PROMISING RIDERS

Temuka Leader, Issue 10227, 24 December 1932, Page 6

PROMISING RIDERS

F. D. JONES HAS TWO CLEVER AUSTRALIANS.

When last in Sydney with the craek performer Limerick and other steeds, Eieeartou mentor F. D. Jones was apprcached one morning prior to his leaving for home by a woman, accompanied by a small boy, who explained that she was the worried mother of a large youthful family and would be grateful for. any assistance the kindly mentor could render her by way of laundry or other work. Meanwhile, Jones had his eye on the youngster, and presently asked the diminutive Aussie if he would like to become a jockey, whereupon the boy spoke up promptly, “Yes, sir, that is what I want to be!” The consent of the mother was obtained and arrangements made for the necessary indenture documents, final instructions being given to the horseman in embryo to be at the shipping wharf a few mornings later between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. to embark for his new home in Maoriland. When Limerick and his stable companions reached thei quayside round about 9.30 a.m. there was the little apprentice and his carpet bag and on the C.J.C. trainer making inquiries of some interested waterside workers he learned that the small lad had been on the seen** since three o’clock -that morning, determined not to miss his chance of a chosen profession. .In due course the youngster appeared on the Ricearton tracks and before very long became noted as .a boy willing and anxious to accept working mounts and always determined to make good ; —it was at this stage he first attracted the attention of the writer. Time passed, and early this season, the budding Australian—Maoriland jockey obtained his permit to appear in public, with the result that at the recent N.Z. Cup fixture he gained his first success, his mount being Argentic in the Apprentices’ Handicap. On Saturday last the small jockey was again in the limelight to pilot two winners in succession at the Banks Peninsula R.C. gathering at C.J.C. headquarters, to wit, Idolize and Monastic, and justify his selection as a horseman under the name of A. A. Russell. It is pleasing to learn per mediate of a good judge in L. J. Ellis, that this successful apprentice is taking his elevation to the winning list without undue elation arid always with a keen eye to the future. Little Russell has displayed marked ambition to succeed, never letting up. on his objective, and he Is apprenticed to the right irian to see that he does so, as TV D. Jones Gas turned out many crack riders to follow in his own footsteps and among the number will be recognized M. MeCarten (Sydney), G, Humphries and F. W. Ellis (a brilliant flat and cross country rider now a leading Southland trainer.) Attached to the establishment of F. D. Jones is another youthful Sydneyite, also filled with the desire to emulate J. Pike and M. , McCarteß of his home town and as he, too, has exhibited promise on Riecarton tracks, “Fre-d’C Jones may presently hold first call on two small and clever Australians from N.S.W. in no way related, but both likely to become horsemen of the. first degree.