Freddie Fox with the Lambourn Carnival Queen, Vivienne Peart in 1937.
Freddie was a very familiar face around Lambourn for some years. He was born in 1888 and died in 1945; still very young. He won the 1000 Guineas in 1911, the 2000 Guineas in 1930 and in 1935; the Epsom Derby in 1931 and 1935 on Cameronian and Bahram respectively and the St Leger in 1932. He was Champion Jockey in 1930. A couple of photos follow of him. The second showing him with the Lambourn Carnival Queen, Vivienne Peart in 1937. This photo being previously shown on here. I have taken the liberty of including a page from Clive Bettison’s fantastic book on our dad’s racing history, that he did some years ago. It was a limited edition, but absolutely full of facts.
Fox became an apprentice at the age of eighteen, and had his first winner a year later. In 1911, he had his first Classic winner, taking the 1,000 Guineas on James de Rothschild’s filly Atmah. He then took some time out to go to Germany where he spent two seasons riding for the von Weinberg stable, but returned to England prior to World War I.
He spent the next decade or more as a journeyman jockey. He was not to win another classic until he was in his forties, and his career at this time was punctuated by only the occasional big race success, such as Irish Elegance in the 1918 July Cup.
Things began to change by the end of the 1920s, and in 1930 he was involved in a neck-and-neck battle with reigning champion Gordon Richards for the Jockeys’ Championship. The battle went down to the last day of the season, when Fox rode two winners to Richards’ one to win the title 129 winners to 128.
In 1934, now towards the end of his career, he formed his most famous partnership with Bahram, owned by the Aga Khan, and trained by Frank Butters. On Bahram, he won the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby “comfortably” and then, at odds of 1/8, he won the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.[5][6] With the 2,000 Guineas and Derby won, and Bahram in form, an attempt on the Triple Crown in the St. Leger was a clear possibility. Bahram was set to go off a strong favourite for the race. However, the day before the race, Fox was seriously injured in a fall and the ride taken by Charlie Smirke. In the event, Bahram won “an easy victory” by 3 lengths, meaning Fox had narrowly been denied one of the rarest achievements in racing. Fox retired to Letcombe Regis, near Wantage in 1936, having given up on an initial plan to train.
In later life, Fox was known in racing circles as “the Mayor of Wantage”, due to the “country gentleman” lifestyle he adopted.
On 12 December 1945 Fox was killed in a road accident at Frilford near Abingdon, his wife Norah Kathleen was injured.
