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Joseph Childs (6 May 1884 – 5 February 1958) was a French-born, British-based flat racing jockey. He won fifteen British Classics in a 35-year career, the last ten years of which were spent as jockey to King George V. He was known for riding a slow, waiting race, and also for having a short temper which regularly saw him at odds with his trainers and owners.
Childs was married to Emily Lavis (1887–1914) like Childs she was from a racing family, born in Chantilly and the daughter of racing trainer Alfred James Lavis, they had one child Joseph (Joey) who died in 1917. He remarried to Amelia Hopkins, the daughter of jockey William Hopkins (1849?-1892) in 1917 by whom he had two further children Frederick and John.
He was back and forth across the English Channel for a couple of years before he finally found success on a third spell in France. Deputising for the sidelined George Bellhouse, he won the 1908 Grand Prix de Paris for owner William K. Vanderbilt on Northeast. The following year he won the 1909 renewal on board Verdun for Prince Murat and he began to surge ahead with his career. In 1908, he had ridden 75 winners; in 1909, 90.
His next battle was with his weight. This problem was solved with a move to Germany to ride for the von Weinbergs, with a contract that was not dependent on his meeting a specific weight. The Weinberg brothers' trainer was Fred Darling and Childs formed a partnership with that trainer which would provide him with some of his most memorable victories, although given Childs' temper the relationship was often stormy.
He was based back in France in 1912, when he won his first Classic on Mirska for his old trainer, Tom Jennings. His successful spell in Europe, though, was cut short by the advent of World War I. He escaped France on the last train before the Germans arrived and had to leave all his possessions behind.
This allowed him to partner the top class filly Fifinella in her classic year of 1916. It has been suggested he threw away a winning chance on her when she was 11/10 favourite for the 1,000 Guineas, hitting her as she played up in the stalls. As a result, she sulked during the race and failed to perform. Her finest moments, however, were yet to come. In the substitute Derby of that year, into which she had been entered because that year's crop of colts was so weak, she again acted obstreperously. This time however, she deigned to respond to Childs and in the final furlong he poked through a gap to win by a neck. She went on to be only the fourth, and to date, last, filly to do the Oaks-Derby double.
In 1918 even better was to come for Childs on the colt Gainsborough. Trained by Alec Taylor Jr. in Manton, Wiltshire, Gainsborough won the 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and St. Leger with Childs as the jockey, becoming one of the few horses to have won the British Triple Crown. He would later repay the Hussars by donating his riding fees for 1918 to the regiment, including those for Gainsborough. Taylor would be one of the trainers for whom Childs would continue to ride after the war.
In 1919 he rode Bayuda to victory in the Oaks for Lady Douglas. He also rode Buchan, the odds-on favourite, for Lord Astor in the 1919 St. Leger, but got beaten. A dispute with Astor's racing manager over the matter meant he never rode for Astor again. In 1921, Childs became stable jockey to Cecil Boyd-Rochfort. The next few years were quieter by comparison with the big race victories of the war years, but in 1921 he won the Oaks on Love in Idleness and the Grand Prix de Paris on Lemonora, both for Joseph Watson (later Baron Manton), who had purchased the Manton estate. He also won a St Leger on Polemarch (1921) and a July Cup on Golden Corn (1923).
Childs won the 1926 Epsom Derby on Coronach for one of his long standing trainers, Fred Darling, one of the few trainers who could handle him. The horse's aristocratic owner was Lord Woolavington. Childs and Coronach won the race with an uncharacteristically fast, front-running performance, Childs being known as a 'hold up' jockey. This resulted in a famous post-race comment, "The bastard ran away with me". No jockey would win a Derby with the same front running tactic until Steve Cauthen on Slip Anchor in 1985.
By the end of his career Childs was often found riding for Cecil Boyd-Rochfort and it was for him he rode his last classic winner – Brown Betty in the 1933 1,000 Guineas. Childs had by this time mellowed considerably with age. His final winner was at Derby Racecourse in November 1935 and in December of that year he was invited to Buckingham Palace at the request of the King. In all, Childs had achieved 15 British Classic wins, two Grand Prix de Paris and one French Derby.
The other characteristic of his racing was the way he tended to win a race with "a well-timed rush". He is described as "The most fanatical exponent of waiting". or, put less favourably, "A waiting race was the only one he could ride" This "lack of versatility" is cited as the one thing that prevented Childs being a really great jockey.
Despite this, he was renowned in some quarters for his horsemanship and judgement in a race. He is said to have ridden some of his best races at Newmarket
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Royal Jockey (1925–1935)
From 1925 until his retirement in 1935, Childs would be jockey to King George V whose horses were trained by William Rose Jarvis. Childs would refer to the King as 'My Guv'nor' and would toast him with champagne every time he won on one of his horses. In the King's colours he would have 'the proudest moment of his life' when he won the 1929 1,000 Guineas on Scuttle. As a reward, the King presented Childs with a cane, which would become his most treasured possession. The 'best race he ever rode' was for the King too – the 1933 Hardwicke Stakes on Limelight.
Riding style
Childs was a tall jockey, described as "lithe and beetle-browed" These 'beetles' – his dark, bushy eyebrows – were said to give "broody, bellicose expression to a hair-trigger temper." In turn, the temper was one of the defining characteristics of his racecourse performances. He would regularly argue with officials, once reportedly accusing a steward of lying: "You were not at the gate and could not have seen the incident as you stated you did."
Retirement
On retirement he managed Portsmouth Greyhound Stadium and dabbled in horse ownership with trainer George Digby. He also kept a small stud at Nazeing in Essex. He published an autobiography, My Racing Reminiscences in 1952 and died in Portsmouth in 1958. In 1999, more than 40 years after his death, he was ranked 11th in the Racing Post list of Top 50 jockeys of the 20th century. John Crouch was appointed as king's jockey when Childs retired.
Major wins
Classic races
'''Great Britain'''
'''France'''
Selected other races (incomplete)
'''Great Britain'''
'''France'''
(1978). 9780354085366, Macdonald and Jane. ISBN 9780354085366
(1992). 9780851129891, Guinness Publishing. ISBN 9780851129891
External links
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