Alfred Berry

Alfred Berry

c1897-1958

Article by Alan Trout

Alfred Berry rode 36 winners on the Flat between 1924 and 1929, the highlight coming when winning the 1926 Ascot Stakes on Miss Sport for owner-trainer Harry Cottrill, who trained at Severn Barrows, Lambourn. 

Alfred was apprenticed to Reg Day at Terrace House, Newmarket and had two unplaced rides during the First World War, both on unnamed two-year-olds. The first of these was at Newmarket on September 1, 1915 in the Hawkedon Selling Nursery Handicap. The second, also at Newmarket, was on October 19, 1916 in the Ditch Mile Nursery Handicap.

He then disappeared from the British racing scene until 1924 when his first effort was on Bookham Star, who finished unplaced in the Flying Handicap at Windsor on April 4, a race won by Dick Perryman on Charming. At least three horses caused trouble at the start, including Alfred’s mount who was slowly away. 

It was not until Gatwick on May 24, 1924 that Alfred had his first winner, when Abbey Island won the Emlyn Handicap Plate by three-quarters of a length from Canbego, the mount of Gordon Richards. The winning trainer was Major Charles Stevens, the horse being owned by Mrs Stevens, 

Four more wins followed in the next four weeks, including another win on Abbey Island, when the six-year-old took the Epsom Town Plate on Derby Day, June 4, beating Hamlet, ridden by that maestro of Epsom Steve Donoghue, by one and a half lengths. 

Although numerically his best seasons were 1925 and 1927, when he rode eight winners, his most successful year was probably 1926 when he won the Great Surrey Handicap at Epsom on April 20 aboard Euloise, beating Lord Derby’s Burnt Sienna by three-quarters of a length. Then at Ascot on June 25 he rode the five-year-old mare Miss Sport to a neck victory in the Ascot Stakes. The runner-up, Catalin, was again ridden by Steve Donoghue, who objected to the winner on grounds of ‘boring me in the last half-furlong from the winning post,’ but the objection was overruled. 

Miss Sport was owned and trained by Humphrey Cottrill at Seven Barrows, Lambourn. Cottrill was a very shrewd judge of a horse, for he had bought Miss Sport out of a Sandown seller just two months earlier. Alfred rode her to finish third in the Newbury Summer Cup on June 10, just five days before winning the two-mile Ascot Stakes. She was then given a rest and trained for that year’s Cesarewitch. Alfred kept the ride and finished an unlucky second, beaten two lengths, to 50-1 outsider Myra Gray, ridden by apprentice Lionel Read, having been badly hampered when Mendoza swerved and collided with Miss Sport approaching the Bushes. 

A big handicap win in a race such as the Cesarewitch might have made all the difference to Alfred’s career but, sadly, it did not come his way. 

He registered only two wins in 1929, the second of them at Newcastle on June 27 when Blue Funk won the Gosforth Park Cup, beating Lord Derby’s Pladda by one and a half lengths. Although he continued to hold a licence until 1937, that Newcastle success proved to be the last of his career.    

Alfred Berry died at Newbury in 1958, aged 61.