Alan Yeomans

Alan Yeomans (1938 to 2004) was an Australian jockey, horse racing trainer and swimmer from Melbourne. He left a carpentry apprenticeship at seventeen to ride horses, made his first race ride in Werribee in 1956 and rode more than two hundred winners, including seventy-four in Melbourne metropolitan racing, with notable wins in the 1957 Australian Cup, the 1958 Caulfield Cup and the 1959 Moonee Valley Cup. A three-horse fall at Pakenham in January 1960 broke his spine and left him a paraplegic at twenty-one. He took up swimming again as part of his rehabilitation, using the strong arms built by riding, and represented Australia at the 1962 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Perth, where he won three medals. In 1967 he became the first licensed paraplegic horse trainer in Australia, and he trained on the Gold Coast until ill health forced him to retire in 1997.