FAMOUS JOCKEY DEAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 59, 10 March 1944, Page 3

FAMOUS JOCKEY DEAD

CHARLIE JENKINS PASSES Premier horseman of New Zealand forty years ago, leader in his profession for the greater part of twenty years, and probably one of the greatest riders in the history of racing in New Zealand, Charles Clifford Jenkins died at Hamilton last week-end. Racegoers of the early years of the century did not require any urging when Charfie Jenkins had a ride in a race, for more qften than not they Installed his mount favourite- and more often than not they were on the winner. He held a first retainer for “Douglas Gordon,” under which assumed name Messrs. J. G. Duncan and John Abbott raced a powerful team 40 years ago. and he rode all the best horses trained by J. H. Prosser at Porirua when the weights suited. As a small boy Charlie Jenkins was engaged milking cows and shepherding for Mr. J. R. McDonald, of Horowhenua, and when 13 years old won his first races on that owner’s Cameo, a hack which won the Flying (£5) and the Himitangi Cup (£8) at the Himitangi-Foxton Maori meeting. His weight then was under sst», and in order to ride 8.0 a sack was procured. Even then some clay had to be required to make the weight as there was not sufficient lead. Before becoming apprenticed to Mr. W. Holmes, of Bulls, he had won six races, and he remained with Holmes for nine years, riding during the period Lorelei (halfsister to Advance). Tupuhi, The Artist and Umslopogas.

It was in connection with Advance, great son of Vanguard and Laurel, that Jenkins won his greatest fame, but a remarkable feature was Charlie's reluctance to get off Tortulla, on which he had finished second in the 1900 Wanganui Cup to Advance, the latter being ridden at 7.8 by T. Wilson. Charlie thought Tortulla, on which he Avon the New Zealand Cup, better than Advance, but he soon altered his opinion, and later he was associated with the Vanguard horse in all his triumphs in New Zealand and Australia. Advance was off the scene for nearly two years before he started in the Wellington Cup with 10.4 and Avon. He had already Avon the Canterbury Cup, Dunedin Cup, C.J.C. Jubilee Cup and the Auckland Easter and Autumn Handicaps. He was started in the Wanganui Cup with 11.2, but broke down a couple of furlongs from the finish. Jenkins Avas associated with Convoy, who finished second to Gladsome in the Wellington Cup of 1904 and got the stake when Gladsome Avas disqualified for being ridden by an unlicensed apprentice. Jenkins also rode four winners of the Manawatu Cup, and the Avinners of most of the principal races in Netf Zealand. It was as a rider of hack winners that he was pre-eminent, and his brilliance enabled him to rank with the leading jockeys for the best part of a generation. He Avas 65 when he died.