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Three jockeys and the Triple Crown of 1900 - Part Two

Ahead of the 125th anniversary of the first part of Diamond Jubilee’s glorious Triple Crown, with Herbert Jones riding the colt to the first leg of the three major wins at the Two Thousand Guineas, volunteer Peter Bloor looks back on the success of the legendary horse and three jockeys who rode the colt.

“He does not like Morny Cannon…”

When Diamond Jubilee attacked and rolled on the jockey Morny Cannon after he had absent-mindedly dismounted after exercise with nobody there to hold the reins Morny wisely decided that he wanted nothing more to do with the horse. This posed trainer Richard Marsh the same question that he had answered in 1899 – ‘what is best to do with such a colt’? – and now, without Morny for the 1900 flat racing season, he was forced to come up with the same answer – find a new jockey.

“You cannot expect a highly-trained horse to be like a little fat pony”

The new jockey Mr. Marsh chose to partner this crazed horse was a 19-year-old stable boy called Herbert Jones, the only person Diamond Jubilee would tolerate or run for – except that most of this, like much else that was being said around the events of 1900, was ‘not true, invention or the reproduction of silly stable chatter.’ When interviewed by the Weekly Dispatch Herbert made it clear that Diamond Jubilee was not mad but a temperamental thoroughbred, and that he (Herbert) was not a stable boy but an apprentice who had already raced and won for Mr. Marsh, on one occasion in 1896 he recalled by a neck from Morny’s brother Kempton.

“…and I don’t think he has much love for Jack Watts”

Herbert did however confirm that Diamond Jubilee did not like Morny Cannon or Jack Watts, and in doing so also quashed the tale that after he had thrown Watts at Ascot in 1899 the horse had galloped down the track to where Herbert was standing and allowed himself to be led back to the start. “Nothing of the kind happened” said Herbert, who did however add that “We are a bit chummy. I think he’s a grand horse and he tries to live up to my good opinion of him” – and Diamond Jubilee certainly did respond to something during the summer of 1900, when three of the seven races in which he ran were the Classics that make up the Triple Crown – the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby and the St. Leger.

The Two Thousand Guineas

“Chummy” did not of course describe the horse’s relationship with Morny Cannon – later tales would tell of Diamond Jubilee attacking him because he had toothache when Morny was riding him at exercise, or because he remembered how hard Morny had made him work to win the Boscawen Stakes in 1899 – but whatever the reason, the experiences of he and Watts were the worried talk of Newmarket on the morning of the Guineas. The locals however knew that in the hands of Herbert Diamond Jubilee would be perfectly calm, and so it proved; accompanied by his stable companion Frontignan in the preliminaries he behaved impeccably throughout and, after taking the lead around the furlong mark, won unchallenged by 4 lengths, leaving Morny on the favourite Elopement back in fourth.

The Derby

Diamond Jubilee won so easily that the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian was already anticipating his race with Forfarshire for the Derby three weeks later. There, with Herbert and Frontignan again in attendance, Diamond Jubilee was not upset by either the noise and crowds as had been feared – rather he enjoyed being the centre of attention – nor by two collisions in running with Disguise II. The second came as the field entered the straight and also involved Forfarshire, knocking him out of both his stride and the race, but not Diamond Jubilee - after skilfully rebalancing him Herbert asked for a finishing effort and away they went, past Disguise II and into the lead with 400 yards to go before holding off the vigorous challenge of Simon Dale ridden by the hard-working – Morny Cannon.

The St. Leger

By the time of the St. Leger Simon Dale had broken down and Disguise II had not run again, leaving an accident, the horse himself or, just possibly, Morny and Elopement as all that could deprive Diamond Jubilee and Herbert of the Triple Crown. Diamond Jubilee did show flashes of his 1899 self, rearing at the start and running listlessly when far in the lead, but there was no danger whatever of him losing after he had taken that lead and had Morny on Elopement come any closer than the one and a half lengths by which they lost Herbert could have simply sent him away again as he pleased.

The three jockeys of a Triple Crown winner

An apprentice to whom Mr. Marsh admitted he gave fewer races than his other apprentice Otto Madden and a troublesome horse had become only the ninth winners of the Triple Crown – Morny and Flying Fox had been the eighth in 1899. Herbert would go on to further successes in the Classics, as would Morny, who had won The Oaks in 1900 and would win it again in 1903, but sadly Jack Watts would not live to see the achievements of his successors on Diamond Jubilee - after struggling with his weight he retired in 1900 and died in 1902 aged 41, weakened by the effects of years of wasting.

References

The quotes and other information in this article are taken from the Weekly Dispatch, The Times, the Manchester Guardian, the Sporting Life, the Morning Leader and the Evening Star, 1899-1906.

Images – Herbert Jones (black and white) Ogdens 1901 and (colour) 1906, Herbert Jones on Diamond Jubilee Ogdens 1901.