the times | Monday August 3 2020 1GM 45
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Stan Mellor on Stalbridge Colonist, left, clears the last fence in the 1967 Cheltenham Gold Cup, behind Terry Biddlecombe
on Woodland Venture, the eventual winner. Below, being carried away after his fall at Aintree in 1963. Left, Mellor in 1966times champion jockey, screamed in
the stand: “Oh my God, his head has
come off.” He had first met the Barry-
born Elain (née Williams) while conva-
lescing on her parents’ farm after a fall
and they were married in 1963. She
survives him with their daughters Dana
and Linz, both of whom became
jockeys.
In 1972 Mellor retired from the saddle
and turned to training. He started at
Linkslade Stables, Lambourn, which he
eventually sold for a handsome profit,
enabling the purchase of a far larger
acreage near Swindon. As a trainer, he
felt that he was not pushy enough for
this admittedly competitive profession.
He was a modest and likeable man, who
once turned down an invitation to
appear on This Is Your Life. He was also
frequently self-critical. “I have never
been ruthless with the horses,” he once
said. “I think you’ve got to be a hard
man to train jumpers these days...
perhaps I’ve always been too much of a
horse-lover.”
Nevertheless, he sent out winners in
many important races, including four
at the Cheltenham Festival, the peak of
any trainer’s ambition. They were in the
National Hunt Chase with Alpenstock
(1977); in the Triumph Hurdle withPollardstown (1979) and Saxon Farm
(1983, a year in which he also saddled
the runner-up, Tenth of October); and
in the Stayers’ Hurdle with King’s
Curate (1991).
Twice Mellor triumphed as trainer in
a race that he had won as a jockey, the
Whitbread Gold Cup: first with Royal
Mail in 1980 and then, with one of his
best horses, Lean Ar Aghaidh, in 1987.
Only three weeks before this notable
victory in which he made virtually all
the running, Lean Ar Aghaidh had fin-
ished third behind Maori Venture in the
Grand National. Then, at the age of 13
in 1990, the horse again showed his lik-
ing for Aintree by winning the Fox-
hunters’ Chase, which takes place over
one circuit of the National course. Nor
was Mellor’s success solely over the
jumps. In 1985, he saddled Al Trui to
win the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood. In
all he trained more than 700 winners
before selling his operation in 2001.
Mellor was a tireless campaigner for
improved safety measures, including
the introduction of standardised crash
helmets for jockeys. He also did much
work for the Injured Jockeys Fund and
was the first chairman of the National
Hunt Jockeys’ Association. In retire-
ment he and Elain continued to hold
acclaimed seminars devoted to coach-
ing jockeys in the art and technique of
race riding. Yet he took one secret to the
grave, refusing to reveal how many
bones he had broken: “If people read
what breaks I’ve had they’ll think I
need my brains testing before I get on a
horse again.”Stan Mellor, MBE, National Hunt
champion jockey and racehorse trainer,
was born on April 10, 1937. He died after
a long illness on August 1, 2020, aged 83In casualty a girl called
out, ‘Those leather
boots are smashing, luv’
Cheshire. It was a
fortunate move
because Owen was
not only adept with
horses, but also at
training young
jockeys — Dick
Francis being a
notable example.
Within two
years, riding to
start with as an
amateur, Mellor
had his first win-
ner: on Straight
Border in a hurdle
at Wolverhamp-
ton in January- “He was an
old thief, but turning into the straight
he exploded,” Mellor recalled. “I never
went so fast in my life. We won by half
a length at 10-1.” He became the young-
est rider to win the National Hunt jock-
eys’ championship in the 1959-60
season, aged 22, and retained the title in
the following two seasons.
In addition to his victory in the Hen-
nessy Gold Cup, Mellor also won the
King George VI Chase twice, on
Frenchman’s Cove (1964) and Titus
Oates (1969); the Whitbread Gold Cup
on Frenchman’s Cove (1962); the Mack-
eson Gold Cup on Super Flash (1964);
the Great Yorkshire Chase twice, on
Chavara (1961) and King’s Nephew
(1964); and the Welsh Champion
Hurdle on Frozen Alive (1970).
Perhaps his greatest regret was never
winning the Grand National. He was
going well in 1967 when his horse was
halted in a pile-up at the 23rd fence,
leaving the unfancied Foinavon free to
win the race and, at 100-1, cause the big-
gest upset in the race’s history. “I was
left straddling the fence in the pile-up
and I knew that was not the place to be
so I jumped down and ran for cover,” he
said. “Next day there was a picture of it
in the paper and the caption said I was
running to catch my horse. I was actual-
ly doing the complete opposite.”
Over the years he suffered more than
750 falls. Towards the end of his career
he walked with a starboard list, the
result of losing his right collarbone. Yet
no matter how bad the injury, he always
got back in the saddle. “It’s not the falls
we jockeys fear — it’s the bloody
nuisance afterwards when you are
forced out of the game. I hate being laid
up,” he told The Sun in 1970.
After one fall at Cheltenham his
riding cap slipped off and his wife,
Elain, herself a talented rider and four-in
C a W M b O vl i th fanciedFoinavonfreetoIf Stan Mellor needed to convince
anyone that he was one of the greatest
National Hunt jockeys of all time, he
provided incontrovertible proof in the
1966 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury
by riding the least-fancied horse in the
field to beat the mighty Arkle. Mellor’s
ride, on the grey Stalbridge Colonist at
25-1, has gone down in racing annals as
a tactical masterpiece. Stalbridge
Colonist was carrying only ten stone
(Mellor’s riding weight was 8st 10lb)
compared with the 12st 7lb carried by
the top-weight Arkle.
Arkle had made every yard of the
running until the last fence, at which
point victory looked like a formality.
Yet Mellor had been biding his time,
letting Stalbridge Colonist track Arkle,
getting closer and closer. Once the final
fence was cleared, Mellor made full use
of his weight advantage on the run-in
and, although Arkle gamely fought
back, Stalbridge Colonist went ahead to
win by half a length.
Mellor knew that his horse had the
acceleration, or “turn of foot”, that if
deployed at exactly the right moment
would give him a chance of victory. “At
the ditch I got in behind Arkle, and then
dropped about four lengths off him,”
Mellor recalled. “If I’d so much as
blown my nose he’d have been off... I
waited until about ten strides after the
second last and gave my horse a smack
to get him running. For two or three
strides it felt like I would run into the
back of him. I then hoiked Stalbridge
Colonist out to his right [a trademark
move known as the ‘Mellor switch’] and
came wide of Arkle. I was flying into the
last while Arkle was happily minding
his own business. The last was a blur,
but I landed running while he was still
cantering... getting the revs up behind
so he couldn’t see was the most impor-
tant thing.”
Above all, Mellor felt lucky to have
continued in the sport after surviving
terrible injuries in a fall in the Schwep-
pes Gold Trophy at Aintree in 1963. He
was riding Eastern Harvest and was up
with the leaders when he came down at
the second hurdle. The rest of
the field of 41 horses (safety
regulations now prohib-
it such a number) gal-
loped straight over
him. Mellor lost six
teeth and his jaw
was broken in
several places, but
he was saved from
even greater injury
by a back protector
that he had
designed in collabo-
ration with a London
hospital. He later
recalled: “As I was wheeled
on a trolley through casualty, a
girl with a strong Liverpool accent
shouted out, ‘Those leather boots are
smashing, luv’.”
He became the first jockey to ride
1,000 winners over the jumps, a feat he
achieved when Ouzo won at Notting-
ham in 1971, before retiring a year later
with 1,035 winners. It was a record that
would stand for more than a dozen
years until being broken by John Fran-
come in June 1984.
Mellor was much admired for his
beautiful balance in an upright stance
while landing a horse over a fence,
enabling maximum forward propul-
sion. Yet he would privately complain
that he never quite got the credit he
deserved because he was not a swash-
buckling jockey but predominantly
used his brains. “If you win with
strength people see it, and if you win
with style people see it, but if you win
with guile people don’t see it,” he
observed. He particularly disliked jock-
eys who overused the whip,
calling them “one armed
bandits” and “look at
me riders”.
His secret was to
eat as little as poss-
ible, surviving on
fruit and vegeta-
bles, and remain
one of the lightest
jockeys in the
paddock. “The less
you eat the better
you ride,” he said.
“You’re more alert on
an empty stomach.”
Stanley Thomas Edward
Mellor was born in Salford in
1937, the son of a prosperous timber
merchant, also called Stanley, and his
wife Alice (née Gibbon). His father
developed an interest in showjumping
and bought a pony for the young Stan-
ley, who promptly won a prize at his first
attempt.
However, he was considered too
small and there was not enough money
in showjumping to justify a career.
Instead, at the age of 15 he joined the
stable of George Owen, the trainer
whose yard was near Tarporley, inThe rest of
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Page 46Obituaries
Stan Mellor
Celebrated National Hunt jockey who survived more than 750 falls and was the first to ride 1,000 winners over the jumps
S&G AND BARRATTS/EMPICS SPORT; LEN FORDE/ANL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; CENTRAL PRESS