‘CELEBRATED National Hunt jockey who survived more than 750 falls and was the first to ride 1,000 winners over the jumps.’ Thus did The Times headline its obituary on Stan Mellor, who died on Augus 1st, aged 83.

The youngest ever to be crowned champion jockey, in the 1959/1960 season, aged 22, he retained his title over the next two seasons. However, Stan Mellor would ever be remembered for his tactical masterpiece when riding 25/1 shot Stalbridge Colonist to ambush the mighty Arkle in the 1966 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November 1966. Admittedly, Arkle was set to concede 35lb to the grey outsider.

Stan described the closing stages of that epic contest. “At the ditch I got in behind Arkle, and then dropped about four lengths off him. If I’d so much as blown my nose he’d have been off... I waited until about 10 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 the 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 important thing.”

Game as always, Arkle fought back, but Stan’s tactics paid dividends. At the post, Stalbridge Colonist was half a length to the good. Hero of the hour? Villain of the piece? Privately, Stan would complain that he never quite got the credit he deserved because he was not a swashbuckling jockey but predominantly used his brains.

Guile

“If you ride 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 detested over-reliance on the whip, calling those jockeys “one-armed bandits” and “look at me riders.” In his day, there were no limitations on the use of the ‘punisher’, unlike the strict code of practice enforced today.

While the Grand National, Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle continued to elude Stan Mellor up to his retirement in 1972, he rode such headline winners of feature races as Frenchman’s Cove, Titus Oates, Super Flash and King’s Nephew. His infrequent trips to Ireland also brought him major victories.

His association with Harry Thomson Jones’ Newmarket stable proved particularly fruitful in that respect. Harry used to target Punchestown’s Champion Novice Hurdle, which the pair carried off three times, with Chorus (1967), Frozen Alive (1970) and Ouzo (1971). Stan had opened his account in that particular event in 1965 when successful on Tristam for trainer ‘Phonsie’ O’Brien.

Their association had begun a year earlier when Phonsie aspired to a Galway Plate hat-trick with the lightly-weighted Ross Sea, having won it in the preceding two years with Carraroe and Blunts Cross. Phonsie, together with his elder brother Vincent, traditionally based themselves in Egan’s Lake Hotel in Oughterard for the duration of the annual Ballybrit jamboree. Stan had joined the party on the eve of the 1964 Galway Plate, for which Ross Sea was fancied. Stan was happily engrossed in a game of snooker when Phonsie pressed a drink into his hand. Stan was aghast.

Many would hold that an army marches on its stomach, Stan took the opposite view. “The less you eat the better you ride. You’re more alert on an empty stomach.” Stan chose to compromise. ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ He accepted the proffered glass, waited his chance, and found an obliging flowerpot. His restrain was rewarded, Ross Sea justifying favouritism with less than two lengths to spare from the veteran Highfield Lad, winner of the race back in 1959, the occasion that ignited schoolboy Dermot Weld’s lifelong love affair with Galway races. Twelve months later Ross Sea and Stan Mellor repeated that victory, giving Phonsie O’Brien his four in a row.

Despite saddling over 700 winners, Stan was self-critical. “I think you’ve got to be a hard man to train jumpers these days... I’ve always been too much of a horse-lover.” He is survived by his wife Elaine, daughters Dana and Linz.

G.W.