A RAPID CAREER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 193, 18 September 1909, Page 4

A RAPID CAREER.

THE REMARKABLE RISE OF FRANK WOOTTON, THE BOY JOCKEY. , For 'a boy to become a crack jockey at an age wlien most youngsters are still grappling, more or less successfully, with their school lessons, is a rcniaikable performance enough; but FratiK Wootton, the brilliant light-weight, who has just recovered from his unfortunate fall at Ascot, has accomplished even more than this. At fifteen he has become the talk of the racing world, and the recipient of a Cabinet Ministers salary. Three years ago he was unknown to the sport-loving public in England, but he had already won no less than seventeen races in South Africa. And, while the famous Fred Archer began his wonderful career at twelve, the youthful Wootton had won his first race at the early age of nine years .'ml ten months!

THE WORLD'S NINE-YEARS' WONDER.

To a thinking person it seems almo.-t incredible that a mere child should be able to bestride a full-sized racehorse, let alone control one; but quite apart from the physical difficulties to be overcome, one is astounded at the nerve, the judgment, and the never-failing resource which Wootton must necessarily have exercised in order to triumph over older and more experienced riders than himself. How could he, a mere nursling of nine, contrive to understand even the rudiments of the horse-racing art? The answer can only be that a jockey is born, not made, and that the qualities which any ordinary boy would find it impossible to acquire are, in the case of the successful jockey, a matter of sheer instinct.

This is undoubtedly so in the case of Frank Wootton, and the fact that his father, Mr. Richaitt Wootton, has all his life been a trainer of horses and riders may go some way towards aocounting for it. The Wootton family is an Australi-in one, and Frank himself was born in Sydney on 14th December, 189-3. He was Brought up in, so to speak, an equine atmosphere, and, though Mot quite born in a stable, it wa6 not his fault that he did not live in one. Almost as soon as he could toddle he haunted his father's racers, and by the time he was six years old he could ride anyhow and anywhere o n any kind of mount. Indeed, his chief delight at this age was to gallop about the country at a breakm. k speed, which, would have frighUad many elderly and accomplished horsemen out of their wits. VICTORY NUMBER ONE. In 1902 the jockey's father took twenty-five of his own horses over to South Africa, in order to run them tlfere, and, being in. want of a ligntweight, he decided to launch Frank upon the career fo r which he had always inj tended him.

Master Frank was then only nine years and ten months old, but Mr. Wootton obtained permission for him to ride from the Johannesburg Jockey Club. In the first race for which he was entered he came in fourth; in the second he came in second; in the third he won.

This, as circumstances proved, was the beginning of Frank's 'phenomenal .success as a jockey, for he won sixteen further races before returning to his Australian home; and. except for the fact that he was unable' to ride professionally in tlie country of his birth, he has practically lived in the saddle ever since.

. In Australia, however, a boy is not allowed to hold a jockey's • license till he is fourteen years of age, and, as this bar was in the way of Frank's career, and there is no age limit in Englan:!, the Wootton family finally set out for this country.

Here, Frank started to ride at Folkestone, two years and ten months ago, his first horse being Retrieve.

On the day of this race. Mr. J. Mar«h, the starter, called to him as he was going down to the starting-gate.

"Is this the first time you have idden, boy?" he enquired. Frank, 'hinking he meant in England, replied, "Yes." "All right," said Mr. Marsh. "Keep your eye On the gate, and I'll see that you don't get left." But when the gate went up, Frank, .nueh to Marsh's asfonishincnt, was first jut.

■ "Who won?" cried the starter, as he cantered up the course. "Retrieve," they told him. "Dashed if I didn't expect it!" he

-"sponded. "That was a mighty smart rider for a beginner!" Woottoirt next race in England was for the Selling Plate at Kempton Park, and he won it.

£SOOO FOR JOCKEYING. So far, he had ridden only for his father, and on his first public mount, at Gatwick, a little later on, he wa3 beaten by a head. But soon, afterwards he won his first big race—the Portland Plate, On Nero—and for the succeeding three months jockeyed all over the country. At the end of that period, after winning a race for the Duke of Devonshire at Newmarket on Red Wing 11. on one day, he was suspended on the next tor punishing the same mount. The old duke congratulated him warmly on his success of the day before, and' sent him a splendid present; but FraUli was in disgrace, and unhappy. Fori Ms suspension utterly spoiled his chances for this, his first year.

He went to South Africa, and stayed there all through the winter, adding a great number o'f winners to his credit, but returned to the Old Country tor the following season. Unfortunately, at Sandown, Lord Westbnry's horse, Pelargonium, ran into the rails, with the resmt that Wootton broke his foot, and this again complexly spoiled his chancus of heading the jockey-list for that year. Last year, however, he ran second in the jockey-list, with 129 successful races to his name, and, incidentally, made just under £SOOO sterling. ' THE ONE AND ONLY. Up to the time of his accident at Ascot this year he had ridden more winners than any other jockey in England, and, in spite of it, he is still well ahead, having, between 22nd March and 20th June, won no less than sixty-six races.

His father estimates that for the next two or three years, in the absence of accidents and ill-health. Frank's income will be somewhere between £4OOO and £OOOO a year; but. youngster-like, this astonishing jockey ' fails utterly to realise the value of money. He thinks of little else hut horses, anil simply revels in the excitement of racing and the glory of getting first past the sv'n-n'ng-post. "He has the best nerve of anyone ;n the world," liis father proudly* avers. "But. of course, I had a pretty good idea he would turn out a champion when I started to train him. Even Maher—one of the finest jockeys of the present day—told me that Frank,, in his first year, was the best rider he had ever seen; while Fred Archer's brother says: 'There was only one Fred Archer, anil there will he only one Frank Wootton.' " " |

"IIRAVA. VOOTONG!" The sun, of C.3000 was offered him as a retain»V to ride only for M. VeilPicard this year, but it was not accepted. Wootton crossed the Channel, however, the Sunday before his recent accident, in order to r'de for this gentleman, and he sat two winners. "The French," says Mr. Wootton. "gave Frank a splendid reception. Thev clapped and waved, sm l they shouted 'Voolong! \"oolc>Mi!'— the nearest they could get to 'Wootton.'" And all the while this jockey, who has created such a stir in racing'circles, who lias won IS o many races, received! his Majesty's solicitude, and earned.alll these enormous sums of money, is l simply an alert little youngster of fifteen!— Answers.