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'It was all arms, legs and horses and we were one big pile' - the precocious jockey whose Grand National forays proved a tale of woe
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Racing Lives is a weekly series on the lives of people and horses we have recently lost. Here, John Randall remembers former jockey John Foster.
John Foster, who died last month aged 90, was a jump jockey in the 1950s and '60s who rode in three Grand Nationals.
His Grand National career was both positive, because he was still a teenager at the time, and negative in that his mounts fell early, successfully clearing a total of only five fences.
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Published on inRacing Lives
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more inRacing Lives
- 'The only people glad to see the back of him are the bookies' - the proud Yorkshireman who achieved his Nunthorpe dream
- 'He was an old-school trainer who knew every trick in the book - if he said a horse would win, you knew it would'
- 'Everyone in racing knew him and I don’t think anyone ever had a bad word to say about him'
- How a mare who wouldn't sell led to a legacy of Group 1 winners - and a Group 1-winning trainer
- 'We were described as vandals and all sort of terrible things' - the innovator who shaped the modern-day Jockey Club