Jean Traquair Thomson, the previous jockey and revered horsewoman died on 3 February, aged 98.
Jean was probably the most profitable Scottish feminine jockey of her technology, driving 52 winners in point-to-points over 33 seasons between 1946 and 1979.
She was born in Lambden, close to Greenlaw in Berwickshire, in 1925. She and her sister Margaret had been founder members of the Berwickshire department of the Pony Membership and had been frequently seen on the searching subject. Her father Moffat, brother David and nephew Sandy all acted as grasp and huntsman of the Berwickshire hounds.
After the battle, Jean targeting breeding ponies, point-to-pointing and gardening, with a particular curiosity in rising and grafting roses.
Her 52 pointing winners will not be many by as we speak’s requirements, however women’ races had been solely open to adjoining hunts and a few seasons there have been solely two or three races that she was eligible to trip in. It was not till the mid-Nineteen Sixties that women’ races grew to become open to all and women had been additionally allowed to trip in members’ races.
Her finest season was 1972 when, aged 46, she was main rider and general winner within the newly shaped Level-to-Level Authority northern space. She achieved this with two horses – the home-bred Border Rag, who went on to be positioned on the Cheltenham Competition, and Younger Laird, owned by Fiona Meiklejohn (Lochore).
Laird had beforehand been spherical Badminton and Burghley, however misplaced his love for eventing, so went searching and racing as a substitute.
In all, Jean gained on 16 horses for 11 house owners. When she stopped race-riding, she reported on point-to-points for newspapers. She was additionally a profitable showjumper and judged pony courses over a few years at reveals together with the Royal Highland and the Border Union Present.
The backyard at Lambden was the place she was happiest, having taken cost of it after the Second World Battle. She carried on operating it largely on her personal nicely into her 80s. Her devotion to gardening is captured within the phrases carved in stone in entrance of one of many benches within the backyard, taken from a poem by Dorothy Frances Blomfield Gurney: “One is nearer God’s coronary heart in a backyard than anyplace else on Earth.”
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