. In the 1950s my parents, Edward and Celia Williams, owned a good point-to-pointer, Greyfriar 11. He went into training with George Owen in Cheshire, where my husband-tobe Stan Mellor was stable jockey. Q. What was your most exciting racing moment? A. Winning the De Beer’s Ladies race at Ascot on Mandalus, trained by Sir Mark Prescott, for two consecutive years. Q. Which are your favourite racecourses? A. Beverley, Newbury, Cheltenham and Sandown Park. Q. Have you any racing pet hates? A. Abuse of the whip and difficult owners who are usually slow payers too! Q. Who do you admire most in racing? A. My husband Stan Mellor, of course! Q. What is your favourite sport apart from racing? A. I enjoy watching gymnastics and athletics. I also follow the results of Formula One motor racing, but actually find watching Lewis Hamilton too nerve-racking and I have the same problem watching Andy Murray playing tennis. Q. Which two people would you like to sit next to at a dinner party? A. Frank Gardner and Gareth Malone. Q. Do you have a favourite book? A. The Byerley Turk by Jeremy James. Q. Do you have a favourite author? A. Kate Furnivall at the moment. Q. What is your favourite drink? A. Champagne. Q. Who is your favourite singer? A. Louise Woodgate, who is married to former jockey and sculptor Philip Blacker. Q. What is your favourite television programme? A. Strictly Come Dancing. Q. What is the best advice you have ever received? A. Never assume or presume. Words frequently uttered by my mother to my sister Sue Haine and me. Q. Tell us something about yourself that we probably wouldn’t know. A. As a 10-year-old I competed in the junior singing competition at the National Eisteddford at Llangollen. Where Are They Now? In 2001 Pontypridd-born Shelia Laxon, a 46-year-old mother of four, made racing history as the first woman to train a Melbourne Cup winner. Her New Zealand-bred Etheral, partnered by Scott Seamer, scored a sensational win in Australia’s richest horse race.
Before the start, her husband nearly withdrew Etheral from the $2m handicap, held over a distance of two miles and first run in 1864, because the going had turned from fast to dead owing to heavy rain.
Shelia’s love of horse-racing began on her mother’s small farm in Pontypridd when, as part of the local pony club, she had taken part in gymkhanas and show-jumping events.
Laxon, a one time work rider for John Dunlop, moved to New Zealand in 1981 and married Laurie Laxon in 1983.
Send your racing stories and pictures to Brian Lee by emailing brianlee4@virginmedia.com or phone 029 2073 6438.