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CAREER OF JIM SNOWDEN Picturesque Rider Had Many Brushes With John Osborne Xotcd Jockey Was Natural Horseman and andGained Gained Renown on English Turf AVon AVonDerby Derby and St Leger on Blair Athol J B Radcliffe devotes a few pages in his book on the Life and Times of John Os ¬ borne to Jim fenowdcn a contemporary of Osbornc and a picturesque character on the English turf in his day dayOne One of Osbornes most frequent rivals in the saddle was Jim Snowden Of gipsy descent his education was uninfluenced by school board precepts the three Rs never troubling his wayward mind whose chief purpose was riding horses as indeed was the case of his brother Luke who was also a jockey of some note though never placed in the front rank rankThe The Minster town of Beverly was the scene of Jim Snowdcns first introduction to racing life Here he was connected in a small way with a dealer and trainer The story is told how the lad having been furnished with a racing saddle a pair of riding boots and breeches was sent to Doncaster in the Leger week on the errand of getting a chance mount Not so well known then to the gate course in England he was refused admit ¬ tance to the paddock by the janitor Not to be frustrated in his object he got a leg up from the wrong side of the paddock and was surreptitiously dropped into the charmed circle circleTALENTS TALENTS QUICKLY RECOGNIZED RECOGNIZEDHis His talents in the pigskin were quickly seen and his rise to note was rapid To him riding a horse was instinctive He possessed the quick eye to take in the situa ¬ tion or to seize an opening This combined with good hands undoubted dash and pluck and judgment and selfcontrol in the heat of the struggle left little to be desired in his method Only on rare occasions did he resort to the whalebone to get the last ounce out of a spunout horse resembling John Osborne in this respect Taciturn at all times he did not lack determination nor could he find many words at any time when asked by the reporters to give a description of any race in which he had ridden riddenHis His belief in Blair Athol as a great horse indeed the greatest of his time could not be shaken Beneath his quiet exterior there was a rich fund of mother wit ren ¬ dered all the more forcible and picturesque by his Yorkshire dialect which never left him Being in this respect a contrast to John Osborne who never had the slightest suspicion of the Yorkshire in his conver ¬ sation sationIndiscreet Indiscreet living gradually undermined Snowdens once robust constitution and he died a shadow of his former self in im ¬ poverished circumstances Often enough his besetting weakness was seen in the weigh ¬ ingroom but owners preferred to give so fine a horseman a mount rather than less accomplished aspirants of his class So bad was his state at times that it was marvelous how he retained his seat in the excitement of a race and still more to win as he often did He took his occasional moral fits after an orgy and accompanied by his ever watchful and lifelong pal Nat Outred would go for a long pedestrian spell over the Yorkshire moors for days together togetherFIT FIT AS A FIDDLE FIDDLEThus Thus recuperated in mind and body by the magical influence 01 fresh air and exer ¬ cise he would turn up at York or Doncaster in cherryripe condition They can look oot for Jim noo Nat would say hes lit as a fiddle True enough the best of his rivals had to look oot when he was fit His form in the saddle would be brilliant for a period then the old craving would re ¬ assert itself in a saddening way wayOn On one occasion he was far gone when engaged to ride one of Paddy Drislanes horses Fearing that he would not be able to steer the horse straight Paddy fur ¬ nished the animal with hood and blinkers as a safeguard Jim on coming to his mount in the saddle saw the curtain over the horses head and eyes Naa naa tak it away tak it away bleend horse and bleend jockey winnet dee And removed the hood and blinkers were with the result that the poor fellow piloted the hohse home a winner in miraculous fasliion fasliionOsborne Osborne speaking of the goodhearted fel ¬ low said I remember one grand setto we had when he beat me on Uncas on a horse called Kilmartiu Another time was when he did me on Fortunio when I rede Tynedale in the Northumberland Plate in 1S6S Once he was riding a horse called Creditor at York He was a little bit on that day and was slow in getting down to the post The start ¬ er Mr McGeorge said Now Jim get among your horses again youre let All right said Jim I can afford to give them a bit start startA A FIRSTCLASS HORSEMAN HORSEMANHe He won the race sure enough bad as he was A firstclass horseman was Jim Many a time he rode a winner where lots of people would not have him ride at all allSnowden Snowden won the Oaks when he was sev ¬ enteen years of age and gained lasting re ¬ nown at twenty when he rode Blair Athol to victory in the Derby and St Leger Had he lived a more temperate thrifty life he would have died a wealthy man as It was a subscription had to be made to bury him Just as was the case with Bill Scott he loved low life in the cosy little pubs of Yorkshire but with this difference that Scott invested his winnings in collieries and died worth J500000 J500000Had Had Snowden lived at Newmarket he would long have been an ornament in his profession for it is probable that he would j have had more employment and been more under restraint lie rode many brilliant finishes but without doubt he threw away the Cambridgeshire on Bendigo in the most culpable manner and it was owing to his besetting vice that he missed the mount on Doncaster when that horse won the St Leger LegerThe The encounters in the saddle between him and John Osborne were almost innumerable and it was a sight worthy of the gods to behold the two northern luminaries coming out in combat up the straight together for a battle royal home For many years Snow ¬ den was identified with the Aske spots ofi Lord Zetland who always engaged him whenever he could ride the weight The writer paid Jims last hotel bill at Kelso shortly before he died the once brilliant jockey being then penniless and unfurnished with his train fare home homeHe He was born at Flixton Yorkshire in 1S43 and died in his fortysixth year at Doncaster on Wednesday February 8 1SS9 1SS9His His career extended over a long period of years Butterfly gave him his first Oaks in 18CO and he won the same race twenty years later on Mr Perkins Jenny Hewlett which beat her more fancied stable com ¬ panion Mr Cooksons Bonnie Marden Snow dens most notable achievement was the Derby and the St Leger double event on Blair Athol A great horseman with fine hands no jockey could get more out of a horse when his bosom pal Nat Outred had him fit and like his old rival John Osborne he was extremely popular in the North of England
