Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Watts, John
WATTS, JOHN (1861–1902), jockey, born at Stockbridge, Hampshire, on 9 May 1861, one of a family of ten, was son of Thomas Watts. In due course he was apprenticed to Tom Cannon, then training at Houghton, near Stockbridge. In May 1876, when he weighed 6 stone, he rode at Salisbury his first winner, a horse called Aristocrat, belonging to his master, which dead-heated with Sir George Chetwynd's Sugarcane. The boy put on weight rapidly, and his riding opportunities while he held a jockey's licence were in consequence restricted. His abilities developed slowly, although he rode two other winners in 1876, eight in 1877, thirteen in 1878, eight in 1879, and nineteen in 1880.
In 1879 there began an association with Richard Marsh, then training at Lordship Farm, Newmarket, who became trainer for Edward VII when Prince of Wales. Marsh made Watts first jockey to the prince. Watts's first important success was gained in 1881, when he won the Cambridgeshire on the American horse Foxhall. Two years later he won the Oaks with Lord Rosebery's Bonny Jean, the first of four successes in that race.
After the death of Fred Archer in 1886 and the retirement of Tom Cannon, Watts was regarded as the leader of his profession, although, owing to the difficulty he experienced in keeping his weight down and his failure to obtain as many mounts as his chief rivals, he never occupied the first place in the list of winning jockeys. He was, however, second one year and third another. He rode nineteen classic winners. In the Derby he won on Merry Hampton (1887), on Sainfoin (1890), on Ladas (1894), and on the Prince of Wales's Persimmon (1896). The last-named horse defeated by a neck, after a prolonged tussle amid intense excitement, Mr. Leopold de Rothschild's St. Frusquin. In the Two Thousand Guineas Watts won on Ladas (1894), and on Kirkconnel (1895); in the One Thousand on Miss Jummy (1886), Semolina (1889), Thais (1896), and Chelandry (1897); in the Oaks on Bonny Jean (1883), Miss Jummy (1886), Memoir (1890), and Mrs. Butterwick (1893); in the St. Leger on Ossian (1883), the Lambkin (1884), Memoir (1890), La Flêche (1892), and Persimmon (1896); and in the Ascot Cup on Morion, La Flêche, and Persimmon. His last winning mount in a ‘classic’ race was Lord Rosebery's Chelandry, who won the One Thousand Guineas in 1897. Watts gave up his jockey's licence in 1899, when his career in the saddle had extended over twenty-four years, and his winners numbered in all 1412. His most successful years were 1887, when he had 110 winning mounts, 1888 with 105 winners, 1891 with 114, and 1892 with 106 winners.
Watts, who acquired much of his skill from Tom Cannon, modelled his style on the ‘old school’ of which Fordham and Tom Cannon were masters. Nature had endowed Watts with the best of ‘hands.’ Perhaps he was seen to chief advantage on an inexperienced two-year-old, employing gentle persuasion with admirable effect, although he was equal to strenuous measures at need.
In 1900 Watts began to train racehorses at Newmarket. That season he only saddled one winner of a 100l. plate; but in 1901 he turned out seven winners of fifteen races worth 5557l., and in 1902 four winners of five races valued at 1327l., between March and July. On 19 July of that year he had a seizure at Sandown Park, and on the 29th of the same month died in the hospital on the course. He was buried in Newmarket cemetery. He was twice married: (1) in 1885 to Annie, daughter of Mrs. Lancaster of the Black Bear Hotel, Newmarket; and (2) in 1901 to Lutetia Annie, daughter of Francis Hammond of Portland House, Newmarket. His widow in 1911 married Kempton, son of Tom Cannon, formerly a successful jockey. Two of Watts's sons adopted their father's profession, and the eldest afterwards became a trainer at Newmarket.
A painting by Miss M. D. Hardy of Watts winning the Derby on Persimmon in 1896, and a photogravure of Watts on the same horse, with portraits of the King and Richard Marsh, are reproduced in A. E. T. Watson's ‘King Edward VII as a Sportsman,’ pp. 160–4. A caricature portrait by ‘Lib’ appeared in ‘Vanity Fair’ in 1887.
[Sportsman, 30 July 1902; Ruff's Guide to the Turf; Notes supplied by Mr. J. E. Watts; King Edward VII as a Sportsman, ed. A. E. T. Watson, 1911.]