Willie Snaith: champion apprentice, royal jockey and Newmarket legend

Willie Snaith, who died on Friday aged 91, was one of the leading jockeys of the 1950s and won the Sussex Stakes for the Queen on Landau.

A former champion apprentice, the Geordie rode Alcide to win the Chester Vase and Bebe Grande to be placed in the 2,000 Guineas and 1,000 Guineas. He also won the July Cup, Nunthorpe and Dewhurst Stakes.

William Snaith was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on May 23, 1928. He was only five when his father, a Gateshead cobbler, died and his mother struggled to bring up her family.

Willie Snaith rode Landau to win the Sussex Stakes for the QueenCredit: Jeff Spicer

Having left school at 14, he went to work for Sam Armstrong, who trained at Middleham until moving to Newmarket in 1946; the young apprentice lived there for the rest of his life.

He rode his first winner, Chhota Sahib, at Newmarket in August 1946, weighing out at 6st 13lb, and was champion apprentice in 1949 with 31 wins, including the Northumberland Plate on Fol Ami.

The best and toughest filly he ever rode was Bebe Grande. He partnered her to seven of her eight wins as a two-year-old in 1952 including the National Breeders' Produce, Gimcrack and Champagne Stakes, although he was jocked off in favour of Gordon Richards for her victory in the Cheveley Park Stakes.

The following spring he rode Bebe Grande when she came second in the 2,000 Guineas, beating all the colts except Nearula, and third in the 1,000 Guineas two days later.

Bebe Grande was trained by Sam Armstrong and owned by Jack Gerber, and the trio also had big-race success with Sugar Bowl (1951 Stewards' Cup), Bebe Grande's brother Nicholas Nickleby (1955 Royal Hunt Cup at 50-1), Royal Palm (1955 Nunthorpe Stakes) and Epaulette (1956 Portland Handicap).

With Richards (Noel Murless's stable jockey) concussed, Snaith substituted for him on the Queen's miler Landau in the 1954 Derby, but Sun Chariot's son failed to stay and finished eighth behind Never Say Die, Lester Piggott's first winner of the race.

After Richards had suffered a career-ending injury, the partnership resumed in the Sussex Stakes, in which Landau led all the way and triumphed by five lengths. The Queen was at Goodwood and Snaith always regarded that victory as the highlight of his career.

Willie Snaith has a road named after him in Newmarket

In November horse and jockey travelled to Laurel Park, Maryland, for the Washington DC International but finished last after leading to halfway.

That 1954 season was Snaith's annus mirabilis, as two days after Landau's Sussex Stakes he rode stablemate Key to win the Nassau Stakes and he also won the July Cup on Vilmoray and a Hurst Park handicap on champion sprinter Dumbarnie.

He ended the season with his best career score of 74 wins, coming joint-eighth behind Doug Smith in the jockeys' championship.

Dumbarnie was trained by Humphrey Cottrill for Lionel Holliday, and he also rode that pair's big-race winners Dacian (1955 Dewhurst Stakes), Pirate King (1956 Craven Stakes), unbeaten Pharsalia (1956 Lowther Stakes) and her half-brother Gratitude, who beat Right Boy in the 1957 Nunthorpe Stakes.

The best horse Snaith ever rode was Alcide, though he partnered that outstanding champion only once – when winning the Chester Vase narrowly in 1958.

Alcide was trained by Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, whose stable jockey Harry Carr could not do the required weight of 8st 1lb at Chester but rode the colt in all his subsequent races. They included victories in the St Leger and King George.

Among his other winners for Boyd-Rochfort was the Queen Mother's ex-New Zealand horse Bali Ha'i at Sandown in 1959.

He also rode regularly abroad including in Scandinavia, where he won two Derbys on Prince Fair in 1963, and India, where he spent several winters.

In May 1961 a bad fall at Lingfield left him with a punctured lung and kept him out of action for several months. His career never fully recovered.

Snaith scored the last of his 747 wins in Britain in 1971, by which time his main involvement in the sport was as a work-rider for Noel Murless. He continued in that role for Henry Cecil, Murless's son-in-law and successor at Warren Place, until he was 64. Diesis and Oh So Sharp were among the champions he partnered on the gallops.

Willie Snaith rode work for Henry Cecil after retiring from raceridingCredit: Edward Whitaker

His cheerful personality then made him a popular Newmarket tour guide, taking visitors to the races, the gallops, the museum, the National Stud and the British Racing School.

In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours list he was appointed MBE 'for services to Horse Racing and to the community in Newmarket'. At the investiture he met the Queen for the first time since 1954. He also had a road in Newmarket named after him.

In 1951 he married Silvia, daughter of Classic-winning jockey Bobby Jones; the marriage lasted until her death 61 years later. Of their three children, John became a jump jockey.

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