Sidney Baxter

Article by Alan Trout

Sidney Spencer Baxter rode three winners during a career that began in the 1947/48 season. 

His first victory came at Fontwell Park on February 10, 1949, when Peliom, trained by Harvey Leader, won the Eastergate Novices’ Hurdle (Division 1) by three lengths. It was Peliom’s first run under rules and he only managed one more unplaced effort that season. 

Sidney had to wait almost four years for his second win. This was at Windsor on January 4, 1952, when Cleggan, trained by former jockey Percy Allden, beat 21 rivals to take the Keats Lane Novices’ Hurdle (Division 1). Cleggan won three more races that season, including a walkover, but Sidney did not keep the ride. However, he did get the chance to ride in one of the season’s most important races when partnering Giles Farnaby in the Imperial Cup at Sandown. The six-year-old had by then only won one race in his career and did not add to his tally in this one, finishing eleventh of the nineteen runners.

Percy Allden also supplied Sidney with his final winner when the four-year-old Michael Peter scored a three-length success in the Limehirst Handicap Hurdle at Southwell on October 13, 1952. Sidney did not renew his licence the following season.