Freddie Fox

Frederick Sidney Fox (1888–12 December 1945), referred to in his retirement as "The Mayor of Wantage" was a British horse racing jockey. He was a British Classic winner in his early twenties, but it was not until the last quarter of his thirty-year career that he had his greatest successes. He became the British flat racing Champion Jockey in 1930, making him one of only three jockeys to interrupt Gordon Richards' three decade run as champion and won two Derbies on Cameronian in 1931 and Bahram in 1935. He narrowly missed out on the British Triple Crown. He was ranked the 20th best jockey of the 20th century by Britain's industry paper, the Racing Post. Career Fox was born, youngest son of "Mr. and Mrs. L. Fox" at Ryton, Shropshire, England (although he gave Berrington, Shropshire as his birth place in the 1911 Census)) He grew up at nearby Dorrington where he was educated at the village school and was a choirboy in its church, until moving at age 12 in 1900 to live with his eldest brother at Kingsland, Herefordshire. He joined Pratt's Stables at Letcombe Regis, then in Berkshire and 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. He added a further Classic in 1930, winning the 2000 Guineas on Diolite, followed by the 1932 St Leger on Firdaussi.