Alfred Booty

Alfred Booty 

c1856-1930

Article by Alan Trout

Alfred Booty was born in 1856 in Shoreditch, Middlesex, and rode 59 winners between 1879 and 1886, but although he continued taking mounts until 1900 there was only one more success. 

Born about 1856, Alfred Horace Booty first appeared on an English racecourse when Cornichol ran unplaced in the Croydon Spring Two-Year-Old Stakes on that course on April 4, 1878. More than a year passed before he registered his first win when partnering Ouse to victory in the Worcestershire Stakes at Worcester on July 3, 1879. By the end of that season he had recorded six wins. 

A score of 22 in 1881 seemed to confirm his progress. However, he had only three wins in both 1885 and 1886. He was successful for the last time when guiding 5-4 on favourite Palmleaf to victory in the one-mile Eglinton Welter Handicap at Bogside on April 6, 1888.

His final ride came a dozen years later when Brissac finished second in the Column Produce Stakes at Newmarket on April 19, 1900 but was disqualified for ‘boring’. The Stewards did, however, exonerate Alfred from blame. 

The closest he came to winning a big race was when Tyrone, a 33-1 shot, was beaten half a length in the 1888 Lincolnshire Handicap. He did ride a treble at Hereford on October 12, 1882 (Hereford staged Flat racing until 1883). 

Alfred Horace Booty was born in 1856 in Shoreditch, Middlesex. His father, Samuel, was 30: his mother, Sophia, was 27. Alfred married Ada Blake on 4 June 1883 in Hackney, Middlesex. She gave him two children. They lived in Lewisham, London.

Alfred Booty died in Blean, Kent in October 1930, aged 74.