Sidney Cowdrey

Article by Alan Trout

Sidney Cowdrey’s race-riding career on the Flat was brief. It consisted of just two races over three days on one horse, but it was not uneventful. 

Sidney John Cowdrey was apprenticed to leading trainer Richard Marsh. He had his first ride in the Apprentices’ Plate at Alexandra Park on October 1, 1910. His mount, Quickstitch, was prominent when he ran out on the final bend, eventually completing the course last of the six runners. The race was won by Dainty Fox, ridden by Fred Rickaby, that year’s champion apprentice.

Two days later, Quickstitch turned out again at Nottingham with Sidney aboard in the Rufford Abbey Maiden Plate. Quickstitch made the running but was stopping towards the end of the one-mile race, and the odds-on favourite Dartoi, ridden by champion jockey Frank Wootton, got up on the line to force a dead-heat.

And that was it for Sidney Cowdrey. Although he was listed among the apprentices for the 1911 season, he does not appear to have had any rides.