Charlie Wood: The story of the most famous Yorkshire sportsman you've never heard of

A contemporary of one of Britain’s greatest riders, Fred Archer, he finished runner-up to him seven times in the jockeys’ championship, until Archer’s suicide meant Wood finally finished top himself - earning over £1m in today’s money, back in 1887.

His story is the subject of a book, Our Honest Charlie Wood, written by Josephine Carr.

She became fascinated by the story of the illegitimate East Yorkshireman after discovering he built the place where she stables her horses in Jevington, Sussex, in 1900.

“The deeper I looked, the more fascinating his story became,” Carr told The Yorkshire Post.

“I visited Hull and found that his mother’s family were highly respected butchers and I also found members of his family still living here and in Canada.”

One of Wood’s great-grandsons Ian, who keeps up the family tradition for speed by racing vintage cars, came over from British Columbia last week to visit Hull and also to attend Beverley races with Carr, where the Our Honest Charlie Wood Selling Stakes were run in the great jockey’s honour.

Carr is also hoping to persuade Hull Council to name a road after Wood as an acknowledgement of his achievements.

Wood’s downfall began at the Gimcrack Dinner at York - the world’s oldest sporting dinner - in December 1887, where Lord Durham claimed Wood had pulled a horse called Success at Lewes and also alleged Wood, his main owner George Chetwynd and trainer Richard Sherrard were corrupt.

After a meeting behind closed doors, the Jockey Club refused Wood’s licence and said he would have to sue for libel to get it back which he did successfully but was awarded just a farthing in damages and his reputation was ruined.

He was banned from the sport for nine years, before a concerted effort got him his licence back and he returned to the saddle to win British horse racing’s fabled Triple Crown - the 2,000 Guineas, the Derby and the St Leger - on Irish horse Galtee More in 1897.

He left Newmarket to train at Jevington alongside his son James who was gravely wounded in World War 1 before retiring to Eastbourne in 1919 where he died aged 89 in 1945.

Carr said: “He had an amazing life and is someone Hull should be very proud of. He was very badly treated and I couldn’t understand why.

“But then I found he was illegitimate, from the Hull slums and why the aristocrats might have found it intolerable to have him become Champion Jockey as well as breaking the master-servant relationship by becoming a wealthy jockey in his own right.”​​​​​​​