John Pinyoun

John Pinyoun


1881-1920


Article by Alan Trout


After several years of riding the occasional winner, National Hunt jockey John Pinyoun’s career appeared to have turned a corner, with nine in 1904 and four in the early part of 1905, but that was all he managed, ending with a score of 17.


Born in 1881, he was apprenticed to William Downes and rode for at least four years on the Flat without success, having his final mount in 1900, but by that time he had already opened his account over jumps.  


It was at Hawthorn Hill on November 11, 1898 that he entered the winner’s enclosure for the first time, after Zoto had landed the Bracknell Selling Handicap Chase, beating Richard Woodland’s mount Crosspatrick by six lengths.


John did not ride more than one winner in a year, drawing blanks in 1900 and 1902, until 1904 when recording a score of nine. When he continued his success with a double at Gatwick on March 15, 1905, it did seem that he would go on to better things, but those two victories, on George Fordham, named after the famous 19th century jockey, in the Burstow Chase and Mimist in the Tyro Selling Hurdle, were his last. 


His final ride was on Campfire, unplaced in the Cobham Hurdle at Lingfield Park on February 22, 1908.


John Pinyoun died in 1920.


His winners were, in chronological order: 

1. Zoto, Hawthorn Hill, November 11, 1898

2. Celladema, Plumpton, January 13, 1899

3. Eye Lees, Plumpton, December 11, 1901

4. Ballycoura, Wye, December 3, 1903

5. George Fordham, Folkestone, February 8, 1904

6. Chuck-a-Luck, Hurst Park, February 27, 1904

7. Prince Chalcis, Leicester, March 9, 1904

8. Long Tom, Wye, March 14, 1904

9. Long Tom, Gatwick, March 16, 1904

10. Sheerness, Nottingham, March 28, 1904

11. Prince Chalcis, Cheltenham, April 14, 1904

12. Lye Lees, Lingfield Park, December 17, 1904

13. Lye lees, Plumpton, December 23, 1904

14. Ivan, Plumpton, January 14, 1905

15. George Fordham, Plumpton, February 28, 1905

16. George Fordham, Gatwick, March 15, 1905

17. Mimist, Gatwick, March 15, 1905

John Pinyoun's final two winners:  George Fordham and Mimist, at Gatwick, March 15, 1905