100-YEAR-OLD JOCKEY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5298, 11 July 1928, Page 3

100-YEAR-OLD JOCKEY.

A little, wizened old man, with mut-ton-chop whiskers, John Faulkner, the oldest English jockey, celebrated in’s 100th birthday at Appleford, Berkshire, in March. He lives' in a picturesque cottage, surrounded by ploughed fields, and country lanes, and he still potters about his garden, despite an accident six months ago, when a mule kicked him add smashed his thigh. Faulkner ha a thousand and one.-interesting reminiscences of the turf ip the' great da,ys of last century. At oie time he had. to ride at 4,st 71b, and he' has ridden in every kind of horse race —steeplechase, on the flat, hurdles, and, at “flapping” meeting. He has ridden in the city and suburban, the Great Metropolitan, and the Cesarewitch —1856. Almost every bone in his body has been broken while, riding, or tra'ning h'oises. A drunken sailor r,an across the course i,u the first race that he rode in. H-is. horse collided with the map, and vhey .all went down. The sailor, was killed. Another time he bought a horse apd rode it at a. meeting which usefl> to beheld on the site of the present Caledonian cattle market, London. After winning the race he sold the animal for, £l5. He rode in’ the. Abingdon races up to the age of 70. He: lias been twice married, and has had. 32 children, the eldest being. 67, and the youngest 26. Most of his children are connected with horses, either on the turf or on farms.