Article by Chris Pitt
Malt extract and cod liver oil, an age-old recipe for promoting growth and health in youngsters. It proved an effective solution for diminutive Alan Cash, who suffered the opposite problem to most jockeys in that he was too light – at least during the early part of his career.
Born in 1941, Alan Cash was apprenticed to Bill Smyth, who trained at Castle Stables, Arundel, in Sussex. He weighed not much
more than 5 stone when riding his first winner on the Duchess of Norfolk’s Middle Watch in an apprentices’ race at Lewes on September 2, 1957.His second winner was for the Duchess’s husband, the Duke of Norfolk, on La Bonne Auberge at Lingfield Park on October 7, 1959, with Middle Watch becoming his third when scoring at Ascot three days later.
In an effort to put a few pounds on, Bill Smyth adopted the unusual procedure of putting Alan on a winter diet that included plenty of malt and cod liver oil, yet he was still able to go to scale at 6 stone at the start of the 1960 season even though he was 18 years old. It didn’t prevent him from riding seven winners that year, including three on the Doug Marks-trained Delta Brava and another on Middle Watch at Newbury.
By 1961, when Bill Smyth’s son Gordon took over as trainer at Castle Stables, Alan’s weight had risen to 6st 10lb, having put on 18lb since riding his first winner three and a half years earlier. His first winner of 1961 was on Ted Goddard’s Pardon Me in Alexandra Park’s Cider Apple Handicap, a race named in honour of the former ‘Ally Pally’ course specialist. In October, Alan won a three-year-old handicap at Lingfield on The Pilot for his new boss Gordon Smyth, a photo of that victory appearing on the front page of the next day’s Sporting Life. He then won for the third time on Middle Watch later that month at Newbury.
By the commencement of 1962 Alan’s weight had increased to 7st 6lb. He rode just one winner that year, a two-year-old grey colt named Abyss in a Lewes nursery in August.
In reality, Abyss was owned and trained by Mrs Florence Nagle but as women were not then allowed to hold a trainer’s licence he ran under the name of her head lad.
Alan came out of his time at the end of 1962 and rode as a freelance for the next three seasons, by which time he had grown in height and his weight had ‘ballooned’ to 8st 8lb. He rode just two winners during that period, both in 1964 on 20/1 outsiders at Warwick for Kingswood, Surrey trainer Peter Dawson, the first on Hill Drake in a two-year-old maiden in March, the second on Grecian Palm in a three-year-old seller in May.
Ironically, given the efforts to build him up during the first part of his career, it was quite probably rising weight that beat Alan Cash in the end. It appears that the malt and cod liver oil diet had worked a tad too well. The law of unintended consequences, perhaps.
Alan Cash’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Middle Watch, Lewes, September 2, 1957
2. La Bonne Auberge, Lingfield Park, October 7, 1959
3. Middle Watch, Ascot, October 10, 1959
4. Delta Brava, Warwick, April 30, 1960
5. Auburn Village, Worcester, May 7, 1960
6. Delta Brava, Brighton, June 9, 1960
7. Schonbrunn, Alexandra Park, June 29, 1960
8. Dumbie, Lingfield Park, July 1, 1960
9. Delta Brava, Warwick, July 30, 1960
10. Middle Watch, Newbury, September 24, 1960
11. Pardon Me, Alexandra Park, June 5, 1961
12. The Pilot, Lingfield Park, October 5, 1961
13. Middle Watch, Newbury, October 20, 1961
14. Abyss, Lewes, August 11, 1962
15. Hill Drake, Warwick, March 28, 1964
16. Grecian Palm, Warwick, May 16, 1964
