New jockey has career total of 36 wins – and he’s only 10
One young rider who has been making the racing headlines in Ireland recently is Edward Vaughan, the 10-year-old son of Vale of Glamorgan trainer Tim Vaughan and his wife Abbi.
Edward has been tagged “the Welsh maestro” and one publication reported that: “Welsh jockey Ed Vaughan has been blazing the trail across the pond this season and his second visit to this course (Caherciveen) paid rich dividends.’’
On that occasion Edward completed a sparkling hat-trick for the O’Sullivan brothers, who train at Listowel.
Edward’s father Tim, a former Welsh champion point-to-point rider and now a leading Welsh trainer, said: “We travelled to a horse and pony meeting at Cahersiveen in south-east Ireland for two rides and Ed picked up five in total on the day.
“He rode three winners – Another Tiger, Sore Loser and Sandy Cove – and had a third on The Bosses Daughter and a fourth on Carrig Ava.’’
Sore Loser was anything but, as he beat stable companion Hello Thunder under Conor Walsh by a length, and Edward is said to have “stormed through inside the last 100 yards for a beautifully timed length victory’.’
And as for Edward’s win on Sandy Cove, she “was always considered to be the best over a sharp mile but the Welsh maestro was again seen at his finest to get her home over a stiff mile and a half here.
“Sandy Cove broke away in front here at a good clip and those who expected her to falter on the final circuit were in for a rude awakening.
“Given a breather early on the final lap, Sandy Cove kicked again and kept on gamely up the straight to hold off the late flourish of Green Monkey by three parts of a length.’’
Earlier this year at the pony races held at point-to-point meetings during the season, Edward won a number of times on his Little Replacement and Peateaoh, and he now has a career total of 36 winners. Little wonder, then, that Edward not only won the British 138cm pony-racing championship but also the 148cm championship as well!
And more good news is that Edward’s sister Grace, aged just nine, qualified for this year’s Horse of the Year show on her 128cm show pony Ravara Jeremy Fisher at the New Forest County Show.
■ Meanwhile, one of my Western Mail press cuttings books reveal that on May 20, 1985, I reported the retirement from the saddle of Brian Eckley, who some time ago now was one of my Turf Talk Questionnaire guests.
This is what I had to say about him: “Brecon amateur rider Brian Eckley, who spent three weeks in hospital following a fall at the Talybont Hunt point-to-point steeplechases, has decided to hang up his riding boots.
“The 32-year-old dairy farmer was in intensive care with four fractured ribs, two of them broken in two places, and suffered a lung collapse.
“During his riding career Brian rode 30 winners, six of them under Rules and the remainder between the flags.
“One of his happiest racing memories was riding against Prince Charles at Ludlow when the stewards gave him the job of making the Prince feel at home in the jockeys’ changing room.
“Brian, who names Royal Mood and Golden Autumn as his favourite horses, will now train horses for other jockeys to ride.”
During that 1985 season, Cowbridge farmer John Llewellyn chalked up his 150th winner and Bassaleg’s Tim Rooney notched up his century. Ystrad Mynach bank clerk Alison Kenniford, having her first ride in a point-to-point, won the members’ race at the Talybont after falling from her Grange Lad at the eighth fence and remounting. And after 17 years of trying, Steve Shinton rode his first winner at the Pentyrch on Beruto.
Another rider who had good cause to remember 1985 was Bridgend’s Paul Hamer, who won the prestigious Audi Grand Prix de Chasse at Sandown Park on his brother Geoffrey’s Yellow Jersey.
The funniest moment was watching the antics of the riders in the restricted open at the Tredegar Farmers’ meeting after all the horses in the race had been carried out at the fifth fence. National champion Peter Greenall – now a Lord – among others made several attempts to rejoin the race before giving up and the event was declared a no-race.
■ Email your racing news and views to brianlee4@virginmedia. com or phone 029 2073 6438.