Fred Bates

Fred Bates

1840-1906

Frederick Bates was born in Nottingham in 1840, where his father kept a livery stable. He was apprenticed to Tom Dawson at Tupgill, near Leyburn, and later married his daughter.

He was a successful jockey on the Flat until defeated by weight, riding over 130 winners between 1852 and 1858, including the 1855 Cesarewitch on Mr Sykes and the 1857 Ayr Gold Cup on Gathercole. He rode his last winner in 1860, his sole success that year. 

Around 1866 he began training at Stork House in Lambourn and had a string of 42 by 1868, then trained briefly at Grafton House, Newmarket. He moved to Yorkshire at the start of 1873 and trained at Tupgill, initially alongside his father-in-law who was cutting down his string.

His first important win training at Tupgill was the 1876 Chester Cup. Between 1880 and 1893 he trained the winner of the Ascot Stakes seven times. 

Other major wins included the Cesarewitch (1877), Gimcrack Stakes (1880), King’s Stand Stakes (1881), Ayr Gold Cup (1881), two Wokingham Stakes (1881 and 1882), Ascot Gold Vase (1883), Goodwood Cup (1883), Royal Hunt Cup (1884), Lincolnshire Handicap (1889), Champagne Stakes (1890), Ascot Derby (1892), Prince of Wales’s Stakes (1893), Ebor Handicap (1895), Great Yorkshire Handicap (1895), plus several Manchester Cups. 

Towards the end of his training career he reduced the size of his string and eventually trained solely for himself, saddling his final two winners in 1898. He retired in 1900, selling Tupgill and moving to nearby Cotescue Park, where he died on 11 June 1906, aged 66. He left £4,477.

Information sourced from ‘A Biographical Dictionary of Racehorse Trainers in Berkshire 1850-1939’ by David Boyd, published in 1998.