Percy Carey

Percy Carey

Article by Alan Trout

Having managed only one winner on the Flat in the 1930s, Percy Thomas William Carey fared much better under National Hunt rules, riding 17 winners between 1931 and 1933, and then returning 17 years later to add one more. What is remarkable about those victories is that 15 were achieved on just three horses. There were six wins each on dual-purpose performer Red Abbot and three-mile chaser Sound Box, and three in a 28-day spell on selling hurdler Mountain Image. 

Apprenticed to Edward Harper, Percy had his first ride in public when Windover was unplaced in the Robin Hood Plate at Nottingham on March 27, 1923. He opened his account when Recess, trained by Harper, won the Apprentices’ Stakes at Wolverhampton on May 21 the same year. Despite that promising start, young Percy did not win another race on the Flat. 

However, it was different over jumps, for after winning the Sussex Selling Chase on Non Plus at Fontwell Park on Whit Monday, May 25, 1931, he went on to complete a double that same afternoon on the six-year-old Sound Box in the Champagne Cup Handicap Chase. 

The 1931/32 season was easily his most successful, for he won eleven races, including a high profile one aboard Red Abbot in the Emblem Handicap Chase at Kempton Park. Next time out, Percy rode Red Abbot in Manchester’s Lancashire Chase, but they didn’t get beyond the starting line as the horse refused to race and was left at the start. At least the day was not a total disaster, as Percy had won the preceding race, the Pendleton Selling Handicap Hurdle, on Mountain Image.

There were four wins in the 1932/33 campaign. He held a licence until the 1934/35 season, but it was not until May 8, 1950 that he had another winner – his last – when Tudor Close, trained by former jump jockey Tommy Isaac, won the Elwell Handicap Chase at Southwell by half a length from Jane’s Pride, ridden by Mick O’Dwyer. 

The comeback was a brief one, comprising just 13 rides, with one win, a second and two thirds. His last two mounts, both at Fontwell Park on Whit Monday, May 29, 1950, resulted in two falls within half an hour. Having been brought down on Chungking in the Lavington Challenge Cup Handicap Chase, he then fell on Solomon in the next race, the Sompting Handicap Chase, bringing down Josef Kurowski’s mount Procea in the process. He did not renew his licence for the following season. 

Percy Carey’s National Hunt winners were, in chronological order:

1. Non Plus, Fontwell Park, May 25, 1931

2. Sound Box, Fontwell Park, May 25, 1931

3. Sound Box, Folkestone, September 7, 1931

4. Furlough, Wye, October 26, 1931

5. Red Abbot, Plumpton, December 14, 1931

6. Red Abbot, Plumpton, January 2, 1932

7. Red Abbot, Kempton Park, February 26, 1932

8. Mountain Image, Hawthorn Hill, March 15, 1932

9. Mountain Image, Manchester, March 28, 1932

10. Mountain Image, Uttoxeter, April 12, 1932

11. Red Abbot, Fontwell Park, April 26, 1932

12. Red Abbot, Folkestone, May 5, 1932

13. Red Abbot, Wincanton, May 16, 1932

14. Sound Box, Fontwell Park, October 6, 1932

15. Sound Box, Hurst Park, November 26, 1932

16. Sound Box, Plumpton, December 12, 1932

17. Sound Box, Fontwell Park, April 26, 1933

18. Tudor Close, Southwell, May 8, 1950