AN OLD-TIME JOCKEY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1244, 19 February 1914, Page 11

AN OLD-TIME JOCKEY.

Among the visitors at Randwick on Anniversary Day was the old-time jockey, W. Yeomans, who half a century ago was among Tie foremost of Australian horsemen, and was contemporary with Driscoll, Morrison, Stanley, Piggot, Wilson, Chifney, M. Thompson, Hales, Joe Kean, B. Colley, T. Brown, and other famous riders. Yeoman rode Sir Hercules Robinson’s colt Kingsborough, in the A.J.C. Derby, 1874, and Captain Osborne’s Wheatear in that of 1881, and he also numbers among his many successes the Maribyrnong Plate on Newminister, Welcome Jack, and Segenhoe; the V.R.C. Oaks of Formosa, Meleta, and Petrea; the Australian Cup on First King; the V.R.C. St. Leger on Adelaide and First King; the A.J.C. St. Leger on Kingsborough; the A. J.C. Champagne Stakes on Hyperion; and The Diver, Martindale and The Drummer in the Wagga Cup. But the most remarkable of his feats of horsemanship was piloting Mr. H. J. Bowler’s Australian to victory in the historic ten-miles race at Wagga in 1868. Mr. Bowler had two horses entered for the race —Australian and his half-sister Welcome. Both were put through an arduous course of training for such a severe test of endurance, and the pair were tried several times over the full distance. Up to seven miles Australian could beat the mare, but he

used to come hack to her after that, and the mare was his superior over IO miles. However, Mr. Bowler gave her a gallop one day over about 11 miles, and that proved too much for her; consequently the hopes of the stable were centred on Australian for the wearying journey. The pace was always pretty sound, and Yeomans kept his mount in the rear for the first three or four miles; then he made a forward move, and scored from Comet and River’na. Among the riders in the 10-miles race was Mr. J. Gormly, now a member of the Legislative Council. The journey occupied 23min 35sec, an average of 2min 21%'Sec to the mile. After his retirement from active service on the turf Yeomans went into partnership with his old friend, T. Hales, in a squatting speculation in Riverina, but afterwards he took up a large area of land in the Grenfell district, where he went in for wheat-growing, and has no reason to regret his farming operations. He is still hale and hearty, and took a keen interest in the sport

at Randwick, which, by the way, is a different racecourse to that he knew in the “Seventies.” —Sydney “Morning Herald.”