Article by Chris Pitt
Maurice Oliver Towers started out as an amateur rider and scored his first victory in the 1949/50 season. He had ridden just five winners when belatedly turning professional ten years later at the start of the 1959/60 campaign.
He scored his first win as a professional on the mare Pendle Lady, trained by Alf Watson, in Wetherby’s prestigious Rowland Meyrick Chase on Boxing Day 1959. Next time out they finished fourth in Doncaster’s Great Yorkshire Chase and then took part in the 1960 Grand National, falling at Becher’s second time round.
Pendle Lady actually broke her neck when she came down: luckily it was only a small bone and she was able to race the next year.
The following season, Towers finish third on Pendle Lady in the Rowland Meyrick and also in Wetherby’s Grand National Trial. He rode six winners from 67 rides during that 1960/61 campaign, four of them courtesy of another chasing mare, a two-miler named Happy Dene.
But that was as good as it got. He rode for the next five seasons without recording another victory.
His last ride appears to have been on Grita on January 1, 1966. His mount fell in the race and it's quite possible that he was forced to retire due to injuries sustained in that fall: there is certainly no mention of him afterwards on any racecard.
Interestingly, the original day's racing was scheduled for Friday, Dec 31, 1965. That day's racing was postponed due to frost and carried over to the Saturday.
Saturday's card was abandoned - they used to do that sort of thing back then - so his final ride was actually on January 1, 1966
As for Pendle Lady, when retired to stud she became the dam of winning hurdler/chaser Avonduet and winning hurdler Kronge.