Lewis Addy

Lewis Addy

Article by Alan Trout

Lewis Percy Addy rode for three seasons on the Flat without managing to ride a winner.

He was apprenticed to former jump jockey Arthur Reader and had his first ride on Brimblecombe, who finished stone last of 16 runners in the Stand High-weight Handicap at Doncaster on September 10, 1929. Lewis was obliged to put up 6lb overweight at 7st 1lb, which would have restricted his opportunities, as most apprentices of that era weighed under 7 stone. With the lowest weights in handicaps being 6st 7lb, excluding the apprentices’ claim, horses often carried a mere 6 stone if ridden by a 7lb claimer.

Although Arthur Reader trained 21 winners between 1929 and 1931, Lewis Addy was not on any of them. He rode for the final time at Catterick Bridge on April 8, 1931, when the six-year-old mare Rose Cottage finished unplaced on the North Riding Selling Handicap, a race won by Tommy Burns on the 2-1 favourite Abbot’s Luck. This time Lewis had to put up 1lb overweight at 8st 8lb, his weight having soared since he began his apprenticeship. It is therefore unsurprising that his riding career was a relatively brief one.