Garnet Bougoure

Who was Garnet Bougoure?

Garnet Bougoure was an Australian jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing who was highly successful competing in South-East Asia and in Europe.

Bougoure was a still a boy when he left his home in Dalby, Queensland, to pursue a career as a jockey at racetracks in the Brisbane area. In 1945 he won his first major race and went on to win a number of premier events including two editions of the Australian Cup. He competed for the last time in Australia in 1952 and the following year accepted a contract to ride in India. Then, in 1954 he spent five months in France before moving to ride in Singapore and Malayasia. At the Perak Turf Club racecourse in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, he won the 1954 Sultan Gold Vase, repeating as winner in 1958 when he also won the Perak Derby. In 1955, he won the prestigious Singapore Gold Cup at the Bukit Timah Race Course.

In the late 1950s Bougoure returned to race in Europe where his association with trainer Vincent O'Brien and Paddy Prendergast helped make him one of the top jockeys in Ireland and England during the first half of the 1960s. He became the only Australian to lead the jockeys' list in Ireland, accomplishing the feat in 1960.