OLD JOCKEY DIES

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1933, Page 3

OLD JOCKEY DIES

RODE IN LAST RACE AT 74

INTERESTING' REMINISCENCES

”' John ' Faulkner, the' oldest jockey in tile World,' died recently at “his home '*'at Appleford, Berks (states', the Lon- ■ dhm 4 ‘Daily Tcl'egrap'h” j,. ’' He '.would diave-been Yos ! biYMarelit T2C Burn in Islington, the son of a Lon-, ! don untH-pdA'ch 'driver, ’ Faulkner com-’ mienced :his ctireftf' at .'the ’ag'e :o"f 'twelve as a stable lad. at Epsom, and soon pfter lie, was apprenticed - 'to “Isaac. Walcot, of. Druids’ .Head, ■ Salisbury Flaiii,,. one of the greatest' trainers 'Ol Abe .day” ■ ■ -- .' '.'

On one occasion during his appreniiotTceship,. lie rotle -a- horse, into -a. \ plade at,-Epsom, he received flire n, j pence as a reward—and considered 2 himself ducky L - • : ■■■ ••' . Among tlie ■'• Hun h 'oc * rakes'' in, which Faulkner vo.de wor* the- City,- * pfeiHi the.-Urewt -Mefi*fip'ijlitan, rneb ,ti;e Cesarevyitph...; At- tlie, age of ~j,B first, winner,of the' .City. Fowl at. and. incidentally, seventy-four years. later, he saw lib grandson, gain the.-first ..place in the same luce.

In 18o" he rode. Dusty Miller in the Cesarewitch, and just missed a place when , Fordliam, tie American jockey wpn; ;on Prioress after' a . triple deadheat. ' •

Tiie horse, lie remembered best, however, was Rip Van Winkle. It was owned by Palmer, the Rugeley poisoner, who was convicted in'-1856 of the murder of his friend Cook and hanged at Stafford in the presence of 50,030 people. One of Faulkner’s proudest memories was of the day when he bought a :racehorse for os' 6d; ' entered it at 'Abingdon' steeplechase, and rode it into second' place. He rode liis last race in a steeplechase at Abingdon ■when he-was seventv-foiir.

After retiring lie settled down in ■Abingdon, where lie lived happily for tho rest of his days with his wife and one of lii s sons. He married twice and had thirty-invo' children, the eldest of whom is now over seventy■' and the youngest thirty-one. Many of them ■were shiccessf nl as jockeys, •• trainers, and stablemen. Falkner never made a bet in bis life. “I have never believed in it,” lie. once said. He was a bitter, critic of the modern style of riding, and when lie visited the Ascot meeting, in 1927 he wary so disgusted by. the 'crouching attitude of. the jockeys that he left after the first race.: