Harry Wragg (1902 – 1985) was a British jockey and trainer.
Wragg became a jockey in 1920. The Champion Jockey in 1941, he rode 13 winners of British Classic Races, as follows:
His nickname was "The Head Waiter"[1] a pun on his being the best among his contemporaries at waiting until the very last moment to produce his challenge, overtaking the field in the very last strides to the line.
On his retirement as a jockey in 1947, Wragg became a successful trainer, saddling 5 Classic Race winners as follows:
In rhyming slang Harry Wragg has been used to mean "fag" (cigarette), but this has fallen into disuse since Wragg's retirement from the public eye and his death. The Kinks sang a song, "Harry Rag".[2] The Scottish football team Partick Thistle are sometimes referred to as the Harry Wraggs as it rhymes with the official club nickname, the Jags.
His son Geoff Wragg is also a successful horse race trainer.
Although the rhyming slang "Harry Wragg" (for a cigarette) has fallen out of favor in large parts of the globe, it still has extensive usage amongst the small Protestant community of south County Dublin (Ireland) despite his death in 1985. [3]