One of five brother's to ride, R.J Skelton would become a master jockey over the 3200m distance

Robert James Skelton MBE (28 December 1934 – 19 August 2016) was a New Zealand jockey who competed from the 1950s through the 1980s. Greymouth-born Skelton was one of five jockey brothers, the eldest of whom, Bill, established a premiership-winning pattern that his younger brother was to emulate. In total he won 2129 races. His first two-mile winner was Lancaster in the 1954 Great Autumn Handicap and 30 years later, he was still among the leading jockeys. Renowned for his uncanny ability to judge pace, Skelton was regarded as the most successful rider of two-mile stayers in Australasia. Among his many major race wins, Skelton rode Great Sensation to three victories in the Wellington Cup in 1961-63 and won the Auckland Cup on Rose Mellay in 1974 and again in 1977 on Royal Cadenza. In 1976, he rode Van der Hum to victory in Australia's most prestigious race, the Melbourne Cup, and ten years later rode Rising Fear into second place in the 1986 Cup. He was also successful in completing a double in the Perth Cup on Magistrate in 1980 and 1981. Overall, Bob won twenty 3200m and two mile races. Other great New Zealand horses he was associated with included the champion race mare Show Gate and the 'Washdyke Wonder', Grey Way.

Bob Skelton's 1976 Melbourne Cup victory on Van der Hum is a legendary tale. Skelton went to the traditional Racing Mass in Melbourne two days before the Cup and prayed for rain. His wife Maureen and family and anyone he asked prayed for rain too. It came just in the nick of time - and in bucketloads.

"I'd never seen rain like it. It was eerie, it was frightening and I was grinning like a Cheshire cat," Skelton recalled in one of his numerous retelling of the big event. There were 78,500 people at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day in 1976. Those still living hold indelible memories of their visit to the historic course on the day mother nature threw a tantrum. Within minutes the light was failing rapidly, the thunder was starting to roll in, and the lightning was jumping all over the sky. The noise on the roof was deafening and there were sheets of galvanised iron sagging under the sheer weight of water.

Early in the race, Skelton pulled his goggles off and immediately got hit in one eye by a clod of mud. "It was like driving a car with no windscreen wipers on a very muddy road." Van Der Hum proved too strong in those conditions and horse and jockey returned to the mounting enclosure to acclaim. Some say he swum to victory. Skelton was covered in mud, silt and water and bitterly exhausted afterwards, but exhilarated. If ever anyone deserved the praise that comes from winning a Melbourne Cup it was Bob Skelton, known in the racebooks and newspapers and by dollar each-way punters as RJ Skelton. With his loose-reined riding style and preference to encourage a horse with his hands rather than the whip, he had been vilified for years in the Australian press, so it was vindication to win the country's biggest race. The criticism arose due to the perception that he exhibited excessive leniency towards horses, refraining from riding them with sufficient vigor.

In the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours, Skelton was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to horse racing as a jockey. Overall he won 9 New Zealand Riding Premierships. Including the Melbourne & Perth Cups he also won numerous major races in Australia such as the Toorak Handicap, The George Adams, Feehan Stakes, Turnbull Stakes, and Hotham Handicap, Liston Stakes, Duke of Nortfolk Stakes (3200m), Memsie Stakes, Easter Cup, and Victoria Handicap.

Skelton retired in the 1987–88 season. He was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, and into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2007 the Auckland Racing Club voted him as their 8th official "Legend of Ellerslie" where he won nine jockey premierships at Ellerslie Racecourse between 1955 and 1976. Following his riding career he took up training and was fortunate to train and own with friends a little mare (14.2 hands) called Oregon Seal who won 9 races including the Tesio Stakes. After her racing career she became a broodmare and had 8 foals - 8 winners with 3 stakes winners including Oregon Spirit, Talent Show (Perth Cup), and Oregon's Day (Redoutes Choice Stakes, Alexandra Stakes, Frances Tressady Stakes, and the Hollindale Cup). Skelton died in Melbourne on 19th August 2016.