Harry Wragg
After twenty-seven years in the sport of horse racing, Harry Wragg is a jockey that will always be remembered for the way he raced - with complete and utter perfection. It was his ability to hold his horse back to the very last second, before letting the reins drop, and allowing his horse to release his final challenge and overtake the frontrunner that earned him the nickname, The Head Waiter.
Harry Wragg, the Head Waiter, started his memorable career in
thoroughbred horseracing by being an apprentice to Robert Weston Colling. Colling was established in Newmarket, and together with John Alfred
Dawson
Jr and James McKie Bell, trained the famed Trespasser that won the
Imperial
Cup for three consecutive years, 1920 to 1922. Wragg was recruited by
King
George V to race for him and in 1926 Harry Wragg moved over to Soloman
Barnato Joel, better known as Barney Barnato. And the long list of
important
racehorse owners that approached Harry Wragg, didn’t stop there.
Captain
Oswald Bell recruited Wragg to be his very first jockey, and Wragg
combined
this position with racing for owners at the John Layton Jarvis Stable
Yard
and for the 5th Earl of Rosebery.
In 1941, jockey Gordon Richards, who was riding for
Frederick Darling, broke his leg in an unfortunate incident, and Harry
Wragg
was approached to replace him. Harry Wragg was also the first option
for the
17th Earl of Derby, who recruited the Head Waiter to be his first
jockey in
1942. Wragg rode for the 17th Earl of Derby for four seasons, and
within those seasons he managed to win six Classics.
In his career as a jockey, which lasted from 1920 to 1947, Harry Wragg
had
won the Champion Jockey in 1941 and went on to ride thirteen winning
horses
in the United Kingdom Classic Races. Wragg won the 1000 Guineas in 1934
on
Campanula, in 1943 on Herringbone and in 1945 on Sun Stream. In 1944 he
won
the 2000 Guineas on Garden Path and won the Derby on Felstead in 1928,
on
Blenheim in 1930 and in 1942 on Watling Street. Rockfel carried him
home in
1938 in the Oaks race, and won the same race in 1941 on Commotion, on
Sun
Stream in 1945 and again in 1946 on Steady Aim. Harry Wragg also won
the St
Leger in 1931 on Sandwich and in 1943 on Herringbone.
After retiring in 1947, Harry Wragg trained five horses that were
winners
in the 1000 Guiness (1962- Abermaid and 1969- Full Dress II), the 2000
Guiness (1954- Darius), the Derby (1961- Psidium) and the St Ledger
(1969-
Intermezzo). Not only was Harry Wragg a successful
jockey
but he was the only person who both trained and raced Derby winners. Harry Wragg
passed
away in 1985.
