With the retirement of Newmarket jockey Phillip Robinson at 50, my mind went back to the bearded solicitor Victor Morley Lawson. He had tried to ride a winner for 30 years until, at the age of 67, he won on Ocean King in the last race - an amateur hurdle - at Warwick.

By then, he had retired as a solicitor but rode to work every day on Epsom Downs. A big crowd had stayed to watch him and he was given what The Times called a ‘rousing reception’.

Morley Lawson may not have been the best jockey in the race - Nicky Henderson rode the second - but he certainly had the best horse, because Ocean King later won the Cesarewich. I don’t believe he ever rode competitively again. Because of his age, he had already had difficulties getting the stewards to give him a licence.

I can’t think of too many other solicitor or even barrister jockeys who rode under rules, although the stipendiary Mick McElligott once told me he had financed his early years at the bar by backing himself to win a point-to-point. ‘I had my man go down the line of bookmakers with a suitcase. Until then I never knew how many fivers you could get in one,’ he recalled. He must have been the only man to make money betting at a point-to-point.

One solicitor who did ride under rules was John Carden, who took up riding when he gave up motor racing. He rode in five Grand Nationals, never getting further than the Canal Turn. Tragically, he suffered a ‘hangman’s break’ - the same sort of injury as Christopher Reeve - when his horse fell in an amateur race at Southwell in May 1993. This left him as a ventilated tetraplegic, but he continued working until his retirement in 2003. He died just over a year ago.

Pride of place, however, must go to Chester solicitor Billy Dutton, who rode Tipperary Tim (pictured, left) at 100-1 to win the National by a distance in 1928. The story goes that, as he was on the way to the start, a friend called out, ‘Billy boy, you’ll only win if all the others fall’. And that is exactly what happened.

My recollection is that Punch printed a mock bill to be presented by him. It included ‘To advising jockey on his parentage after he crossed me at Beecher’s - two guineas.’ I may have the fence and fee wrong. Dutton took up training at Malton and died in 1958.

James Morton is a writer and former criminal defence solicitor