Savage, Doug

Doug Savage (above) seen winning the Lancing Selling Plate at Brighton 

on Edgecliff (September 1951) for Stanley Wootton's Epsom stable

Photo courtesy Don Byrne

Douglas James Savage was a successful Flat apprentice of the early fifties before rising weight led to a career as a National Hunt jockey.

Born on March 13, 1933, he served his apprenticeship with Stanley Wootton between 1947 and 1954. He rode his first winner on Golden Sally at Newmarket on April 13, 1950. Nine days later he rode that same horse to victory in the valuable Sandown Park Stud Produce Stakes, beating Frank Barlow on Zucchero by half a length. He won on her for a third time when landing the Richmond Nursery at Newmarket on October 26, finishing that 1950 season with eight winners, putting him in eleventh place in the apprentice table.

He only rode three winners the following year but they included two big ones. On May 12, he won Kempton Park’s Great Jubilee Handicap on Roman Way, beating Scobie Breasley’s mount Hyperbole by a neck. Only a few yards separated the first four and Hyperbole would certainly have won had the race been run over a mile. As it was, Doug’s apprentice allowance gave Roman Way victory. It was the fifth success in the race for trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort.

On August 23 that year, Doug rode Stanley Wootton’s Todman, the 5/1 co-favourite, to victory in the Harewood Handicap at York’s Ebor Meeting.

Although he was able to ride Todman at 7st 13lb, his rapidly rising weight rose made it clear that his future lay over jumps. He took out a jump jockey’s licence for the 1951/52 season and rode five winners that term, the first being on Stronghold in a juvenile selling hurdle at Kempton Park on Boxing Day 1951.

That 1951/52 campaign was to prove Doug’s best numerically. He rode only a dozen more winners over the course of the next nine seasons, the final one being on Jack O’Donoghue’s Kumasi King in the Wimbledon Long Distance Handicap Hurdle at Hurst Park on December 16, 1960.  

On December 12, 1959, Doug had married Patricia Pullinger. They lived at 48, Kingsley Grove, Reigate, Surrey.  

Away from the saddle, he enjoyed a game of squash and tennis.

He died in 1995.